Talib Kweli Responds to Ben Carson’s Rap Ad

This morning it was revealed that Ben Carson released a rap ad catered to black youth for the purpose of voting. Whoever on his team that signed off on this, should be fired. This just shows how detached from reality affluent individuals are. Here’s Talib Kweli’s take on the fiasco.

What do you think of the track on the whole? Lyrics/beat?

There were no lyrics. Just random statements. “Carson” doesn’t even really rhyme with “awesome.”

Also, America absolutely became great because it was flooded with people who believed in the value of hard work. They were called slaves, and they weren’t asked permission.

Does this strike you as an effective way of reaching out to young, black voters?

The most effective way for Ben Carson to reach out to young black voters is to actually care about other black people, which Ben Carson has proven to be incapable of. When you say things like “Obamacare is the worst thing that’s happened to America since slavery” and describe the youth-driven Black Lives Matter as “sickening” and accuse them of “bullying” people, who cares about your rap ad?

Even if it was good, which it isn’t, no one would care.

Do you think you’d look at this differently if Carson weren’t black? If Jeb Bush released this, for example, how would that change things?

I almost feel like Jeb Bush has more respect for the black vote than Carson. I couldn’t imagine him being this pandering to black people. And I’m no fan of Jeb Bush. Jeb could have probably found a better rapper too.

If you were given this track and 10 minutes to make it better, what would you do?

Remove the vague nonsensical quotes they chose from Dr. Carson and replace them with quotes that more accurately reflect what he believes. Like “What’s in it for me? I hate to say it, but a lot of it started with the women’s lib movement,” or “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of the nation.” And then I would remove the rapper. And lose the track. The ad would just be Ben Carson spewing nonsense. via WashPo

Stream Talib Kweli & 9th Wonder’s latest project, “Indie 500” below.