Earlier this week, Joe Biden's campaign put out a video which featured two middle aged fat black guys black men attempting to battle rap about Biden's policies. Although I actually applaud the attempt to engage Black millenial men, the video was an epic fail. Here are my reasons why:
For starters, watching Charlie Clips and DNA, two actual battle rappers involving themselves in this shit just seemed out of place. Their bars were disingenuous, their presentation was sloppy, and let's be honest. The idea of two 30 something year old guys on a basketball court randomly rapping about Joe Biden's policies is pure fiction. The truth is we don't like you, Joe Biden. But we'll vote for you. Now go sit down and stfu. PLEASE!
According to Newsweek, Biden's staffers (obviously Symone Sanders) recruited the help of the well-known battle rap league, the Ultimate Rap League. But they knew this shit was wack because they wouldn't even post this trash on their Instagram account. They did post it on YouTube... and drum roll please.. two days later and its only got 90K views. Viral it is not.
Black men consistently vote for democratic candidates--between 90-95% of the time. Trump's "law and order" attitude, his nonexistent criminal justice reform, and his don't give a fuck attitude towards the #BlackLivesMatter movement have all but assured he wont be getting many votes from black guys of any age. He wont condemn white supremacy, openly disrespects black women --calling The Duchess of Sussex "nasty", Senator Kamala Harris a "monster" and national white house reporter, April Ryan a"loser". He gets no love in the hip hop community (except from crazy ass Kanye West and dumb ass Ice Cube).
But to get back to Joe Biden's wack ass video, it just missed the mark. It was clear that it was meant to pander to a certain audience, which is fine. All politicians do that. It needed better set up, verses that made sense, and to sound more like an actual rap battle. Where was the crowd ? (COVID, I know) The rappers lacked enthusiasm--and they were paid!...., and again, with Biden's record on criminal justice, ie., the 1994 Crime Bill and then choosing a former prosecutor as his running mate, he's walking on thin ice with black men. We'll vote for him, but no one believe's he's that much better than most republicans. We're just straight outta options right now.
So, in conclusion, rap videos are dope, rap battles are cool, but they need to be authentic. Don't insult our intelligence. And don't call it a battle rap if they're not rapping and neither one is spitting actual bars.
Watch it below if you must...
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