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Monday, April 13, 2015

Marco Rubio Plays Hip-Hop, Pop, and Country Before Announcing Candidacy

Posted By on Mon, Apr 13, 2015 at 4:14 PM

click image GAGE SKIDMORE
  • Gage Skidmore
Viewers waiting for the live stream of Marco Rubio's 2016 presidential campaign announcement were treated to an eclectic playlist (at least for a junior Republican senator) of hip-hop, rap, and country music.

Twitter reacted.

Rubio's interest in hip-hop has come up in several interviews as a sort of light-hearted question reporters use to show readers/viewers his personality. He's pretty open about discussing it, likely because some adviser somewhere told him it helps him win favor in the minority and youth voting blocs his party has a hard time connecting with in the past (probably, you know, because of their policies).

"In some ways rappers are like reporters — especially in that era in the '90s. People picked up on it in the wrong way. They thought these were folks condoning a certain lifestyle, maybe there was some of that in there, but mostly they were reporters. And particularly at that time, from the west coast, there was a lot of reporting about what was life was like in south central and in the L.A. area," Rubio said in a video interview with Buzzfeed Brews.

"That was a reality going on at the time," Rubio continued. "You had real gang wars. You had racial tension coming off the Rodney King stuff in the early '90s, and they were reporting on that. As much as anything else the music was a reflection of what was going on back then. If you go back and listen to it now . . . I bet you don't know there is actually a Tupac song that mentions bob dole . . . and Bill Clinton. You never thought Bob Dole had anything to do with hip hop — but he did."

Rubio also at one point had a little beef  with fellow Miami resident Pitbull after making some remarks about the rapper not having as insightful lyrics as Tupac. But the two later squashed the beef. 

I wonder what Rubio makes of that Straight Outta Compton trailer?

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About The Author

Matt Saincome

Matt Saincome
twitter.com/mattsaincome
Bio:
 Matt Saincome is SF Weekly's former music editor.

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