Florida, somehow, is becoming the state that produces more Republican lawmakers with a professed love of the hip-hop music than any other state. By which I mean Florida has produced two such people, and I have not been paying attention to the other states.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's love for hip-hop is well-known, and it would have been useful to have him lending everyone some perspective back when Common visiting the White House was some major-crazy scandal in American life. But thanks to the good people at NowThisNews, straight out tha Florida 19th comes Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) who says he can "kill it" in an "old-school" match-up with Rubio. (I do not know, exactly, what that means. Does he want a rap battle with Rubio? Does he want to go toe-to-toe in a hip-hop trivia fight? Whatever it is, I will very happily host this on the roof of our D.C. offices.)
Radel likes the song "Fight The Power," because reasons:
"Chuck D ... and I may disagree on certain philosophies of government, but I think at the end of the day -- and this is where I take my love for hip-hop music -- of where you can see, where there have been issues and problems, with heavy handed either law enforcement, like the Department of Justice like we see right now with the AP, or with government itself, what I believe in, as a lover of hip-hop, especially older school hip-hop, like so-called gangsta rap to Big Daddy Kane to Eric B & Rakim who I have a huge affinity for, that New York rap, that listening to some of this music as musicians and artists have done for generations, what they do is open the eyes of people from maybe different walks of life."
So, he and Public Enemy's Chuck D might not agree on much, except Eric B & Rakim were great, and the Department of Justice sucks. One could infer that like Chuck D, most of Radel's heroes don't appear on no stamps, but that's okay because as a member of Congress, Radel enjoys franking privileges anyway.
He also likes to create "electro-housey hip-hop" beats "at home," so he's got that going for him.
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