This past weekend, hip-hop artist Christopher Bridges came to Washington, D.C. to fundraise and lift awareness for his charitable organization. I’ve searched high and low, and after seeing him speak, I’m ecstatic to say that I’ve finally found a popular conservative rapper. Coincidentally, his stage name fits the reaction that most people have to this proposition – it’s Ludacris.
Popular rappers tend to rap about liberal issues. Take, for example, Kanye West’s hit single, Heard ‘Em Say: “Before you ask me to get a job today/can I at least get a raise on a minimum wage?” And don’t forget Will.I.Am’s remix, Yes We Can, which with nearly twenty million views arguably turned legions of young listeners into young Obama voters.
This is why it’s so refreshing to finally find a rapper who, while not identifying as a conservative, is acting and talking like one.
At a televised luncheon at the National Press Club on Friday, Ludacris started his speech by calling for a “paradigm shift” towards leadership “that is very basic and that starts with self.” Self-ownership and personal responsibility being conservative principles, this piqued my interest.
But wait, there’s more! In words that might well have come from the mouth of Newt Gingrich, Ludacris spoke about the inadequacies of the welfare state:
Our communities need fixing; our systems are badly broken. We can’t wait on the government, their institutions, social programming and policies alone to fix our communities. We have to look at other sources… people are looking in a different direction for philanthropic leadership.
With the substance (but perhaps not the style) of Mark Levin, Ludacris continued with a description of the work of his foundation. The rapper said:
We give a hand up; we don’t give a hand out. I only like to help people that want to help themselves, not people that are just going to… take advantage of the situation.
Some might say that charitable giving and volunteerism isn’t the exclusive domain of the right, and that may be true. But the value of charity is deeply ingrained within the principles of conservatism. Or so says Russell Kirk, who in 1993 wrote the following in a classic conservative manifesto, Ten Conservative Principles:
Conservatives uphold voluntary community, quite as they oppose involuntary collectivism. Although Americans have been attached strongly to privacy and private rights, they also have been a people conspicuous for a successful spirit of community… It is the performance of our duties in community that teaches us prudence and efficiency and charity.
Of course, Ludacris would never actually call himself a conservative – that would ruin him. So on Saturday night, while the 6th Annual Ludacris Foundation Dinner was being held at the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown D.C., comedian Joe Clair joked about how unsuitable it was to host Ludacris in a “Republican temple”:
Limbaugh’s gonna call you tonight. He is blogging right now. He can’t believe it. They are having a Ludacris Foundation dinner in a sacred building … ’cause you know this is the Republican temple. When we’re not here, they have Republican church in here.
But who knows? Based on his comments at the National Press Club the day before, Luda could fit in quite well with the Republican Party. Conservative rappers, stand up!
10 responses so far
1 Arch // Oct 27, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Wow. I really think you’re hearing what you want to hear. Saying”We can’t wait on the government,” is pragmatic and hardly a disavowel of goverment run social services.
2 Kanzeon // Oct 27, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Use the google:
“Paint the White House black and I’m sure that’s got ‘em terrified
McCain don’t belong in any chair unless he’s paralyzed
Yeah I said it cause Bush is mentally handicapped
Ball up all of his speeches and just throw ‘em like candy wrap
’cause what you talking I hear nothing even relevant
and you the worst of all 43 presidents
Get out and vote or the end’ll be near
The world is ready for change because Obama is here
’cause Obama is here
The world is ready for change because Obama is here, yeah
cuz Obama is here.”
http://lyrics.rapbasement.com/Ludacris_Politics%20%28Obama%20Is%20Here%29_lyrics_2129.html
3 sricher // Oct 27, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Luda came out on Kanye’s side when Kanye said “George Bush hates black people…” Didn’t he?
“So if you do the speed limit get the F out of my way…”
I think we need to co-opt T.I. … he’s got a little Republican in him… “You can do whatever you like.” Isn’t that the limited government credo?!
Only I don’t think the next line is about “So long as you don’t violate others’ rights to non-interference.”
4 Willems // Oct 27, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Sadly, key key phrase, “Of course, Ludacris would never actually call himself a conservative – that would ruin him.”
5 Exile // Oct 28, 2009 at 5:07 am
Tim,
are you serious? You really think this brand of conservatism is new among rappers? As if everyone from Immortal Technique to Lauryn Hill to Chuck D to NYOIL hasn’t criticized and encouraged the community to take care of themselves. (Yes they also condemn much of the current social and political structures. But off the top of my head I can still name a couple of songs by Tech that tell people to, “take care of their own damn children.”)
They simply come from a long line of black conservatives. (NOT in the modern Republican sense). Read here.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200805/cosby
6 Is Rapper Ludacris a Closeted Republican? - Hip Hop Republican // Oct 28, 2009 at 8:07 am
[...] read the entire article go here: http://www.newmajority.com/goldwater-reagan-and-ludacris Share [...]
7 DFL // Oct 28, 2009 at 9:12 am
Never heard of the fellow. But if insists on a ludicrous name, he should spell ludicrous correctly. Does anyone under forty ever consult a dictionary?
8 sinz54 // Oct 28, 2009 at 10:52 am
Blacks who preach self-reliance might be open to a Republican message. It happened before, even with so-called “militant” blacks like Roy Innis and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which was always more activist than Martin Luther King’s NAACP.
Appalled by how the Carter stagflation was leaving the black community in a virtual economic depression, Innis formally broke with the Dems and endorsed Reagan for President. He hung around the GOP ever since, till Bush started to turn him off.
Something like that could happen again, if unemployment continues to remain high–except for one little problem: Carter was a white man from Georgia. This time, the Dem incumbent, Obama, is BLACK.
And almost no blacks are going to break with the first black president. No matter how bad a job that president is perceived as doing.
9 LFC // Oct 28, 2009 at 11:30 am
sinz54 said… Blacks who preach self-reliance might be open to a Republican message.
I think an outright majority of the country might be open to a Republican message, if it was center right rather than right of right-right.
Universal healthcare would be a great start. There is no way for 95% or more of the country to prepare for most medical eventualities. It’s simply not possible due to the costs and the willingness of insurance companies to deny coverage that is not profitable. It’s even less possible for people with pre-existing conditions. So why isn’t the GPO preaching for a backstop, allowing the government to take on a roll for which it is suited (i.e. insurer of last resort)? I think that would be conservative. OTOH, moving to single payer would be decidedly liberal.
10 sinz54 // Oct 28, 2009 at 4:38 pm
lfc:
That was, in fact, what Republican Governor Mitt Romney pushed for and signed into law in Massachusetts, where I live. He signed into law a “public option” that is strictly means tested. Only the truly needy are eligible for it, with premiums made cheap by state subsidies. Hence it can’t compete with private insurers for affluent customers.
But it has done nothing to control costs. Costs keep escalating dramatically. Because now the private insurers can wash their hands of poor policyholders, and rake in big bucks from the premiums of the affluent.
Polls show that the public cares more about cost containment than about universal coverage. That’s to be expected: Far more Americans have insurance, but have trouble affording it, than are uninsured.
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