There's no question that Bernie Sanders is the hip hop community's choice for president. As he continues to fight for the democratic party's nomination, we've decided to compile Senator Sanders' most hip hop moments.
Killer Mike, the legendary Atlanta MC who is best known currently as one half of Run The Jewels, has been an avid supporter of Bernie Sanders in recent months, endorsing him at every chance he gets. T.I. is the most recent rapper to make headlines for supporting Bernie, but Big Boi and Lil B have also gone public with their feeling of the Bern.
With primaries in full swing, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders continue to fight for the democratic nomination as Donald Trump seemingly secures the Republican bid. Since hip hop has put Bernie on its back, we're compiling Bernie's most hip hop moments.
His Relationship with Killer Mike
Killer Mike sat down with Bernie Sanders for a six-part interview, and it essentially broke the internet. Not only is the image of Bernie, a scrawny old Jewish man, next to Killer Mike, a huge black ATLien, enough to generate thousands of memes, but the talk was pretty damn good too.
Bernie has built his entire campaign on honest dialogue, progressive policy, and equal rights, a few tidbits that seem to escape the other candidates.
Killer Mike was so taken by Bernie's authenticity, that he also introduced him at an Atlanta rally. It was done only in the way that Mike could do it: with utmost passion, excitement, optimism, and charisma. Check out that clip below, as it is pretty moving.
The Breakfast Club Interview
The Breakfast Club's most-viewed videos on YouTube are interviews with Future, Chris Brown, Kanye West, and Meek Mill...not exactly the same type of people as Bernie Sanders. But in effort to reach out to the hip hop community, Sanders sat down with the Breakfast Club (and his pal Killer Mike) to discuss why the black vote matters, Donald Trump, police brutality, the war on drugs, and more.
The Hip Hop for Bernie Sanders Podcast & Endorsement by Bernie Sanders
For starters, the mere fact that Bernie has a Hip Hop for Bernie Sanders Podcast is proof in and of itself that he's the community's choice for president. No other candidate has that type of attention from hip hop, and it's largely because no other candidate is in tune with this community and its needs.
Legendary UGK member Bun B endorsed Bernie Sanders on this podcast, in effort to beat out Hillary Clinton democratic nomination. "It's important to get people engaged now, and to get people used to being engaged this early. You know? Because a lot of times people don't start worrying about November until October...especially young people," said Bun B. It's an important message to give young people, as they are usually the worst turn-out at the polls. If you want somebody in office, you have to support them early on!
DJ Mel
When President Obama was re-elected, they didn't pick some random wedding DJ to spin a set of Top 40 at the inauguration night. Instead, they had DJ Mel, an Austin-based DJ who played an impressive selection of tracks ranging from soul to hip hop. Mel has been on the road with Bernie, DJing his rallies with the same craft that got him recognized by our commander-in-chief (...or at least his people).
Endorsed by Nas, Big Boi, T.I., Lil B, and more
In addition to Bun B's talk on the aforementioned podcast, Sanders has also been big upped by the likes of Big Boi, T.I., Scarface, Lil B, and of course Killer Mike.
Nas is the most recent rapper to come forth with excitement towards Bernie. He sat down with The Daily Beast to express his support for an article that was published just yesterday. Nas had Killer Mike to thank for turning him on to Sanders, saying, "We talked on the phone a couple of days ago. He was enlightening me about Bernie and we plan to have more conversations about him. I actually like what Bernie’s talking about!"
Big Boi said, "I thought it was a Libertarian but I ain’t on nobody’s team. I’m a humanitarian. I’m for Bernie Sanders because he’s with prison reform and things like that. But really I’m for…getting people out of poverty and people sentenced to these long unjust prison sentences out of jail, and the legalization of Marijuana."
T.I. took to Instagram to show his support, saying, "#SuperTuesday I'm Goin Wit Bernie.... Who U Got?!?!?!?! #GoVote #BeHeard" just recently.
Scarface tweeted his support for Bernie back in December, as shown below.
Please feel the Bern @BernieSanders for President (super solid cat) #govote
Lil B went live on CNN with kind words for Bernie Sanders, saying, "Bernie Sanders wants to rebuild," before trailing off on some more abstract thoughts, as only Lil B can do.