Meet the Republican Rapper

Since the musician life seems to be an extension of liberal philosophy, I'm always curious about the phenomena of right-wing musicians. I've marveled at the Junkyard Prophets trying to turn Rage Against the Machine's formula of heavy rap-rock against them. I wish I were objective enough to evaluate their stuff on it's own merits, to me they sound devoid of any real fire or the edge that the genre is usually about, but in the meantime, interesting study.

Here's the only republican rapper. The Eminem of the right-wing, so to speak, though he talks in deliberate eubonics. This guy's fascinating, if just because he says his world was changed by listening to talk radio for ten minutes, but his own rhymes contain very little of that roaring bluster.

Rage in Vain

This fucking broke my heart.

Using their music this way? Them, of all bands? All I can say is the people in charge of Gitmo don't get irony.

For the record: torture is an absolute evil and by engaging in it, USA has relinquished any claim they had to the moral high ground.

And James Hatfield, you're an asshole.

For more information on music as torture, check out the list that "broke" this story here (playlist here), and this very well thought out Guardian article about it here.

P.S I know this news is over a month old, making it obsolete in blogger terms. Too bad. I'm still upset about it so deal.

Edit: better article about it here. Good ol' brits doing our job for us.