Lil B joined Brooke Baldwin on CNN today for a live interview about his political beliefs. The rapper told Baldwin that his recent decision to support Sanders was brought about partly by his fans. “The people that support me and support my music are so eccentric and they have a lot of different viewpoints,” he said. “When people come to me about news and the bring things to my attention, I start to really pay attention, because I know these people are special.”
“A lot of people started talking to me about Bernie Sanders,” he continued. “They’re like, ‘hey, you need to pay attention to him’… I started paying attention a little bit more and really seeing that Bernie was a part of fighting against segregation. That was something that really touched my heart. And I appreciate it because most likely I don’t think it was cool for him to do that back then, but he still marched. As well as I heard he was for free education; that makes me so happy. There’s a lot of poor kids that might want to learn that actually do want to learn, but just like health care—people are scared to go to the doctor because the bill will be so expensive. And I know for a fact that free education will lower black on black crime and crime in general.”
Lil B also suggested that Sanders did a good job handling a recent #BlackLivesMatter demonstration that took place at one of his campaign events. “He didn’t leave the stage, he let them speak. He’s with these ladies that felt the urgency to really speak.”
The MC commended the demonstrators who interrupted Sanders' speech. “There’s a lot of issues in the black community… they need to be spoken about,” he noted. “A lot of people suppress these things. I’m a victim of suppressing these things. I tend to turn the cheek on black violence because it’s been normalized to me… I feel horrible about that. So I commend the people that are taking a stance and fighting… My mom calls me Republican sometimes and I’m like, ‘I don’t know about that.’”
When judging political candidates suitability for office, Lil B said he wants to know, “Are they with the people?”
“I mean the youth,” he added. “The African American people. The people that they call immigrants. Or minorities… I really just try to look at [candidate’s] authenticity.”
Brooke finished the interview by asking if Lil B had launched one of his legendary curses at Clinton. “I’m not against Hillary Clinton,” Lil B replied. “I support the Clinton legacy. Hillary is not cursed. I’m continuing to watch, but all love to Hillary.“
