Rap Executive Likes Edwards, Calls Obama a "Mouse"

[wyldwolf]

ABC News' Matthew Zavala Reports: Def Jam Records CEO Russell Simmons said in an interview with New York Times Magazine that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is a 'mouse.'

Deborah Solomon asked the hip-hop mogul about Obama's call for rappers to reform their offensive lyrics in the wake of the Don Imus controversy and Simmons responded, "What we need to reform is the conditions that create these lyrics. Obama needs to reform the conditions of poverty."

Simmons also took issue with Obama's corporate donors. "I wish he really did raise his money independently," said Simmons, before adding, "So at the end of the day, he’s controlled, too. That’s my point. He’s a mouse, too, like everybody else."

The candidate that strikes Simmons' fancy is former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.

"I talk to John Edwards more that I talk to anyone," Simmons told the paper of record's weekend magazine. "He has said more things about the conditions we need to think about. He went to yoga with me. He did the whole class, an hour and a half. He sweated like crazy."

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/04/of_mice_and_men.html

[BluegrassDem]

1. This is from a guy that supported Steele

I could careless what Simmons say.

[rpannier]

2. He's also an apologist for the 'blood diamonds' out of Africa

He argues that cutting off the sale of African Diamonds would devastate Africa.

He seems to dismiss the reports and stories given by people from west Africa about how the poor who work in the rivers never have their lives improved.

It's government officials and international diamond industry executives that are doing well.

[BeyondGeography]

3. Whatever...he's probably pissed at Obama for calling his bluff on ho-speak

http://www.presstelegram.com/entertainment/ci_5740164

[skipos]

4. Simmons seemed a little dim on the Colbert Report

He has been a part of some great music though. I like Edwards and Obama (and others).

[Connie_Corleone]

5. Obama is more of a man than those gangsta rappers who sell their soul for money.

[donsu]

6. I don't think gangsta rappers sell their souls for money

yes they think women are only sex objects and portray them that way in song and video.

apparently that is how they really feel about women.

so whoever is buying their music and making them rich, thinks the same way.

it's black women who should set them straight and teach them otherwise.

souls are a religious thing.

[Connie_Corleone]

7. I'm not talking just about their sexism.

People use the word soul in different ways. It doesn't have to be religious. Even if one chooses to use it in a religious way, so what?

[Clark2008]

8. Which begs the question: Why do I care what this dude thinks?

Not a stab at you, wyldwolf - just wondering why this is "news?"