Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson has taken his campaign to the next level, and, he hopes, another generation by releasing a rapping campaign ad.
The new radio spot, entitled ‘Freedom’, uses rap lyrics from rapper Aspiring Mogul mixed with clips from Carson speeches.
The ad is aimed at attracting young black voters – a "non-traditional voting market for Republicans", a Carson spokesman said - and will air in Miami, Detroit, Memphis, Jackson, Atlanta, Houston and Birmingham. The Carson campaign believe if they can attract 20% of the black vote they would win in a race to the White House against Hilary Clinton, ABC reports.
"Reaching them on a level they appreciate and follow and see if we can attract their consciousness about the election," Carson campaign spokesman Doug Watts said to ABC News.
In the ad Carson says "America became a great nation early on not because it was flooded with politicians but because it was flooded with people who understood the value of personal responsibility, hard work, innovation, and that’s what will get us on the right track now."
But the show is arguably stolen - lock, stock and barrel - by the lyrics of Aspiring Mogul, who channels the ghosts of America’s great political lyricists when he implores the youth of the nation to "Vote and support Ben Carson for our next president and be awesome."
The latest polls have Carson neck and neck with Republican rival Donald Trump in the primary race. A Quinnipiac University survey released on Wednesday put Trump on 24%, Carson on 23% and their nearest rival, Marco Rubio, on 14%.
Carson, a neurosurgeon, has raised eyebrows with many of his statements and beliefs during the campaign. Today he proclaimed that his "personal" belief was that the Egyptian pyramids were more likely to have been built to store grain rather than as tombs for dead pharaohs.
He has also said the Affordable Care Act – ‘Obamacare’ – is the worst thing to happen to America since slavery, compared America of today to Nazi Germany, and said he "would not advocate" a Muslim president of the US.
Listen: The Ben Carson rap campaign ad
