Today is the day you’re supposed to go out and participate in the democratic process, and, in some states, offer a referendum/pick a crazy person just to be contrarian. And if you live in New York, there is no statement more crazy and contrarian than gubernatorial candidate Jimmy McMillan of the Rent Is Too Damn High party. More than just a karate expert or walking meme, McMillan is an actual man actually running for governor—although you’d be forgiven for thinking that his is a campaign based solely on scattershot self-promotion. That’s particularly true considering McMillan is using Election Day as a springboard to release an album called (what else?) The Rent Is Too Damn High (Volume 1), which is now available on iTunes as of this morning.
On the album, McMillan—who “cites Otis Redding and Ronald Reagan as his main influences,” according to the press release—puts his natural Gil Scott-Heron-like cadence to use on several “rent-centric songs” with telling titles such as “R.E.N.T.,” “When You Can’t Pay Your Rent,” “Land Lord Listen Up,” and “Rent Too High Christmas,” all of which essentially bend and shape McMillan’s catchphrase over and over again, to the point where McMillan is just shy of being the Antoine Dodson of state politics. But lest you think he only has his mind on one thing, McMillan—who also released the (pretty good, actually) soul single “A Woman Is So Hard To Understand” under the name Jimmy Mack in 1975—takes a break to seduce the ladies on “My Place,” which includes the lyrics, “Let’s get it on / We can do it in the hall / In the kitchen / We can do it while I’m talking on the phone / We can do it while I’m moppin’ the floor.” That last one sounds complicated, and potentially damaging to the floorboards, Jimmy McMillan. Perhaps your chancy sex-and-housecleaning maneuvers are why your rent is too damn high.
Anyway , as a taste, here’s McMillan’s first video for the chopped-and-screwed “Ain’t Nothing To Talk About,” just in time for Election Day. Listen to it, buy it (but, you know, probably don’t vote for him).