Five-time Grammy winning artist Malik Yusef has spent years co-writing and producing music for Kanye West. But it’s his politics, more than his composition, that makes Yusef somewhat unique.
The Chicago native says he’s a Republican, “loves” Black Lives Matter, supports gun rights, wants to do something about global warming, and would run against Kanye West for U.S. president.
“I’m a Republican because that’s where all my relationships are. The Republican Party is good for big business,” Yusef told CNN. “The Republican Party has become a welfare system for big business,” he added.
Yusef says he voted for President George W. Bush, considers Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) his “number one candidate in the world,” and doesn’t think Congress should “legislate” abortion issues.
“Social conservatism is a moral choice. If you are pro-life, by all means be pro-life. But you can’t legislate that,” Yusef said.
Police brutality is an important issue for Yusef. “The candidate that I’m going to choose is going to have this issue at the forefront of their mouth, as well as climate change.”
“You have to take care of the earth, so it’s a non-political issue,” he added.
“The phrase ‘Black Lives Matter,’ I really love that phrase because, I feel like America for so long has not understood that,” the former Chicago gang member said.
Yusef also said he thinks President Obama “didn’t talk about race enough or not at all.”
Interestingly enough, Yusef is against gun control. “People get guns because it’s a release,” he said. “Those people that are getting guns in Chicago are getting guns illegally, anyways.”
Yusef admits that he admires the “aggressiveness of Bernie Sanders” and his ability to say, “‘Hey, this is what’s happening and I don’t give a f*ck what you think about it.'”
However, Yusef believes that a socialist like Sanders is “too forward for America.”
On whether or not Kanye West will run for president in 2020, Yusef said, “The last time I talked to him,” he said he still plans to.
“He would run as a Democrat or possibly as an independent,” Yusef said. “I’d run against him.”
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