Ben Carson: 'Hip-hop community' is anything modern that 'dismisses' Jesus

Possible GOP presidential contender Ben Carson seemed to backpedal while attempting to blame hip-hop music for problems in the African-American community on Sunday, Business Insider reported.

"When I talk about the hip-hop community, I'm talking about the aspect of modern society that pretty much dismisses anything that has to do with Jesus Christ," Carson told WBLS-FM hosts Bob Slade & Bob Pickett on Sunday. "That's what I'm talking about."

Carson was challenged by both the hosts and a listener calling into the show after blaming that community for contributing to a lack of spiritual values among African-Americans.

"We need to reestablish faith in our communities and the values and principles that got us through slavery, that got us through Jim Crow, and segregation, and all kinds of horrible things that were heaped upon us," he argued. "Why were we able to get through those? Because of our faith, because of our family, because of our values, and as we allow the hip-hop community to destroy those things for us, and as we grasp onto what's politically correct and not what is correct, we continue to deteriorate."

WBLS has not posted the interview, but Carson's remarks were also criticized on the station's Facebook page.

"He speaks as if he has no empathy or connection with the black community," one listener wrote. "He could NOT properly represent the masses if he cannot first acknowledge some of the real issues/plights of his own people. I will not vote for him."

The former Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon also reaffirmed on the show that he will announce whether he will officially run for the presidency early next month. He finished fourth in this year's straw poll at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.