Tricia Rose: 'Gangster' GOP influenced Rubio's hip-hop picks

Sen. Marco Rubio's (R-FL) choices for his favorite hip-hop tracks shouldn't come as a surprise, Current TV contributor Tricia Rose said Tuesday; after all, his party helped create them.

In the same interview where he told GQ Magazine, "I'm not a scientist, man," statement, the budding Republican presidential candidate said his three favorite songs in the genre were "Lose Yourself" by Eminem, "Straight Outta Compton" by N.W.A. and the Tupac song, "Illuminati."

But Rose, author of the critically-acclaimed 2008 analysis The Hip Hop Wars, said the shootouts depicted in the N.W.A. and Tupac tracks were especially plausible in communities affected by GOP ideology.

"Inner city crisis is the product of 40 years of Republican war on drugs, reduction in housing, creating unemployment," Rose said on The Young Turks.

Taken together, "Straight Outta Compton" and "Killuminati," Rose charged, sum up Republican policy.

"First off, gangster. Who's more gangster than the Republican party?" she asked, describing its philosophy as "jack it, take it, it's all mine, the whole thing, upward mobility from the beginning."

Watch Rose explain her connection between rap and Republicans, as aired on Current TV Tuesday, below.