Politics

Lil Jon on Midterms: Turn Out for What?

ROCK THE VOTE

The rapper teamed up with Rock the Vote and a bunch of celebrities to encourage people to turn out and vote this November.

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Rock the Vote’s latest voter mobilization ad will make more than a Lil splash.

The nonpartisan millennial advocacy group is out Tuesday morning with “Turn Out for What,” a parody of rapper Lil Jon’s smash single.

“The work that Rock the Vote does is incredible,” Lil Jon said in a statement. “It’s cool for me to collab with such an iconic organization.”

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The ad features an excited Lena Dunham gyrating across the screen while various celebrities name the political topics that are inspiring them to vote.

“What’s up, this is Lil Jon,” the rapper tells the audience, as he lights a spliff as large as his torso. “And I’m turning out for the legalization of marijuana.”

The hilarious PSA features celebrities from Girls, Glee, and Orange Is the New Black talking about the issues that have inspired them to vote, including marriage equality, reproductive rights, human rights, and prison reform.

Rock the Vote spokeswoman Audrey Gelman told The Daily Beast that Lil Jon “took zero convincing” to do the video.

“We wanted to make a PSA that wouldn’t make people hit the snooze button,” she added.

“Turn Down for What,” Lil Jon’s original song, is the basis for a catchphrase, a rhetorical question equivalent to “Why should I sober up?” The only appropriate answer is, of course, “You shouldn’t.”

“We’ve created the 2014 Midterm Election anthem with Turn Out for What,” Rock the Vote President Ashley Spillane said in a statement. “With all of our partners, we’re demonstrating the impact you can have when you care like crazy about an issue AND vote.”

This is hardly Lil Jon’s first foray into politics. He’s a staunch supporter of President Obama, and during the 2012 election, he asked “everybody” to dismiss Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney in less-than-elegant terms.

Below you can watch Lil Jon on TMZ in 2010 giving a full-throated defense of Obama and his less immediately “aggressive” approach to politics. (Also, when asked to name his favorite president in the history of the United States, Lil Jon responds, “the other black president,” referring to Bill Clinton.)