Manage Delivery
The Kansas City rapper who first achieved internet stardom with a pancake-themed parody of “Look at Me Now” just got serious.
Mac Lethal released a YouTube video titled “Oh My God” that takes on the Westboro Baptist Church and some reporters’ actions following last week's shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Since the video’s Tuesday release, it has already received more than 200,000 views on YouTube.
In the chorus of “Oh My God” the rapper says:
And I might suck at guitar—
But at least I've never protested a dead soldier's funeral,
And I might be losing my hair, but at least I've never judged a woman for thinking another woman is beautiful,
And sometimes, I mean sometimes,
I might even text message while I drive,
But I've never thanked God when a precious 5 year old child was shot, and died.
These lines lash out at the Westboro Baptist Church, the Topeka group known for its anti-gay protests at military funerals. Westboro spokesperson Shirley Phelps-Roper announced on Twitter Saturday that the group would be picketing the funerals of those killed in Connecticut. Mac Lethal alerted his followers to the video in a Facebook post, where he wrote that he was working on his “best video yet. It's dedicated to the Westboro Baptist Church and all the sick media people in our country. I'm really proud of this one.”
In an interview with the Star, Mac Lethal said that he felt a responsibility to speak out against the church because of its proximity to Kansas City.
“They represent pure hatred. They kick poor harmless grieving people when they’re down. People who are in the process of bereavement have to deal with them at their kids's funerals. And they’re from where we’re from.”
He’s said he’s worried that addressing the Westboro Baptist Church might be giving them too much attention. According to the Newtown Patch, residents prepared a counter-protest to block the her friends and family’s view. However, the group apparently never showed up.
“I don’t know if I’m doing it the right way, but I’m trying,” he said.
In the rap, Mac Lethal also lambasts members of the media who interviewed the Newtown survivors immediately after the attack: I see news people interviewing 5 year old children not even 30 minutes after witnessing a killing
“They’re certain reporters that… are so desperate for a riveting story that they lose all sight of responsibility or decency,” he said.
Mac Lethal gained national attention in November 2011 after releasing a video of himself rapping to the beat of Chris Brown’s “Look at Me Now” while he made pancakes in his kitchen. The video led to him appearing in a Heineken commercial and on the AMC reality series “The Pitch”
He said the he will try to perform the song live for the first time during his show Tuesday at The Riot Room.
