The man who made the phrase "rent is too damn high" famous, Jimmy McMillan, announced his candidacy in the New York City mayoral race earlier this week by releasing a rap campaign video.
The Republican, a Vietnam War veteran and longtime political activist, is seen rapping into the camera, surrounded by supporters in NYC streets.
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The music video begins with a phony news anchor telling the audience, "The average cost of an apartment in Manhattan is now a whopping $3,794 a month. Critics say Bloomberg has failed."
The 66-year-old McMillan then introduces himself.
"I'm Jimmy McMillan, 2013, I'm running for mayor, come and run with me," he raps.
The entertaining candidate, whose chances of becoming the next NYC mayor are slim, is accompanied in the video by a conservatively dressed blonde carrying an oversized boom box like the ones 1980s rappers carried around.
"It's been two long years since I came on the scene, now I'm back in the game, looking mean and lean . . . The race may be different, but the message is the same," he says, referring to his 2010 gubernatorial run.
Throughout the video, McMillan repeats his famous phrase "rent is too damn high" and "my moustache and haircut is too damn fly," while hitting a heavy boxing bag, rapping with school kids, and combing his iconic white moustache-goatee in front of NYC landmarks like Yankees Stadium.
McMillan also tackles national issues in the video, including the deficit and the nation's high unemployment rate.
"Rent and the deficit, is too damn high, poverty and unemployment both up in the sky, wages and education is too damn low, economic recovery is too damn slow," raps McMillan.
In the 2010 New York gubernatorial election, McMillan garnered 40,000 votes and finish in fifth place out of seven candidates. By comparison, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo received 2.5 million votes.
McMillan first sought public office in 1993, when he reportedly climbed the Brooklyn Bridge and refused to come down unless his message was televised on local news channels, the Daily News reported.
At the time, McMillan ran for mayor of New York City with the same message: "the rent is too damn high."
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