Virginia's recent upgrade to the status of "battleground state" in presidential elections has led to us all being bombarded with political ads from both sides of the aisle, and with the election less than a week away, I'm sure we're all ready for it all to stop. But before it's all said and done, we had to share this one video with you. Politically active RVA rappers Swordplay and PT Burnem got together with a cute kitten and some TV news footage from a notorious recent public appearance by Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan, in which he and his family washed some already-clean dishes at a soup kitchen. Swordplay and PT Burnem made a video about how Paul Ryan is the sort of restaurant co-worker that everyone who has ever had one of those jobs loves to hate. On his website, PT Burnem explains the rest of the story, including how the kitten got involved.
"'86 Paul Ryan' is a story about three kitchen workers: P.T. Burnem, Swordplay, and Paul Ryan. A long time ago, before rap music or politics, these men spent an entire summer together sweating it out in a restaurant – except one of them wasn’t working. Although he couldn’t get fired because his dad knew the boss, Ryan eventually gave up and quit. In order to save on costs during tough economic times, the kitchen manager decided to replace him with a small kitten named Idgy. Already accustomed to doing the dishes, and relieved by the kitten’s cuteness, the line cooks did not complain about Idgy, who they ended up befriending, going on to feature her in music videos, like '86 Paul Ryan'."
We don't know whether you buy that explanation or not, but even if it's not true, the song is still pretty funny. So enjoy listening to it--and remember, go vote on November 6. Regardless of who you support, you should exercise your right to make your voice heard.