Rapper Makes Last-Minute Push For “O.Z. Griebs”

MacDonald, a Wethersfield resident who released “The People for Griebel” in early October, returned over the weekend with “The Bottom Line,” a three-minute rap set to a Thriller-esque soundtrack by Jarrod Hinton. The rap is an unofficial anthem in support of Griebel and his running mate Monte Frank, who have spent the last months campaigning across the state. 

Unlike “The People,” the rap has no hook, but is more of a stream-of-consciousness takedown of Republican Bob Stefanowski with jabs at Democrat Ned Lamont and lots of off-rhyme, packed lines, and white boy wordplay. 

Reached Sunday night by email, MacDonald said the rap began with a Hogwarts-style analysis of the election, during which he realized that Lamont “would definitely be in Hufflepuff house if he were a wizard” in the fantastical world of Harry Potter. In that universe, owls deliver invitation letters to Hogwarts, and students are placed into one of four houses by a magic talking hat when they arrive. 

Asked what houses the other two candidates would fall into, MacDonald responded that “Oz would be in Ravenclaw, and the owl never came for Stefanowski.”

MacDonald sculpted his lyrics around those Hufflepuff musings and his disappointment with both mainstream candidates. Highly skeptical of Stefanowski’s promise to phase out the state’s income tax, he began the rap with his criticism of the candidate, laying Hinton's spooky organ music beneath it. Now as a finished “The Bottom Line” builds, his voice coasts over the track, slightly heated.

Stefanowski, back again
Oh wait, still 36 percent?
In the recent polls/Well, who needs the tolls?
We can just cut taxes and fill the holes.

In the deficit/And on the road
It’s becoming clear that Bob doesn’t know
What the governor does, someone sit him down
Zero base budget line, no thoughts abound

He lambasts Stefanowski’s lack of experience, proven record of not voting, chronic avoidance of the press and failure to answer policy questions from budget to education, suggesting that the candidate has used hollow rhetoric and easy scare tactics to lure on-the-fence voters away from Lamont. Slipping into a nasally voice, he impersonates Stefanowski’s debate performances, in which he said he’s seen the candidate return to the same lines again and again.

Ned Lamont’s like Malloy and Malloy really sucks
Do you want more than that, haven’t you had enough
Ned will raise your taxes and steal your kids
Probably turn them all into socialists

“Bob … has been campaigning for over a year,” he said in an email Sunday night. “Why, in that time, has he not bothered to learn anything about what it means to be governor? With ideas like ‘zero-based budgeting,’ he clearly has no idea. The guy also tethered himself to Trump during the primary and is as heavily associated with him as Lamont is with Malloy.”

“I don't want a protest at the state capitol every time Trump tweets something stupid,” he added. “That place doesn't need anymore distractions, and it definitely doesn't need someone with no government  experience... and who hasn't voted in over a decade.”

But MacDonald’s other target, the would-be Hufflepuff Lamont, doesn’t get off unscarred, either. While the amateur rapper sees Stefanowski as a legitimate foe, he bemoans Lamont’s perennially sunny demeanor and seeming remove, concerned that the candidate is making campaign promises that he can’t keep.

Ned Lamont, debutante, gonna get together
Sing kumbaya, Gonna solve the budget crisis in year one
If it was that easy Ned, why wasn’t it done? Are you some kind of chosen one?

You aren’t Harry Potter, Ned! Go back to Hufflepuff.

“Lamont has ruled out taxes, pension payment deferments and using the rainy day fund to close the budget gap,” he said by email. “He knows he will have to do these things, or make massive spending cuts. He will have to walk back so many promises on day one, and this state already has severe trust issues with elected officials.” 

For Macdonald, there’s one choice left: Oz Griebel, or “O.Z. Griebs,” as he calls him in the rap. After watching the candidate in the state’s third gubernatorial debate earlier this year, MacDonald read up on Griebel’s policy platform, becoming increasingly interested in what he had to say. A longtime Democratic voter, MacDonald told The Arts Paper "I’m just going to vote for the person that’s more qualified, and let the chips fall where they may" earlier this fall. He reasserts it in the rap: 

And I’ve always been one to leave it all on the field
But I’ve got a few days, wanna move this needle
Not the governor you want but the one that you need
Vote bottom line one, that’s O.Z. Griebs.

“Even though he is a long shot, Oz is the only candidate that has been open about how he will confront the challenges we face,” he said in a follow-up. “Oz is a unifying candidate. He is the pragmatic choice. The odds may be long, but if you want to accurately frame this election - in my opinion - it'd be something like this: Oz wins, or Connecticut loses.”

“We lose to more legislative paralysis, more divisive two party politics,” he continued. “I do not want to fight with my friends anymore. I don't want to fight with my family. I wrote this rap for Oz because I believe in him. I believe in voting for the best candidate. I have had people tell me that I am throwing my vote away. I feel like I have been throwing my vote away for a long time. Not this election.”