Tom MacDonald and Ben Shapiro's rap song "Facts" has topped the iTunes charts. But while Ben has taken the title "World's #1 Rapper," Glenn is ready to dethrone him. Ben joins Glenn to discuss the success of "Facts," why he donned the now-infamous hoodie, and what he believes the biggest threat to the nation is.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: I believe I could say rap legend. Ben Shapiro. Welcome to the program, Ben. How are you?
BEN: Yo. Yo. Yo. Sup, homes?
GLENN: Hey, I would respond, but I'm a little uncomfortable.
How are you doing, man?
BEN: You know, it's -- it's been a journey. It's been a journey. There's so many iterations of my art over time.
From playing classical violin, now to this. There's just so many genres that I have yet to explore.
GLENN: What are you going to do next?
BEN: Heavy metal. Rock. There's --
GLENN: See. While you're dabbling in this kind of stuff, I'm learning new languages. I'm learning currently.
STU: Hmm.
GLENN: Which is like rap legend Ben Shapiro. I just said that.
And the people who speak that language, know it. But anyway, some of us are serious.
BEN: It's amazing.
Listen, it's just a testament to the magic of magnetic personality.
My insane levels of rizz, as they say. The kids say. Charisma.
Everyone -- everyone can't get off the rap train now. It's a sensation. And we will not be denied that number one status on Billboard number one. Even Billboard said now by the way, that we probably will make the digital song download number one this week, just in time for the Grammys.
(laughter)
I can only hope that next year, we get inspiration for a Super Bowl halftime show.
GLENN: Oh. Oh, that's so funny. Will you be showing your nipples on that?
If you do get into the halftime show. Okay. And America thanks you.
BEN: I'm going to say no on that. Something has to be left to the imagination. That's really my message.
GLENN: Yeah. So I'm wearing my -- I'm wearing my hoodie today. You were wearing your hoodie in the video, and you look good.
Whenever I see you -- you look -- I put the hoodie on.
And I either look like Kenny, or I look like the Emperor from Star Wars.
I cannot make it -- I don't. It's strange. But I can't make it cool.
Yeah. It's very strange.
BEN: Yeah. I didn't know that I could do it either.
The way it happened. We were film that portion of the rap, as I normally do. And I said, do we have a hoodie in the office.
Actually, we do. Somewhere in the back there, we have a hoodie that we want marketed. So I said, bring it out.
GLENN: I love the way you said it. Bring it out.
BEN: -- that is possible on Planet Earth right now. We have sold more of those hoodies. It's basically funding my entire mortgage at this point.
GLENN: That's funny. Hang on just a second. Let's play a little bit of the rap.
(music)
(laughter)
So funny. So funny.
BEN: The joy that my art brings to others, is really the reason I can begin.
GLENN: So, Ben, let's change the subject here for a second. What is the biggest threat to our country, right now?
BEN: I think the biggest threat to our country, is that there's a widespread conspiracy theory that is held on virtually every side of the aisle.
Which is that, success in a -- in a free market, free system, is somehow emblematic of exploitation.
You see mostly on the left. What basically what DEI is, is the theory, that the powerful in society control everyone else and that you can tell who the powerful are, by their -- by their success.
And then you can group them by race. And so DEI basically says, that if you're a white male, you're on the top of the power hierarchy. You're unfairly exploiting others. And, therefore, you need to be brought low.
That crosses with anti-Semitism obviously. Because once you start talking about groups that are disproportionately successful in the United States, you get into Asians, into Jews. It gets into really ugly territory.
But I also -- there are some elements of this on sort of the far right. The idea that everything is conspiracy.
Everything is a group of elites who are seeking to keep you under -- under the boot.
And success is, therefore, belonging to this elite cadre of people.
Now, it doesn't mean there aren't institutions that aren't run by people, who have your worst interests at heart.
The media are run by people who do not agree with your vision of America, the universities.
But we're talking broadly speaking. The implication that success is unachievable in a free market society, or in a free speech society. That is innervating to the American public.
It makes us see each other as enemies. It's really ugly. It's destroying us domestically.
I think it's destroying us in terms of foreign policy as well. That sort of -- it's that ideology, I think.
GLENN: So I tell you, I don't know exactly what you're pulling -- there's a couple of things, like this horrible ruling, I think. About Elon Musk. And the attacks on Elon Musk.
They're trying to destroy him. But that's because he doesn't agree with policy. I have no idea with people making money, and being successful.
My problem is with the elites that are. It's not a conspiracy. We know who they are.
The World Economic Forum, and all of the leaders around the world, that are saying things like we have to ban meat.
We have to -- we have to take control of private property.
And we have to do public/private partnerships.
I mean, those people, that's not a conspiracy. Is it?
BEN: No, I agree. That's why I was distinguishing between institutions that are absolutely doing it. And they're saying it openly. I distinguish between sort of the conspiracy theories, and the actual people saying it. The WEF is not hiding the ball. They're saying exactly what they want to do, and they're doing it out loud.
And they say, they control certain businesses. They control governments.
Again, they're doing it right out in the open. That's why it's not a conspiracy, when people say, the right is so focused on the WEF conspiracy theory.
It's like, that's not a conspiracy, when you just say the thing.
But that's a little bit different, than a sort of -- I think internalized sense that we're getting from a lot of Americans, on all sides. The political aisle.
That success is not possible in the United States.
Which I don't think is reality. I think success is possible. I think there can be institutional obstacles to that success that are largely discriminatory.
But, you know, again, this is an amazing country.
And I think it's worthwhile for us to remember. Just how amazing this country was. What makes it amazing, is the fact that we have a shared set or we used to at least have a shared set of Judeo-Christian values, and free market principles. That have created the largest commercial republic in the history of mankind. The most powerful military in the history of mankind, and the most powerful spreader of morality and decency in the history of mankind.
Like, we are all part of that project. There are obstacles to that project.
So they're not insuperable.
And I think telling people, that -- they will lose. Whatever is the next thing that happens politically, will cause them to be cast into the outer darkness forever.
I'm not a big fan of catastrophism in this country. Just, I don't think -- when we say, that the next election is the last election, I don't believe that.
I think it's really, really important. But I think it's also more important to build up from the local level. And I prefer that we all start to focus on that, as opposed to the catastrophic thinking, that if the next election doesn't go the way we want then Civil War is going to break out or something.
GLENN: Now, as America's leading catastrophist.
(laughter)
GLENN: I do feel like that was a little pointed.
BEN: I don't mean it to be. It really is not about -- it really is not about, you know, the idea that there aren't serious threats lurking around the corner. But I think that it's easy, and not just lurking, like here.
Listen, we live in a country where a percentage of the population, doesn't know the difference between men and female. And that's the serious crisis that's present right in front of us.
We're in a country, where, again, a significant percent of the population believes that free market capitalism is actually evil and wrong. It needs to be curbed.
That's a serious crisis right in front of us. I guess the point that I'm making. Is that in our personal lives, in our daily interactions, the things that we should be focused on, are what brings us success.
And I think that we can -- we can fight the crazies that are political, at the same time, that we build success from the local level.
And what I prefer conservatives to do. Is we can do both at the same time. We walk and chew gum. And I think there's been a lot of focus, that's been poured into there's a crisis that faces us. And, yeah, there's a crisis we have to fight. Because, otherwise, we won't be able to do things on a personal level, that we want to do.
But what I'm seeing right now, is people are feeling enervated about things like getting -- about things like getting a job. Or if I work hard, will I succeed?
And we have to keep saying to people, over and over. That if you work hard, you will succeed. We are going to make sure that nobody stops you from succeeding, if you work hard and make the right decisions.
GLENN: Okay. Right. I understand what you're saying there.
I'm surprised that you picked that. I'm glad you did. Because I hadn't thought of it the way you're thinking. I would say, most people right now, would say biggest thing, the biggest problem that we have to address quickly. Is the border.
BEN: Yes. On a political level, absolutely the border. 100 percent the border.
And when we're talking about the crises that face us right now. I think this is a crisis that defines not just this year, but maybe this generation.
Not just on America's Southern border. All over the world. This mass migration of peoples from areas that are not particularly friendly to Western values into places -- obviously breaking politics in Europe.
But the United States's idea that we can have an open border, that is being openly pursued by Joe Biden.
I mean, there's just no question that Joe Biden has crafted the policy that is specifically designed to keep our borders open.
I was just down on the border. And I was talking with the head of the Border Patrol Union.
And he was showing me the border.
I mean, we went 25 miles without seeing a single border patrol agent.
And that was in the area that did not have border gates. That did not have border wall.
That was on the Native American reservation in Arizona. And that place is so unoccupied by Border Patrol.
That when we sat there at night. We looked out the window of the car, there was a drone flying over us, monitoring us.
I assumed it was an American drone. It was not. It was a Mexican drug cartel drone, that was monitoring our car.
Because -- and it was on American territory. And I asked the Border Patrol agent.
Why don't you shoot it down?
He said, we would have to get direct permission from Alajendra Mayorkas directly, to shoot that down. So as not to create the international incident on the border.
So the drug cartels are in control of the border.
They are playing this game, that is fully taking advantage of what Joe Biden is doing. So to understand what Joe Biden has done.
The basic answer is: Joe Biden has now declared that if you say the magic words with regards to asylum, you will be allowed into the country.
Not only that, border patrol's first duty is to take you at the border.
And to process you and release you into the interior of the United States.
So what the drug cartels are doing, is they will literally drive up in a truck, yards from the border.
Unload a bunch of illegal immigrants. The illegal immigrants will literally walk across the border where we were.
There was a sign, with a button on it.
And if you push the button, it says, push for Border Patrol help.
Like they're bellboys. And you push the button. The border patrol all rushes over to do what Joe Biden wants them to do, which is busing and administrative duty.
That leaves the border wide open for the actual scary people. Because there are two groups of people, right?
There are people who shouldn't be in here, because they don't actually have legal asylum claims. They may be on the welfare system.
But they're not necessarily people who are seeking to do violent crime or smuggle drugs or something. And the drug cartels make money from coyote-ing them up, obviously.
But the drug cartels are making the real money from smuggling fentanyl over the border, from smuggling people with criminal records over the border, terrorists over the border.
And Joe Biden is leaving those swaths of the border completely unoccupied so that he can process more people who are claiming asylum.
I mean, it's not a shock that the criminals who beat up the cops in New York the other day, they were claiming asylum. That's literally what they said. They said, we are here. We are claiming asylum.
They don't have a legit asylum claim. And that's purely on Joe Biden. Because under Donald Trump, we had a remain in Mexico policy, which means, if you arrive at the border and said, I claim asylum.
You say, great. Now you wait in Mexico.
And then we will adjudicate your case, and then your case will be adjudicated. They wouldn't have an asylum claim, and they would have to go back home. Well, that's a pretty good incentive not to show up at our Southern border. Joe Biden has done precisely the opposite.
GLENN: Ben is obviously, with the Daily Wire.
And he has a new documentary out about his trip to the border, and shows you all these things.
And you can watch it on -- on the Daily Wire, if you are like me, and you are a member of the Daily Wire.
Ben, as always, great to talk to you.
BEN: I appreciate talking to you. And keep the spark alive, for the hip-hop in your heart.
GLENN: I will. Will do. Will do.
Thank you so much, Ben Shapiro.
STU: Quickly, if you are -- want to keep the hip-hop spark alive in your heart. And want to have the hoodie that you're wearing, where would you go to get that? GlennBeckMerch.com?
GLENN: Yeah. Thank you for saying that. GlennBeckMerch.com. Yeah. It is my hip-hop label. Sick, twisted freak.
STU: It's a good hoodie, actually.
GLENN: It's actually, we were just introducing them. They're the sick, twisted freak. For anybody who is -- a listener. A long had much time listener of this program.
You especially recognize sick, twisted freak.
A lot of new listeners are coming this.
Why is he calling me that. It's a term of endearment.
It really is.
Who is listening to this every day.
Except, somebody who is like, I -- you know what I mean?
So you can get the sweatshirt now.
It's available at GlennBeckMerch.com.
You know, I'm -- I'm a little upset. Not at Ben. I love Ben. But I'm a little upset at Tom MacDonald, who has been on this program before. And, you know, he's the weight behind Ben Shapiro. And speaking at weight, who is better at weight than me, really? Honestly.
And I'm thinking to myself, you know, Ben, you really missed the boat here. Tom, by going -- by going with Ben, and Ben is great and everything. But you missed the legend, okay. That I am.
I mean, I have been doing rap for, well, forever honestly.
STU: Really?
GLENN: Since The Sugarhill Gang.
STU: Did you precede The Sugarhill Gang?
GLENN: No, I was right there with the Sugar Hill.
You know, my own interpretation of rap, which Tom MacDonald and Ben Shapiro.
(music)
Facts.
Let's look at the stats. I've got the facts, my money like Lizzo, my pockets are at that time. Homey, I'm epic. Don't be a WAP. Dog, it's a yarmulke, homey, no cap.
Look at the graphs, look at my charts, you're blowing money on strippers and cars. Which really doesn't work.
You're going to go to prison, and I'm on television. Dog, no one knows who you are. Keep hating on me, on the internet. My comment section, all woke Karens. I make racks off compound interest.
You all live with your parents.
Nikki, take some notes. I just did this for fun. All my people download this. Let's get a billboard number one.
(music)
I mean, Tom, you could have had it. You could have had all that --