MSNBC anchor Ari Melber has constructed a fame for weaving rap lyrics into his broadcasts, making a strong listing of contacts alongside the way in which. Simply put, rappers love Melber. He constantly exhibits like to everybody from Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. to 21 Savage and Mos Def. Some he’s even hosted on his well-liked present, The Beat.

Last week, Melber managed to cite Chicago rapper Chief Keef and his 2012 single “I Don’t Like” whereas discussing some current feedback made by GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski. In a clip Melber shared on Instagram, Murkowski is requested about Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” to which she replied, “I don’t like that.”

She added “there are Americans that are not going to be advantaged by this bill. I don’t like that.” Melber had a couple of issues he didn’t like both. “To paraphrase Chief Keef, cutting health care, that’s something I don’t like,” he mentioned. “Boosting the deficit, that’s something I don’t like.”

Speaking to AllHipHop, Melber defined additional, “Sen. Murkowski literally admitted she didn’t like the GOP budget hurting people—but voted for it anyway,” Melber tells AllHipHop. “That captures what so many assume is incorrect with politics. Listening to her say that because the information broke, I instantly considered Chief Keef. That track captures the uncooked, human disgust with something faux or phony.

“It’s a banger for that energy as much as the lyrics (and beloved remix). On top of that, Murkowski’s move is also something many people don’t like! And we noticed that in the many comments on the clip, where Chief Keef fans—and people who may not watch cable news —weighed in on everything from political hypocrisy to Keef’s artistry to dissecting words and lyrics.”

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A post shared by The Beat with Ari Melber 📺 (@thebeatwithari)

The video snippet blew up on TikTookay, with greater than a thousand netizens weighing in on Melber’s feedback.

“Bro listens to chief keef on his drive back home,” one particular person wrote, whereas one other mentioned, “Quoting Sosa on live TV is wilddd!” Some joked he’d “gentrified” O-Block, the notorious neighborhood the place Chief Keef and different Chicago rappers like Lil Durk and the late King Von frequented.

Others have been impressed by Melber’s alternative, saying issues like, “This why chief a fckn legend wtf in this time of s### going on ain’t no way he got quoted real GOAT” and “They got new reporters using Sosa lyrics… new age yall.”

Melber’s eager ear for impactful rap lyrics has served him properly. In 2022, he analyzed JAY-Z’s “God Did” verse as a option to study America’s warfare on medicine, which featured a clip of Mike Wallace interviewing Louis Farrakhan on 60 Minutes in 1996. The interview is referenced by JAY-Z on the observe.

Melber then explored how Hov’s verse encapsulated America’s failed drug warfare, highlighting a number of of JAY-Z’s bars lyrics that touched on the legalization of marijuana and Roc Nation’s Emory Jones serving 10 years for drug dealing.

“Those lines quickly go from prohibition to a war on street drugs associated with minorities … to fentanyl, a huge driver of drug problems and deaths, which politicians do not treat criminally the same way they attack the drugs that Jay or others once sold,” Melber mentioned on the time. “I can tell you corporations have made over $10 billion selling addictive painkillers legally, so that’s a contrast.”

The breakdown was so profound, JAY-Z repurposed it quickly after for the observe “HOV DID,” which he shared on Tidal, Apple Music and Spotify.

“Seeing JAY-Z release our report on his verse as a track is definitely a first—and an honor,” he informed me in August 2022. “JAY-Z sharing the segment with listeners also elevates the context for posterity—turning a Beat report into a kind of audio guide to accompany his dense, amazing verse about his life, and the arbitrariness of the drug war. And as Jay might say, he sampled my voice, and turned it to ‘a hot song.’ As for whether I was using my voice right, that’s for others to decide.”

Melber was nominated for a 2025 Emmy for Outstanding Live Interview for his dialog with Trump advisor Stephen Miller earlier this 12 months, whereas The Beat with Ari Melber viewership ranges wherever from 750,000 to 1.2 million viewers per episode. We like that.

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