Alvin Greene Didn't Make Rap Video, But He Likes It
Senate candidate hasn't done any campaigning including making YouTube video.
July 23, 2010 -- Just when a weird campaign didn't look like it could get any weirder, it has done precisely that.
South Carolina Senate candidate Alvin Greene, an unemployed veteran who had been involuntarily discharged from the Air Force in 2009, appeared to have finally launched his campaign this month in a typically unorthodox way: by producing a hip-hop video.
A viral sensation online, "Alvin Green Is On The Scene" touts the candidate's platform and compares Greene favorably to basketball superstar Lebron James.
"I didn't make it," Greene now says of the video, "But I like it."
Weeks after emerging from obscurity to win the Democratic nomination for a South Carolina Senate seat, Greene has given only a handful of awkward interviews, promised to fix his state's economic woes by selling action figure likenesses of himself, was revealed to be facing a felony charge that he showed pornography to a college coed, and made just one stump speech to date.
But he has not, apparently, produced and directed any rap videos.
The candidate says he is a fan of the three-minute clip posted to YouTube, but has no plans to produce his own campaign ads.
"I didn't have anything to do with it, but I'll take credit for it," Greene, 32, told ABCNews.com. "The video looks good. The music is good. It's cool."
Greene made his first – and only -- official stump speech last Sunday before a South Carolina chapter of the NAACP.
"Let's get South Carolina and America back to work and let's move South Carolina forward," Greene said in that 6-and-a-half minute address.
Though scant on details, the performance did lack some of the candidate's trademark awkward pauses or controversial schemes – like his action figure proposal.
Greene, who lives with his elderly father, only recently launched a website, which also lacks any real detail about his platform. He beat a more established candidate in the primary without a single speech, website or rally, and spent nothing on advertising.
Since clinching the nomination, Green has raised just $1,000, according to Associated Press reports. But the candidate would not confirm that figure to ABCNews.com.
"It's not about money," he said. "This is about the issues. I have issues. I have solutions and plans that effect Americans every day."
Old School Rhyme, New School Candidate
It may be just these empty coffers that have kept the enigmatic Greene from distancing himself from the anonymous producers of "Alvin Green Is On The Scene" (who, it must be said, appear to be mocking the candidate as much as celebrating him).
"Listen up everybody cause I'm here to say," spits the unnamed rapper in the video. "If you're tired of the government that we have to today/ And you want a big change in a major way/ Then vote Alvin Greene on Election Day."
The video even addresses Greene's unemployment and the felony charge he is facing for showing pornographic images to a college student at a university computer lab.
"Alvin Greene is the one for you/ He knows how you feel/Cause he's unemployed too," goes the rap.
"Well, Greene's a new few face in politics/ And he don't show porno to college chicks."
The catchy, if not terribly creative, hook to the song is an old-school style call-and-response refrain: "When I say 'Alvin,' You say 'Greene."
The video ends of shots of basketball player Lebron James intercut with shots of Greene. The credits list Greene as the video's director and producer. Credit for the camerawork goes to "Dad."
Green lives with his father and has based his campaign from James Greene Sr.'s home in Manning, SC.