{"id":4815,"date":"2026-06-04T21:53:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T18:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/rubio-quotes-kanye-west-on-israel-hezbollah-war-in-lebanon\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T21:53:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T18:53:03","slug":"rubio-quotes-kanye-west-on-israel-hezbollah-war-in-lebanon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/rubio-quotes-kanye-west-on-israel-hezbollah-war-in-lebanon\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubio Quotes Kanye West on Israel-Hezbollah War in Lebanon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During an appearance before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, <strong>Rubio<\/strong> described the Israeli-Hezbollah situation as complex before drawing on pop culture history, according to <em>New York Post<\/em>. <em>This has been going on since OJ had Isotoners<\/em>, the Secretary told lawmakers, referencing a line from West&#8217;s &#8220;Stronger&#8221; off the album &#8220;Graduation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The original track asks &#8220;You know how long I&#8217;ve been on you?&#8221; before answering with references to Prince and Appolonia, followed by the O.J. Simpson glove reference that Rubio borrowed for his testimony.<\/p>\n<p>This marks yet another instance of the Florida Republican incorporating hip-hop lyrics into official communications, as <em>New York Post<\/em> reports. His pattern of musical references has become something of a signature style since taking office.<\/p>\n<h2>A History of Hip-Hop Diplomacy<\/h2>\n<p>In March, while addressing a cabinet meeting after Operation Epic Fury launched against Iran, Rubio adapted a line from Public Enemy&#8217;s 1990 classic &#8220;Welcome to the Terrordome.&#8221; He declared that the Department of War was letting the drummer get wicked over Iranian military capabilities, channeling Chuck D&#8217;s original lyrics about refusing to lose.<\/p>\n<p>The Secretary&#8217;s musical repertoire expanded further during a press conference last month when he substituted for White House press secretary <strong>Karoline Leavitt<\/strong>. He branded Iran&#8217;s leadership as &#8220;Insane in the Brain,&#8221; directly citing the 1993 Cypress Hill track, while simultaneously warning Tehran to &#8220;check themselves before they wreck themselves&#8221; in a nod to Ice Cube&#8217;s 1992 hit &#8220;Check Yo Self.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>From Maduro to Biggie<\/h2>\n<p>Following the January 3 capture of Venezuelan dictator <strong>Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/strong> by American forces, Rubio borrowed from The Notorious B.I.G&#8217;s &#8220;Juicy&#8221; to send a message to foreign adversaries. &#8220;If you don&#8217;t know, now you know,&#8221; he warned, signaling the Trump administration&#8217;s willingness to take aggressive action.<\/p>\n<p>Rubio&#8217;s appreciation for the genre runs deep. Back in 2012, the then-Florida senator spoke with GQ about his favorite artists, naming the late Afrika Bambaataa and expressing admiration for both Long Island&#8217;s Public Enemy and West Coast legends. He specifically praised Tupac Shakur&#8217;s &#8220;All Eyez On Me&#8221; as one of the greatest rap albums ever produced.<\/p>\n<p>The State Department did not respond to questions about whether the Secretary would be taking requests for future lyrical drops, as <em>New York Post<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><em>With information from <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New York Post<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Secretary of State Marco Rubio quoted Kanye West&#8217;s &#8220;Stronger&#8221; during congressional testimony to describe the longstanding Israel-Hezbollah conflict, continuing his pattern of incorporating hip-hop lyrics into official communications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[2723,5212,279,5211,281,298,209],"nfg_topic":[135],"class_list":["post-4815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-hezbollah","tag-house-foreign-affairs-committee","tag-israel","tag-kanye-west","tag-lebanon","tag-marco-rubio","tag-united-states","nfg_topic-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4815"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=4815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}