The reviews are in for the Utah House of Representatives’ educational rap video, which parodies the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song, and they’re not great.

“Send help,” said the Washington Post. Stephen Colbert deemed it “the worst rap ever.”

That doesn’t bode well for any future hip-hop groups formed by members of the Utah House (the U-Tah Clan, anyone?), but on the plus side, it might discourage other state legislative bodies from hurting us this way.

The only time our local politicians have dabbled in cringy hip-hop, at least as far as I’m aware, was a TV ad that the Illinois Republican Party aired in January 2017. It features a cartoonish caricature of Illinois house speaker Mike Madigan “rapping” over a flaccid, sluggish beat: “I’m Mike Madigan and I rock Illinois / I’m speaker of the house, and these are my boys.”

YouTube video
Madigan’s “boys” include none other than Democratic gubernatorial candidates Chris Kennedy and J.B. Pritzker, whose similarly cartoony avatars jump onstage and “dance.”

If Bruce Rauner has made an amateur rap video, he’s thankfully kept it to himself. But considering how much he likes to put on leather jackets and flannel shirts to appeal to Joe Downstater, I’m half surprised he hasn’t gone full Timberlake for a Man of the Woods-themed campaign ad.