Malcolm Turnbull has excelled at many professions in his life – the law, banking, and now politics – but a rap career is probably not in his future.
The Prime Minister tried busting a few rhymes on The Project on Thursday, during a discussion of U.S rapper Macklemore’s NRL Grand Final gig.
‘Waleed, you are the man, you’re the Tigers fan,’ he opined in a deadpan tone about program host Aly’s tip to win the AFL Grand Final on Saturday.
Malcolm Turnbull tried his hand at rapping on The Project during a discussion of Macklemore’s NRL Final performance
‘You can talk, the Crows can squawk,’ he followed up, to great applause, before joking the panel’s desk need ‘a couple of discs to get the deck going’.
Though most of the hosts heaped praise on the 62-year-old’s effort, Aly immediately dived back in to discussing Tony Abbott’s opposition to Macklemore playing his hit pro-gay marriage anthem Same Love.
But Mr Turnbull scolded him for being too serious while most of his viewers were focused on the upcoming AFL and rugby league finals.
‘We are just having fun, Waleed. Why are you such a downer?’ he said.
‘Waleed, you are the man, you’re the Tigers fan,’ he opined in a deadpan tone, following up with ‘you can talk, the Crows can squawk’
Mr Turnbull had the panel, and the studio audience, in hysterics – but Aly was less amused
‘It is Thursday night. There are two grand finals. Everyone is here in Melbourne being happy and you want to be grim and torture this issue.’
At this point Mr Turnbull had the rest of the panel, and the studio audience, in hysterics – with Steve Price even joining in to poke fun at Aly.
‘You want to go on and on about the song and should they play the song,’ he continued in a mocking tone.
‘You will talk about this song for longer than it takes him to sing the song. Seriously. This is really dull.’
Mr Turnbull eventually grudgingly relented as Aly accused him of trying to avoid a serious question, to which he replied that it was a ‘seriously dull question’.
‘I haven’t asked it yet. You can give me five stars or none at the end of it,’ Aly said.
Mr Turnbull scolded him for being too serious and asking about politics while most of his viewers were focused on the upcoming AFL and rugby league finals
Macklemore (pictured) will be entertaining huge crowds at the NRL grand final on Sunday but his ARIA chart topping hit ‘Same Love’ has already caused some controversy
Mr Turnbull shot back: ‘We will mark him out of ten. One is dull, ten is fascinating.’
Earlier he told the panel Mr Abbott was wrong to call for Macklemore to be banned from playing the song at the NRL half time show.
‘He should perform whatever he wants to perform. It’s the half time entertainment at the grand final,’ he said.
‘They have got a great artist. He will sing his top hits, that’s one of them. That’s great.
‘Trying to censor the play list at the half time entertainment at the grand final, is not consistent with taking a Liberal approach to free speech.
‘I am a free speech person. I believe in free speech. I believe that – I don’t think we should go around censoring play lists on songs. Let him play the song.’
Mr Abbott (pictured) backed a petition calling on Macklemore to dump his hit song, saying politics and sport shouldn’t mix
People are calling for Macklemore to dump his hit song about marriage equality during the Melbourne (right) versus North Queensland (left) grand final
Mr Turnbull then confessed his knowledge of rap music was limited after legendary artist Tupac was shot dead in 1996.
‘Frankly, a lot of the hip-hop music all sounds the same to me. I hope that is not a bit of a confession,’ he said.
After the rapping interlude, the fired up Prime Minister finally answered Aly’s question about why he thought the Australian people couldn’t have a civil debate about gay marriage if his party room couldn’t.
‘Waleed, that is so wrong. I mean, somebody expressing a view which I don’t share, right. I do not share his view about the song,’ he said.
‘I think let him sing the song. It’s a popular song. He is a popular artist. That’s cool. He has expressed that civilly.
‘There have been a few ugly incidents in the debate about legalising same-sex marriage, [but] the vast majority of people, 99.999 per cent, have dealt with this issue respectfully and civilly as Australians do.’
Mr Turnbull told the panel Mr Abbott was wrong to call for Macklemore to be banned from playing Same Love (video clip pictured) at the NRL half time show
Mr Turnbull said just because some people said ‘horrible things’ during the debate didn’t mean the postal vote should never have been called.
‘Here is the proposition that you are making Waleed: You are saying that because a tiny percentage of Australians will behave uncivilly and disrespect any, that means the vast majority of Australians are not entitled to have their say,’ he said.
Tony Abbott on Wednesday tweeted that Macklemore shouldn’t play Same Love during his set because it was ‘too political’ for a sporting match.
‘Footy fans shouldn’t be subjected to a politicised grand final. Sport is sport,’ he wrote.
His successor as PM wasn’t the only one opposing that view, with his own daughter Frances, 26, (pictured) expressing her support for the tune online
His successor as PM wasn’t the only one opposing that view, with his own daughter Frances, 26, expressing her support for the tune online.
‘PRESS PLAY ❤️❤️❤️ I still remember the first time I heard this song. I was sitting in my car, about to get out to go to work… but stopped and sat and listened,’ she said next to a photo of the ‘Same Love’ album cover.
‘And that same day I went and bought the album and kept it in my car and listened to it over and over and over again.
‘I can’t think of a better song for all the hundreds of thousands of people to listen to on Saturday… This is what we need right now. Go harder @macklemore.’
Meanwhile, Same Love shot to number 18 on iTunes in Australia, after sitting at number 72 before Mr Abbott’s comments.