This Rap Video Challenges Silicon Valley, And It's Truly Amazing
"I've been following all the news for a while," Slesinger tells Business Insider. "It's been gestating inside of me. I think it's important that more regular people, those who aren't radical, chime into the conversation. That's sort of where I was coming from."
Slesinger has always been into music, but this is a topic that he wanted to speak on. He also wanted to highlight the fact that it's not an "us versus them" situation.
"Let me make this clear, it's an issue of scarcity land and, governmental policy, that need to service diversity, economically," Slesinger raps in the video.
What Slesinger is saying is that scarcity, and governmental polices don't service the diverse community of the city.
In the song, Slesinger also disses Peter Shih, who complained about how awful it is to live in San Francisco, and Greg Gopman, the startup CEO who said San Francisco is overrun by "homeless" and "trash."
Slesinger also raps about the bus stops for tech shuttles and alludes to how the city has given tech companies like Twitter and Yammer tax breaks.
"They come on the tide of the big G, with cash flow from VCs, and Ed Lee, wanna let 'em live tax-free?," he raps.
But it's worth noting that Slesinger used to work at a tech company that offered up shuttles to its employees.
"I remember boarding it," Slesinger says. "It was a little van that would pick us up at 24th and Mission. There was an awkwardness about it. A couple of times, people waiting for the bus would try to get on because they thought it was for the public."
What Slesinger wants to see is more housing scarcity.
"But yeah, its totally accurate and fair, and a change in curricula of public schools to needs to emphasize knowledge of coding," Slesinger says. "I also think tech companies should have incentives to give back to the community," Slesinger says, like helping to beautify the community.
Watch it here. It's pretty amazing.
Disclosure: I attended elementary school, middle school, and high school with Sam. He is also a friend of the family.