Rappers take on Ganim’s image.
Vote Joe or No Joe?
BRIDGEPORT — The fierce mayoral battle between incumbent Joe Ganim and fellow Democrat state Sen. Marilyn Moore has a soundtrack, thanks to two local rappers.
But while Manny RaXx’s short song encourages residents to back Ganim at the polls Tuesday, Joe Grit$’s is a blistering, fiveminute “diss track” aimed at the mayor and his administration.
Grit$, who grew up in Norwalk before moving to Bridgeport as a teen, also said that he does not know — but supports — Moore, who lost the September primary to Ganim and is continuing in the general election as a writein candidate.
Moore on Wednesday said she was aware of Grit$’s production but has never met him.
“I’m a little down on vulgarity so I didn’t listen to it fully,” she said.
On Oct. 22 Ganim’s campaign Facebook page began spotlighting a video featuring Raxx’s 1minute song. In the rap, played over photos and footage of the mayor, the young man asks listeners to “vo(te) Joe, vo(te) Joe.”
“He got what this city needs for the growth. Vo Joe, vo Joe, get up and do it now, don’t be slow,” RaXx raps.
Reelected in 2015 after having first run City Hall in the 1990s, Ganim has been arguing that Bridgeport’s economy is improving and that growth will continue if he wins another four year term.
Grit$ in contrast tells listeners in his rap, titled “F Joe” and posted online Oct. 28 on YouTube, “I’m a make sure this year, no sequel. I don’t know Ms. Moore, but rather see what she do.”
RaXx was previously featured on Ganim’s campaign Facebook on Oct. 9. He is a 14yearold native and student at Achievement First Elementary School and wrote a song, “Go Harder!,” for a new movie about a small town basketball coach titled “It’s Major!”
Ganim’s campaign advertises RaXx’s “Vo Joe” song as “hip” and “super catchy” on Facebook. Grit$’s rap about Ganim seemingly a direct response to RaXx’s effort.
Grit$, otherwise known as Joe Thompson, is in his early 30s and served time in prison for drug possession and robbery. He has sought to aid some of Bridgeport’s programs aimed at curbing youth violence and incarceration. is
Grit$’s rap talents gained local attention in 2017 with a song called “GoFund Me,” the website local homicide victims’ friends and families sometimes use to raise money for funerals and surviving relatives.
While RaXx’s rap begins with audio of Ganim talking about how he has “taken my knocks” and come back — referencing his improbable return to City Hall following the 2003 corruption conviction that ended his first administration — Grit$ rap features an unidentified pundit in 2015 expressing his shock over Ganim’s return.
Ganim four years ago successfully campaigned for a second chance using his felonious past to appeal in particular to minority neighborhoods whose residents had firsthand experience with the criminal justice system or were close to someone who had.
“Hey little Joe, we don’t want you no more. Bridgeport getting real tired of you robbin’ the poor,” Grit$ raps. “Election time the only time you give the hood a visit.”
He criticizes Ganim’s choice for police chief — the mayor’s close friend Armando Perez — along with the police force, which has been embroiled in several scandals over the past few years under the mayor’s and Perez’s leadership.