- I wasn't playing games, rent is too damn high.
What do y'all want me, you expect me to get up there
and lie like everybody else?
I'm Jimmy McMillan.
People know me from the 'Rent is too Damn High' party.
- "Rent is too damn high."
- Yeah.
So in 2010 I said, "This is my opportunity".
I ran for governor, state of New York.
- I represent the 'Rent is too Damn High' party.
Rent, it's too damn high.
When I walked out on stage people started laughing,
because I had on some karate sneakers.
- As a karate expert, I would not talk about anyone up here.
- I had suit I bought from someone for 99 dollars,
my beard shaped in a way to get the attention,
I had made a tie, I had a Bounty towel in my pocket.
- Now the topic of gay marriage,
do you support it, yes or no?
- If you wanna marry a shoe, I'll marry ya.
- Well everybody was laughing, until I opened my mouth.
- People are eight hours a day and 40 hours a week,
for some a third job, once again, why,
you said it, the rent is too damn high.
- Thank you Mister McMillan.
- The cameras went crazy, cameras starting flicking on,
oh, what happened here?
And from there, they pretend it's history.
Rent is too damn high, because of the court system.
The landlord, attorney, you meet in court,
are the same attorney who pointed the judge
to the event that you have to see him and talk about it.
So they use these attorneys in the court,
to help the landlords keep you out of these apartments,
that's why the rent is going up
because they know you don't have the money.
People started making memes about me,
but I didn't know this was going on,
until now when I'm turning channels everyday.
- You know how much a one bedroom
apartment costs in Manhattan?
77 thousand dollars a month.
- Damn, where that come from?
Saturday Night Live did that skit, with Kenan Thompson,
I said, time to go to the bank, time to open up an account.
- Climb aboard the Jimmy McMillan express.
You can grab on here, or here,
cause it's gonna be a wild ride.
- People come up to me they will react, "That's him!
"Can I've a picture with you, can I've your autograph!"
But when Saturday Night Live endorsed this,
I said would (speaks quickly) cause this is what I wanted.
Then Wendy Williams called me and she wanted me on her show.
- Now in the streets people call Jimmy 'Papa Smurf',
if you take a look you'll see a similarity, there you go.
- I wasn't playing games, rent is too damn high.
What do y'all want me, you expect me to get up there
and lie like everybody else?
And I am gonna make sure it comes down,
and I appreciate the support and love everyone is showing me
because rent is too damn high.
They said, "McMillan stole the show",
I say I never stole nothing, (mumbles)
I- it blew me away
I forgot the name of the brothers
that did a music video of me, they got,
now they got like nine or ten million hits
called 'rent is too damn high'.
♪ Rent, is too damn high, ♪
♪ I say the rent, is too damn high. ♪
♪ I'm Jimmy McMillan, twenty thirteen. ♪
♪ I'm runnin' for mayor, come and run with me. ♪
I started writing more songs,
I put five hundred songs on YouTube.
♪ Rent is too damn high, ♪
♪ Aint nothing to talk about ♪
♪ Aint nothing else to talk about ♪
♪ R, E, N, T, R, E, N, T. ♪
♪ Rent too high for Christmas, ♪
♪ I know you didn't come to talk ♪
♪ Let's get it on ♪
♪ We can do it the kitchen, in the hall ♪
♪ We can do it while I'm talking on the phone. ♪
I created a program called 'Date Me, Jimmy'.
Most of these women want to take me out,
young women, twenty-something, thirty-something.
I'm like wow, this is crazy.
Going to the clubs, shake the DJs hands
and walkin' out the club,
women putting panties in my pocket with their numbers on it,
I would take it out my pocket and smell it, you know.
I stopped with the Rent is too Damn High party
because people just wasn't listening.
I ran 12 and 2016, they not voting for me,
they voted for all these other people who have money,
they learn how to brainwash them.
Just like we would talk about Donald Trump,
we're not programmed to do better,
we follow the wrong people that going down the wrong path.
Somebody gotta change that.
And these neighborhoods here,
this is a problem of people not getting involved,
in the election system.
I used to hear all the time, I aint gonna vote
because this is a white man's world.
I know now they regret saying that,
because they have no world to go to at all.
The only thing about it is they made it harder
for their children, by having an attitude,
they just wasn't thinking.
I decided to name my party the Rent is too Damn High party
because this, they're closed,
because the rent is too damn high.
They're closed, because the rent is too damn high.
They can't afford it, and people are not voting smart.
They're the cause of this problem.
- [Passerby] The rent is too high!
- Thank you.
Every July 2nd, I light a candle on the same day
the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, July 2nd, 1964.
I celebrate that year every year by myself.
I light a candle, I go to the beach,
put my candle in the sand,
and I sit there until it run out.
I do believe a better day will come.