Rapper Nick Cannon: Abortion is a 'real genocide' on the black community

Rapper Nick Cannon, who recently enrolled at Howard University in Washington, D.C., to study communications, raised concerns recently about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's ties to Planned Parenthood, calling their work a "real genocide" on the black community.

Cannon's comments came during an interview with New York City's "The Breakfast Club" radio host Charlamagne Tha God Thursday, when cohost Angela Yee brought up President-elect Donald Trump's rejection of late-term abortion and his past proposal to reverse the landmark Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade:

Hillary was, think about all of the things they did with Planned Parenthood and all of that type of stuff. That type of stuff is to take our community, and forget gentrification, it's real genocide, and it's been like that for years. This system is not built for us. This is not our land. I appreciate it, I love it, wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but this wasn't designed for our people.

At the start of the interview Charlamagne Tha God said Cannon, who was raised Christian, is "one of the reasons Donald Trump is in the White House," claiming the entertainer "was encouraging people not to vote."

"First of all, I wasn't," Cannon countered. "I am only responsible for what I say, not for what you understand, Charlamagne. What I said is that they [the presidential candidates] don't respect our vote — clearly is what actually happened."

The accusation stemmed from a spoken word piece Cannon wrote called "Too Broke to Vote." In the poem, he said "nobody for president" and "the government is hopeless." But according to the rapper, it was just a "reflection" of what he was hearing in Compton, Chicago and Atlanta.

"I gave that reflection neither Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump was speaking to our community and that localized voting was more important, especially when dealing with criminal justice reform and everything that we're trying to do to build this education system," he explained.

Cannon said this presidential election was about voters choosing the "lesser of two evils," comparing it to "picking out which gun you want to get shot with."

As for why he's speaking out now, Cannon said the Christian values his family of community leaders instilled in him has always inspired him to "speak the truth" no matter what.

"I come from a long line of community leaders and I've always thought that to who much is given, you're responsible for that, much is required," he said, referring to Luke 12:48. "So I use my platform to tell the truth at the end of the day."