In an interview with "The Breakfast Club" on New York's Power 105.1 FM on Thursday, Cannon made it clear that he was no fan of the pro-abortion movement in America or Clinton when co-host Charlemagne Tha God joked that he caused Clinton to lose the election by encouraging people not to vote.
"[He's] one of the reasons Donald Trump is in the White House," Charlemagne said of Cannon in introducing the rapper on the show. "Nick Cannon was encouraging people not to vote."
"First of all I wasn't," replied Cannon. "I am only responsible for what I say, not for what you understand Charlemagne. What I said is that they (presidential candidates) don't respect our vote, clearly is what actually happened."
Charlemagne's accusation was based on Cannon's spoken word rap poem called "Too Broke to Vote" released earlier this year. In his performance of the poem Cannon rejected the presidential candidates and the electoral process as a whole.
"Nobody for President. That's my campaign slogan. We got money for wars but can't feed our homeless. The government is hopeless. It's like a reality show. The Real lives of the House Liars," Cannon said in the poem.
On Thursday, he explained what sparked his campaign.
"When I wrote 'Too Broke to Vote' that was a reflection of what people were telling me when I was in these communities. When I was in the South Side of Chicago, when I was in Compton, when I was in Atlanta trying to encourage people to vote they was like, 'Man I'm trying to get this check, I ain't tryna check no ballot.'
"So I gave that reflection that 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 said.
He then explained why he predicted President-elect Donald Trump would win.
"Exactly what happened is what I predicted. I said y'all this stuff is already predetermined, it's the lesser of two evils. Picking out which of these candidates is like picking out which gun you want to get shot with," he said.
When asked if he really thought Trump would win, he said, "It's the same system, pick your oppressor. I don't care. You can't vote your way out of oppression. It's a systemic issue."
Co-host Angela Yee then chimed in about Trump's threat to late-term abortion.
"But I look at Donald Trump, they say he's trying to reverse Roe v. Wade and a lot of different things," she said.
And that's when Cannon called out Clinton.
"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," he said.
The rapper's comments came the same day that Students for Life at the University of Chicago was forced to cancel an event speaking out against how abortion has ravaged the black community due to the "prospect of an organized protest." The group had planned to host a discussion with the founder of the pro-life Radiance Foundation, Ryan Bomberger, at 7 p.m. His mother was raped, but she did not choose to get an abortion. The event was titled "Black and Beautiful: The Social Injustice of Abortion."
Cannon, who recently enrolled at Howard University in Washington D.C. where he is studying communications at the historically black college, said he is inspired to "speak the truth" because he was raised Christian in a family of community leaders.
"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. So I use my platform to tell the truth at the end of the day," he said, alluding to Luke 12:48 in the Bible.
Cannon, who also discussed the negative impact of the media demonizing men in reporting on domestic violence issues, had appeared on the show to promote his new mixtape "The Gospel of Ike Turn Up, My Side of the Story."
"Honestly, we can get deep into it but really, when you're put in a situation in the media, people choose to tell the story that they want to tell and even dealing with personal situations — whether it's divorce, babies, whatever it is — people just make up the story and they don't hear it. 'What's Love Got to Do With It' is one of my favorite films, Laurence Fishburne is amazing as Ike Turner. You saw, he brought the vulnerability out him," Cannon said.
"They said Ike Turner died of heartbreak because that movie ruined him because they made him the villain. I was like, they always want to make the guys the villain. I was like, let's hear their side of the story. Like even if they did something wrong," he continued.
The co-hosts quickly interjected with protests at this point in the discussion but he begged them to hear him out.
"Whether we talk about my little bro Chris (Brown), whether we talk about Ike, whoever it is, they turn these people into villains and they don't allow them to be remorseful. They don't allow them to change and grow as humans. Why don't they get that opportunity? Yeah, if they done something horrible ... if you let that person die as a villain, that's horrible," he said. "I believe everyone deserves a chance (to repent). We all have our own demons. I'm never gonna judge anyone because I'm not in that place to judge."
When asked about child killers and pedophiles he alluded to Ephesians 6:12.
"I can never forgive an action 'cause it's almost like, it says they don't wrestle against flesh and blood we wrestle against principalities. So those principalities are evil. Those things, and they can jump on any individual. So when you start to hate an individual as opposed to the principality, that's where we get confused," said Cannon, who noted that his "first language (of faith) is Christianity but I'm fluent in many different spiritualities."
