By: Greg Staley
Written On: 2022-06-01
On the verge of an election in Ontario, a photo of Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath’s son has begun to resurface. Sporting what he claims to be a “fake gun” in an interview, Julian Leonetti, Andrew Horwath’s son posted an image of himself in Gucci pants holding the alleged fake gun for the picture.
Julian also produces music for his 61 monthly listeners on Spotify and his 168 subscribers on YouTube. These include songs like “No DUI” and “Isotope” – two songs which we will discuss later.
The Interview
On a YouTube channel dubbed the, We Love Hip Hop Network, Julian Leonetti, AKA Heyy Julian told the host that his mom “is very supportive” of him and his music. He also admitted to having had “a lot of addictions,” although he says that he is clean now. In speaking of his addictions, Julian told the interviewer that he had “a couple of seizures in his sleep” while coming off the drugs.
In this same interview the Ontario NDP leader’s son said that all of his songs are “definitely based in reality” – a point that I will again raise when discussing the music video and lyrics of Julian’s song “No DUI.”
Julian claims the gun in the picture was a fake gun – although lyrics to his song isotope coupled with his release of that image are unsettling.
Some of the lyrics to the song isotope are bound to make some uncomfortable as they seem to glorify violence – in fact, even the album art features what appears to be a depiction of Julian sporting an assault rifle. There are also gunshots heard throughout the song – you know just to add to the music of course.
“If you can’t stop hating you know what? I’ll pop a glock in your mouth and make a brain slushy.”
Heyy Julian – Isotope
“No DUI”
The song “No DUI,” released on July 24th, 2018 on YouTube opens with Julian holding what appears to be cough medicine while he pours it into a pink bottle decked with Hello Kitty stickers and others. Shortly after, the music video pops graphics onto the screen, including upside-down crosses and satanic pentagrams.
The lyrics to the song begin “and when I come by, might be late won’t lie, I was in two lanes almost died on a short (sic).” Then just a few short lines later he mentions what appears to either be the same incident or another incident altogether. “I shouldn’t do this, yea I know better – remember when I rolled my car last December? Couldn’t wake me up with a flashlight then they drove me home no DUI.” Then the lyrics change to “double cup, double cup, f**k me up f**k me up” – a reference to the mixing of cough medicine with codeine into pop, also known as “purple drank.”
“I shouldn’t do this, yea I know better – remember when I rolled my car last December? Couldn’t wake me up with a flashlight then they drove me home no DUI.”
Heyy Julian – “No DUI”
What’s concerning about these lyrics for me is that in his interview with the We Love Hip Hop Network, he said that all of his songs are “definitely based in reality” – but just how much is reality and how much is artistic expression? Personally, I don’t believe there is much happening here beyond the surface – the lyrics appear to be descriptions of life events but then again one could claim artistic expression.
That being said, what did Julian mean with his lyrics when he said that he rolled his car last December and that they couldn’t wake him up with a flashlight but drove him home anyway? This sounds like he was intoxicated and rolled his car, police or paramedics arrived on the scene and for whatever reason didn’t make a record of it or drive him to the hospital but rather just drove him home.
This would be completely out of character for the police or paramedics to simply drive home an intoxicated driver who had just rolled their car. So again, how much of this music is “based in reality” as Julian himself has said, and how much is artistic expression?
Now before you go to the polls on June 2nd you may want to consider this – are we comfortable with this as a country?
We have reached out to the Ontario NDP party but have yet to receive a response to our questions at the time of publication of this article.
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