Sen. Rubio sings the praises of Eminem, Tupac

Sen. Marco Rubio is a lot of things: Rising GOP star, potential presidential candidate, Tea Party favorite. Add fan of Eminem and rap connoisseur to the list.

In a Q&A with GQmagazine, the freshman senator from Florida who made Mitt Romney's short list of running mates talked politics (naturally), President Obama, his family and rap.

Turns out Rubio is pretty conversant about music, waxing on about the poetry of Tupac Shakur, the "transformative" nature of Public Enemy in the 1980s, and the East Coast vs. West Coast hip hop war of the 1990s. The latter period is when the 41-year-old senator says is "kinda when I came of age."

Rubio's favorite rap songs: Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A, Killuminati by Tupac and Lose Yourself by Eminem.

"The only guy that speaks at any sort of depth is, in my mind, Eminem," Rubio said in the interview. "He's a guy that does music that talks about the struggles of addiction and before that violence, with growing up in a broken family, not being a good enough father. So, you know that's what I enjoy about it. It's harder to listen to than ever before because I have a bunch of kids and you just can't put it on."

As for Pitbull's music, Rubio says there's no contest. The Miami rapper is "all party songs" with no message like Eminem, he says.