HIP HOP: DOES IT HELP OR HURT BARACK’s MESSAGE FOR CHANGE?

// November 1st, 2008 // Hott Articles

who’s the blame?

DMX says, “What the f–k is a Barack?!”

By John Charles Reedburg

Hip hop has done a great job in getting a younger generation who usually don’t vote registered and out early to the polls. Yet does the negative lyrics in some hip hop songs really help Obama’s stride for socio-economic and progressive change?

On Oct. 23, the hip-hop elite congregated in Atlanta for BET’s annual Hip-Hop Awards. For the most part it was the typical industry extravaganza involving the hottest names, rappers capable of selling a million CDs in a week to a demographic stereotypically seen as young and rebellious but apathetic.

This year, however, things at the Black Entertainment Television event felt different – way different.

In the past, many hip-hoppers were content to shuffle cynically around major elections. But the nomination of BARACK OBAMA has yanked the hip-hop generation into the mainstream of American electoral politics. From presenters to performers to winners, from Russell Simmons’ blinging Obama T-shirt to Salt-N-Pepa’s tribute to the Democratic candidate’s wife, Michelle, the hope for change personified by Obama appears to have special resonance in hip-hop culture.

And, given hip-hop’s vast reach that could have a huge impact on the vote.

MTV reports that around 95 per cent of the hip-hop world supports Obama’s candidacy. As rapper TALIB KWELI wrote on his blog, “I have two beautiful children, and Barack Obama is an incredibly positive influence on them. I want them to know they can be anything they want.”

The genius of Obama’s campaign is that the senator has managed to galvanize the hip-hop community, traditionally shamed for promoting a cross-section of societal ills, without alienating the rest of America. That’s in part because Obama – who has said he listens to JAY-Z and KANYE WEST – hasn’t pandered to the hip-hop world, criticizing its misogyny, among other things. “We’re all consumers of this culture,” he told hip-hop journalist Jeff Chang in a Vibe magazine interview, “and there’s nothing wrong with us sort of saying, `You know what? Some hip hop is terrific and powerful and some of it is junk.’”

Still, hip-hop’s affinity for Obama hasn’t been embarrassment-free. Take New York rapper and actor DMX, who by March still hadn’t heard of the politician from Illinois. “What the f— is a Barack?!” he barked in an interview with the hip-hop magazine XXL.

“Where he from, Africa?”

In July, the senator’s campaign denounced rapper LUDACRIS for his underground song “Politics (Obama Is Here),” which called George W. Bush “mentally handicapped,” pitched the b-word at Hillary Clinton, and imagined the physical crippling of John McCain.

But many other hip-hoppers understand that when it comes to Obama’s campaign, they have to be judicious. In the most recent Vibe, Atlanta’s CEE-LO, he of Gnarls Barkley fame, asked hip-hoppers to “allow Obama’s work and the fruits of his labour to manifest.” Houston’s Scarface was even more pointed, stressing in Vibe, “Hip-Hop needs to shut the f–k up right now to get Obama elected.”

The Net is awash in pro-Obama MP3s, from lyrical shout-outs by prominent emcees such as Chicago’s Common to props from suburban Pennsylvania’s Caucasian newcomer, Asher Roth.

Asian emcee Jin’s “Open Letter 2 Obama” came across corny, but Obama’s team posted it to the campaign website as a free ringtone download. OutKast’s Big Boi collaborated with John Legend and MARY J. BLIGE on “Sumthin’s Gotta Give,” which has the three working in an Obama campaign office in the video. And challenging the Democrat to keep his promises after he enters the White House, NAS raps on “Black President,” “I think Obama provides hope and challenges minds. Of all races and colors to erase the hate.”

Even YOUNG JEEZY, who shook hands with John McCain on Saturday Night Live, dedicated his track “My President” to Obama. “He was cool,” Jeezy said about his meeting with Senator McCain. “He wasn’t Barack.” The Atlanta native says he spent a pocketful clearing his criminal record so he could register and vote for Obama. “He’s a strong-minded person,” Jeezy explains of his choice, “and at the end of the day you could really tell he’s passionate about making some type of change.”

“Obama has inspired the hip-hop generation like no political candidate ever has,” says JEFF CHANG, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. “He understands the issues we face from nearly an insider’s point of view.

He is taking the positions that the hip-hop generation overwhelmingly favors–on the war, on the economy, on education. But lastly, he literally embodies the hopes of a new majority, one that is racially progressive.”

Two Philadelphia beat-makers who produced ‘The Obama Song’ talk about the track and where hip hop is headed. Produced by CASSIDY HARTMANN of Pennsylvania for MTV’s Choose or Lose Street Team ‘08 at chooseorlose.com.