The Hip-Hop presidency

"What I always say is that hip-hop is not just a mirror of what is. It should also be a reflection of what can be."
--Barack Obama, January 2008

It was Barack Obama's last unofficial policy announcement on the campaign trail. On the weekend before the election, asked in an MTV interview to explain his position on laws restricting certain hip-hop fashions like sagging pants, Obama nailed the issue. He quickly stated that laws banning sagging pants were a "waste of time," adding, "Having said that, brothers should pull up their pants. You are walking by your mother, your grandmother, your underwear is showing. What's wrong with that? Come on.

"Some people might not
want to see your underwear,"
he added. "I'm one of them."

It was pure Obama--personal, funny, filled with sense and human trust. It was also lurking in the back of my mind for days, even as I watched Barack Obama address a crowd of 240,000 in Grant Park a few nights later as the new president-elect. I was shaking inside, I was tearing up, and yet I couldn't stop thinking about brothers pulling up their pants.

Where is hip-hop headed with Obama in the Oval Office? He's stated his concerns about bitch-nigga-ho gangsta rap, and, it seems, sagging pants, while at the same time earning the across-the-board respect of the hip-hop community. Under his presidency, will hip-hop get more Obama-like--idealistic, compassionate, intellectual--or will the divide between "socially conscious" rap and "gangsta rap" widen even further?

(For those unaware, there are two divides in rap music-- "rap" and "hip-hop." Only 2 percent of all adults over the age of 35 like rap; about 26 percent of them like hip-hop. A far greater percentage of them will admit they like something called "socially conscious hip-hop," which is basically the Joan Baez of rap music, an utterly inoffensive derivative of a revolutionary art form which sets out to change the world by rapping about issues like hemp production and Mumia Abu-Jamal.)

Considering how Obama has inspired Americans to be good simply by telling them that they are good, he could very well spin hip-hop into better territory with the same positive reinforcement. By stating in a recent BET interview, "The thing about hip-hop today is it's smart, it's insightful," Obama makes a prophetic declaration. After hearing Obama's take on MCs, that "the way that they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable," who among the rappers of the world wouldn't want to try to succeed at that very thing?

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