I Am Obama

well, capsule I mean I’m not, search but these kids apparently are:


Double Dz – I Am Obama.

I know it seems like I’m posting all over the place about Obama on this site, but seriously – what’s the last election you can think of that had people making rap songs about, you know, politics?

And really, if you compare this to anything being played in clubs right now, this actually is not a bad song. I mean, the lyrics (especially the first verse) are borderline hilarious, but come on, compare that to, say, Laffy Taffy. The more I watch this, actually, the more I am convinced that there is some element of genius in this production.

This might be giving away a bit of my own bias, but this was apparently put together by students at UCR (my alma mater), and filmed in Lot 30. I actually believe that this may be one of UCR’s prouder moments (up there next to when they accidentally burned down the Lothian cafeteria – that was a long night). Somebody should start a petition to get this posted to the front page of UCR’s front page.

I actually find this phenomenon pretty interesting. I mean, I’m going through the songs I have set up for the next few shows (this is taking a while, as I had a pretty brutal hard drive crash and lost a lot of material), and the amount of Obama mentions – even off-handed ones – is pretty impressive. If I wasn’t out here, I’d probably invest more time in actually looking harder at this (hint hint, some enterprising young researcher should do a project on this).

Also interesting is the fact that if you look on youtube, there are dozens of songs done about Obama – plenty of talented Black kids doing these, but it doesn’t seem to be limited to race here. On the McCain side, however, I can’t seem to find anything worth even linking to (most of the songs about him, actually, are “diss” tracks). Am I missing something? Are there some white kids in Arizona twanging out McCain country jams that I am missing?

Or, perhaps, is it that the true element dividing Obama/whateverthatguysnameis “fans” and McCain/Palin “fans” is not race or class or gender, but deeper and more important things, like talent, hipness, and aesthetic sensibilities?

Politics aside, if we are talking strictly in terms of cool and lame, the choice is clear. Not that I am advocating voting with the same region of your brain that tells you whether or not you should pick the Dunks or the Ones, but, you know.

I’m just saying though.

It’s an interesting phenomenon.

12 thoughts on “I Am Obama

  1. Whats up?
    your show totally rocks my world. I LOVE this junk. Just thought I would drop you a note, I heard this song the other day–”The Impact Players” Two Kay…anywho, apparantly it came out in ’04…but this is the first “anti-bush” song I heard that came out of that period…If you haven’t heard it, I thought you might find it interesting…goes kinda deep into the politics from 4 yrs ago…etc. :)

  2. I have done a few intreasting things @ my site in regards to the election …

    including my own song

    Party with Barack

    I also got myself on a new Green Lantern mixtape you can all check out @ my site ..

    By clicking my name … .

    Thanks

    JV

  3. this video makes me smile.

    if not, giggle!

    each time i play this video, i notice something new that makes me happier than the last time i watched it.

    anyway, although hipness/talentedness/aesthetic-sensibilitiness is one factor dividing the candidates, i dont think it’s the “true element” of division. when you think about it, people are born with gender + race, so people can easily make an excuse of liking one candidate over another because of their gender/race. the other characteristics like hipness/talentedness/aesthetic-sensibilitiness are developed or chosen. it’s still a small percentage of people who are into that stuff while gender/race is everyone. i dont want to go into detail about those people who actually care about those issues (gender/race) vs those who don’t, because i’m tired right now haha.

    ya, but the exposure of artworks/prints by shepard fairy, david choe, ron english and other artists are out in big cities and the internet for sure. that’s where all the hip young folks are at.

  4. Meg – Wow, good looking out. I don’t think I’m up on that joint – could you hit me with a link if you have one? Email is also cool. And yeah, there’s definitely stuff like that from that era, but not as much as one would think. I have more than a few joints that woulda easily made for an Episode 110 Part 2…

    Sara – now there’s a name I hadn’t seen in a minute. I was starting to wonder where you went.

    Mamiko – Hm, I don’t know. I think that next time people will truly be paying attention to the politics of cool, because there’s no question that it’s a factor in this election. Who knew that lameness could be a political liability?

    and supercali don’t think I don’t see you raising hell on Facebook.

  5. Pingback: Style Wars - Obama and McCain Graded on Musical Taste - the mixtape show rap / hip-hop podcast

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