{"id":342,"date":"2012-04-13T21:43:46","date_gmt":"2012-04-14T02:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/?p=342"},"modified":"2013-12-27T13:26:07","modified_gmt":"2013-12-27T18:26:07","slug":"342","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/2012\/04\/13\/342\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama: Kanye is still a jackass"},"content":{"rendered":"

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OK, the President has decided to weigh in on hip hop again. \u00a0At an Obama fundraiser in New York, David Samuels (the same guy who in 1991 argued that rap wasn’t really “black music”)\u00a0recently asked<\/span><\/a><\/span> the President a three-word question: \u00a0“Kayne or Jay Z?” \u00a0The President, calmly and confidently, answered “Jay Z,” even though he conceded that Kanye is “very talented” also. \u00a0Keep in mind that in 2009, after Kanye embarrassed Taylor Swift and himself at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards<\/span><\/a><\/span>, President Obama called him a “jackass<\/span><\/a><\/span>.” \u00a0Reminded of this, Obama replied “He is <\/em>a jackass. \u00a0But he’s talented.”<\/p>\n

Not sure where to start on this one. \u00a0First off, Obama is right that Kanye West is talented–in fact, I’d argue he’s more<\/em> talented than Jay Z. \u00a0David Samuels seems to agree, saying “Whatever you think of the many controversies he has ignited, you must admit that Kanye West is at least some kind of musical genius, ranking among the top five producers and the top five rappers of the past decade.” \u00a0This is half right. \u00a0Kanye is probably among the best producers (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy <\/em>is but one example of his prowess), but nowhere near\u00a0the top five rappers. \u00a0It’s widely understood by people who like and listen to rap that Kanye isn’t a premiere MC, and rapping alongside Jay Z makes that even more obvious on Watch the Throne<\/em>. \u00a0But the issue is that Jay Z is not among the top five in either category (no disrespect intended) so it’s unclear why the President was so confident in his proclamation. \u00a0And Kanye’s a Chicago native to boot! \u00a0Is this just an attempt to double down on the “jackass” comment?<\/p>\n

Actually, I don’t care. \u00a0But I will note that every time that he talks about rap these days, the President seems to betray his ignorance of the genre. \u00a0A year or so ago, when asked who he’s listening to, he shortlisted Lil Wayne<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0of all people.\u00a0 Really, you have hundreds of MCs to choose from, and you pick a guy who doesn’t even attempt to say something meaningful or positive–ever–and who raps about precisely the kinds of things you condemned<\/span><\/a><\/span> during your 2008 campaign? \u00a0If you’re the President, what message are you trying to send with that? \u00a0Now, you let a reporter pigeon hole you into a choice between two mainstream rappers, neither of whom is regularly using his art to raise social consciousness (instead peddling what pioneering MC Rakim calls “luxury rap”), and you actually pick one? \u00a0And then it’s the wrong <\/em>one? \u00a0A tip: save the petty “who’s better” debates for the teenagers. \u00a0Or me.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the President is reluctant to talk about hip hop during this election cycle, I get it, but then it might be better if he just remained silent. \u00a0That would definitely be better than picking favorites among two players in a genre I am beginning to doubt he really understands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK, the President has decided to weigh in on hip hop again. \u00a0At an Obama fundraiser in New York, David Samuels (the same guy who in 1991 argued that rap wasn’t really “black music”)\u00a0recently asked the President a three-word question: \u00a0“Kayne or Jay Z?” \u00a0The President, calmly and confidently, answered “Jay Z,” even though he … Continue reading Obama: Kanye is still a jackass<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1656,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}