Amerikaz Most Wanted

Things are not going particularly well for President Obama. Not wanting to contribute to his troubles, there is an area where I think the president deserves a passionate defense: The recent contretemps over his iPod. Like most controversies in the news, this is extremely late. People offended by Jay-Z and Lil Wayne’s place on the presidential iPod should know that Obama betrayed a love for rap some 2½ years ago. On the morning after a particularly bruising debate with Hillary Rodham Clinton, then-Sen. Obama met with a throng of supporters, flipped off Sen. Clinton, and then brushed his shoulders off, a la Jay-Z.  

What do you think of rap? Has it been unfairly attacked for destroying family values?
By definition, rock & roll is rebel music, which means if it's not being criticized, it's probably not doing its job. I am troubled sometimes by the misogyny and materialism of a lot of rap lyrics, but I think the genius of the art form has shifted the culture and helped to desegregate music. Music was very segregated back in the Seventies and Eighties — you'll remember that when MTV first came on, it wasn't until Thriller that they played Michael.
I know Jay-Z. I know Ludacris. I know Russell Simmons. I know a bunch of these guys. They are great talents and great businessmen, which is something that doesn't get emphasized enough. It would be nice if I could have my daughters listen to their music without me worrying that they were getting bad images of themselves.

That was Barack Obama in Rolling Stone on June 25, 2008.
Obama came off as a thoughtful, mainstream listener of all kinds of music, including rap. While almost no one embraces the violent gangsterism of some rap, its more talented promulgators like Jay-Z, Tupac Shakur, and even Lil Wayne, to a degree, are enthralling figures. In other words, they spit catchy stuff.

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