We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.
The music world has responded to Obama in a big way throughout this election cycle. There was that will.i.am video (which I thought sucked). Now there’s the Obamamix. Like Obama—it tries real hard to play it down the middle (easy beat, oldies samples).
Soul Sides provides a strong breakdown and links to many other Obama-related tracks:
“Whatever you may think of Barack Obama as a potential president, it’s undeniable that his candidacy has spurred a reaction from the hip-hop community the likes that I haven’t seen in a generation. I don’t want to go off on the typical “rap these days is so apolitical, blah blah” routine but let’s be honest about this – for the last eight years, in one of the most divisive political climates we’ve seen since the Vietnam War era, the amount of political content in hip-hop has been stagnant at best, regressive at worst. You can blame that on apathy (or equally/more likely – media consolidation that’s cut off avenues of dissent in mainstream music) but whatever the case, it’s only in the last few months that I’ve really seen a major change and that’s largely because of Obama.”
At the very least, some of these mixes might ease any pre-election day jitters or thoughts of the race tightening! I recommend the DJ Premier mix. Upset the Setup spotted it first.