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Rapper Nas Produces Obama Song That Isn't Terrible
I know, we all got sick of the Will.I.Am track pretty quickly (although the McCain spoof was pretty awesome), and let's not even link to Obama Girl. But leave it to New York rapper Nas to come up with an Obama-referencing track that actually sounds pretty good. MTV news has a clip of the new track, called "Black President," which started out as part of a mixtape, but will now be included on the as-yet-untitled upcoming Nas album. Part of what makes this song interesting is its complexity: rather than being a goggle-eyed campaign sing-along, it actually expresses some doubts, with lines like "These colored folks and Negroes hate to see one of their own succeeding/America: surprise us, and let a black man guide us." Nas even wonders aloud if Obama really can "keep it way real." Plus, it's, uh, got a good beat. Check out a clip after the jump.
Nas - "Black President" (audio clip)
It sure beats the heck out of that terrible "Vote Obama" track produced by TISA (of the otherwise interesting hip-hop collective Sa-Ra), whose horrifically awkward chorus of "I'm-a vote Obama way" makes me cringe in embarrassment every time I hear it:
Ugh. Well, we've got enough hip-hop, now all we need is a turgid country-rock Obama ballad to appeal to those "hard-working Americans, white Americans" who all loved Hillary Clinton, and we'll be set. Or maybe a Coldplay number?
Comments
Thanks for sharing this. Nas is one of my favorite rappers lyrically. Those lyrics you quoted represent Hip Hop at its best, controversial, challenging and thought provoking. I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of the song.
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Posted by: Steph on 06/06/08 at 9:33 PM Respond