June 6, 2008

Rapper Nas Produces Obama Song That Isn’t Terrible

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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?

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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