Hip Hop Politics: Advanced Course

First off Hello world. For some of you this is a reintroduction (what's up!) - for others the first -welcome. I haven't posted a blog in a long time and in search for inspiration I figured I would just start a completely new one. I always get complaints about not being able to read my blog on Myspace, Yahoo 360, or Facebook so I will try it again here. I think this is pretty open to the public right? 

Let us begin. 

I haven't been really inspired to write lately and was in desperate need of SOMETHING to happen to raise my eyebrow. Thank god for Ludacris!


So just when the campaigns for president were getting really boring for the hip-hop nation (Barack is that dude, change this, change that vs. McCain war hero, same this, same that, etc.) - here comes Ludacris with his ode to the Obama campaign! See below



Whew? Pretty dope rhyme right? But here is the difference - its an election year. This is the first time a candidate is so closely tied to the hip-hop community so its a whole new ball game. Before with candidates like Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry there was little attention paid to any hip-hop mentioning of them. In all reality they never had the support of Hip-Hop while they were running for president (Bill was popular amongst African Americans in general. Al was living off of Bill's 8 years of success, and Kerry was basically getting the "anything but Bush" support.) Now anything - ANYTHING - associated with Obama is fair game.

In the race for president most people would think that the gloves are off too. But its really not about who plays harder - its who plays smarter. This is where hip-hop needs to learn the lesson (which has actually been taught a few times in the past). Being brash for the sake of being brash and because you have a right to free speech doesn't always mean that you "should" say whats on your mind. There is much to be gained from a tactfully placed comment or silence in general. Even more to gain from a good apology. Which I think Ludacris needs to do here. There is already a precedent set for it (see Jesse Jackson which Luda smashes in this track as well) - and Obama denoucement of Rev. Wright and Luda's comments. I even think the "paralyzed" comment about Sen.McCain was a bit strong. 

In the tradition of hip-hop battle raps there is an unwritten code of conduct about what you can and can't say as far being considered completely out of line. Disrespect for the mother of your opponent (can't recall a case of this ever happening), the mother of your opponents children (see Jay-Z "Super-ugly" Nas diss, or Ja-Rule's diss of Eminem), those that have passed on (expect to hear a Tupac or Biggie diss anytime soon?), etc. Its a gray area in politics but something Hip-hop needs to learn anyway. Luda should have known given his level of celebrity, and prior run ins with the likes of Bill O'Reily this was never going to go under the radar. So I think in the interest of helping keep the Obama campaign on track - he should apologize. What do you think?