In 1991, rapper Ice Cube bashed his then nemesis, Eazy-E on his dis song “No Vaseline” with the line “I’ll never have dinner with the president,” mocking Eazy for his participation at a $2,500-a-plate dinner with President George H.W. Bush.
Nineteen years later another rapper, who, like Eazy, told tales of drugs and violence, would visit the president at the White House, which helped him seem more powerful, cool and connected. As Jay-Z has even bragged about having “Obama on the text” in his lyrics, hip-hop’s role in politics and elections has evidently changed greatly between the time Eazy-E met with President Bush and the time Jay-Z met with President Obama.
theGrio: Hip-hop and politics have a long history behind the mic
In 1991, associating yourself with the president was as bad as having dinner with the KKK or hanging out with the police. In the ’90s, hip hop was still a strong counter cultural movement and rappers like Paris, X-Clan, BDP, Public Enemy, and Poor Righteous Teachers would regularly attack the system and the president that headed it.
The White House and the government returned the favor, attacking hip hop. Vice President Dan Quayle famously attacked Tupac Shakur and blamed his music for influencing a man to kill a cop. Then-President Bush and 1996 GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole also attacked Ice T’s “Cop Killer” song and pressured Time Warner to drop the song from Ice T’s album.
Even Democrats would use hip-hop as a scapegoat, with presidential nominee Bill Clinton criticizing rapper Sistah Soulja for reverse racism over her comments after the L.A. Riots and former vice-president Al Gore’s wife, Tipper Gore, testifying in Congress against 2 Live Crew and criticizing Ice T’s “Cop Killer.”
In 1995, Dole and former Bush drug czar William Bennett joined forces with African-American Democratic Congresswoman C. Delores Tucker to launch a campaign to force Time Warner to divest from Interscope Records, for putting out Tupac Shakur and Death Row Records.
Despite succeeding in having Time Warner divest from Interscope, the campaign failed miserably. Tucker’s well meaning critique was ruined by his collaboration with right wing politicians who made it seem like another Republican attack on the black community. The campaign only helped give more publicity and media exposure to “gangsta” rap. Tupac would join Death Row Records and Interscope would be bought by Universal Records and make billions off of “gangsta rap.”
Still, while the misogyny and violence of gangsta rap grew after the anti-Time Warner campaign, the political element shrunk greatly. Gone were the political undertones and anti-establishment creeds of “gangsta” rappers Tupac and Ice Cube, as well as political rappers like Public Enemy, as they were replaced by rappers whose only goals were “money, cash, hoes.” While rap remained a threat to public decency, it was no longer a threat to the system as a whole.
Rap’s most devastating critique of the president in the 1990s came from rapper Paris, with his song “Bush Killa,” in which he attacked U.S. foreign and domestic policy while rapping from the perspective of Bush’s assassin. Paris’s label, Time Warner, refused to put the song out. Paris would eventually stop rapping and join the corporate world as an investment banker.
Paris’s transition from revolutionary rapper to stock broker reflected rap’s transition from revolutionary art form to a corporate-backed business. Rap was no longer against the system, rap became part of the system.
The same billion-dollar media companies that donate to both the Democratic and Republican parties began to control the promotion and distribution of rap music. Rather than social change, hip-hop’s bottom line became the almighty dollar as rappers began to emulate the corporations that fed them.
While George W. Bush provided great fodder for attacks and mockery from the media, hip-hop was noticeably mostly absent from the attacks. Eminem bashed Bush before the 2004 election in “Mosh” and rappers Immortal Technique and Mos Def accused Bush of being complicit in 9/11 in “Bin Laden.”
But it wasn’t until Hurricane Katrina that Bush became a real target for the rap community. Hip-hop’s most infamous attack on Bush did not come from a song, but from an unrehearsed moment at a telethon for Hurricane Katrina when Kanye West said “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” As simple as it was, the statement hit a nerve and reflected what millions of African-Americans had been feeling about Bush and the presidents before him.
Katrina also inspired previously apolitical rapper Lil Wayne to record his most socially relevant song to date, “Georgia Bush,” in which he viciously criticized George W. Bush and the police department, echoing statements from the anti-Bush and police songs of the early ’90s while still bragging about moving cocaine.
A lot has changed in the 20 years between Eazy-E’s and Jay-Z’s presidential meetings. In ’91, the president was an old corny rich white man who had previously run the CIA; in 2012, the president is a youthful black man with swagger who used to be a community organizer in Chicago.
Back then, hip-hop was a counter cultural movement with strong pro-black and anti-establishment undertones. Today hip-hop is a corporate sponsored, capitalist, largely apolitical art form. Most popular rap songs deal with partying, drug dealing, violence, sex and materialism and rarely deal with any social or political issues.
Today, associating yourself with the president is something which brings adulation in hip hop, not scorn. Jay-Z famously bragged about having “(President) Obama on the Text” which was more of an endorsement of Obama’s celebrity than his policies, given that it came after Jay bragging about bringing Michael Jackson to Summer Jam.
The role hip-hop played in Obama getting elected was more of a showcase of rap’s marketing power rather than its political force. While rappers echoed the images and slogans from the campaign, very few hip-hop Obama supporters actually brought up issues of the presidential campaign. Just as the genre has marketed clothes, beer, beverages, deodorant and cars, it also helped market the president in 2008.
The front man for hip-hop’s support of Obama was Will.I.Am, a protege of Eazy-E’s who was once signed to Ruthless records. Still, Will.I.Am’s brand of rap was diametrically opposed to Eazy’s. Will.I.Am was a pop rapper whose music was largely clean and inoffensive and rarely dealt with controversial issues, making him a very safe choice as a spokesman.
The only other rapper to appear in Will.I.Am’s Obama anthem “Yes We Can” video was Common, a progressive rapper from Chicago who was Obama’s first hip hop supporter. Common was the first rapper to propose supporting Obama on the “Why” remix by Jadakiss, saying “Why don’t we impeach him (Bush) and elect Obama.”
Still, Obama’s support and connections to hip-hop have been a political liability for him. Fox news attacked Obama in 2008 for his connection to Ludacris, who had recorded a pro-Obama song in which Hillary Clinton was called the b-word. The Obama campaign was forced to distance itself from Ludacris, calling his song “outrageously offensive.”
Fox News would call for Obama to publicly denounce “cocaine” rapper Young Jeezy after Jeezy performed his pro-Obama song “My President Is Black” at an (unofficial) inauguration party. Jeezy’s song equated Obama to a material sign of success for black people, as he followed up the statement with “my Lambo is blue” — an endorsement of Obama’s symbolism but not his policies.
Recently, Fox news again attacked Obama’s connection to hip-hop by slamming the White House for inviting rapper Common to a poetry reading. Former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin called Common a “thug,” accusing him of “glorifying” cop killing in a song about Black Panther Asaata Shakur. If the White House can be criticized for their ties to Common, considered one of the more clean-cut, inoffensive rappers in the hip-hop community, can Obama afford to solicit rappers’ support for the upcoming 2012 election?
Will Obama be forced to denounce rappers who publicly support him? Will their support hurt more than it helps? One rapper who has been a great asset for Obama has been Jay-Z. By supporting Obama’s stance on the tax code, saying he would be willing to pay more taxes, and Obama’s stance on gay marriage, Jay-Z is rebelling against hip-hop’s capitalist and homophobic themes.
It is interesting that Fox News chose to attack the White House’s ties to Common and not Jay-Z. Jay-Z’s lyrics are far more offensive than Common’s and many lyrics deal with drug dealing and violence — yet they lack Common’s revolutionary rhetoric.
But Jay-Z has managed to infiltrate mainstream America and become legitimized through his business and media skills. Maybe an attack on Jay-Z from Fox News would be a good thing, as he would have to denounce some of his more offensive lyrics to maintain his position as the unofficial hip-hop spokesman.
Jay-Z has become the Frank Sinatra to Obama’s Kennedy. Jay-Z can help bring Obama the cool and young vote while Obama can help legitimize Jay-Z. Sinatra provided the theme song to Kennedy’s election and helped rally his celebrity friends around Kennedy.
Still Kennedy would throw Sinatra under the bus after the election, after it was revealed that the legendary singer had close ties to several underworld figures. Obama could possibly face the same dilemma if Jay-Z’s past and ties to “gangsta” rappers become highlighted.
Although most current rappers seem more concerned with the newest Mercedes than the presidential election, Obama can count on support from Jay-Z, Russel Simmons, P. Diddy, Will.I.Am and the others who helped him in 2008. Nas has proclaimed his love for Obama and the president has admitted to listening to Nas’ album Distant Relatives with Damian Marley.
Chuck D, one of the strongest anti-establishment rappers from its golden political age, who wrote “Fight The Power” and anti-George W. Bush song “Son of a Bush” has spoken out in support of Obama on several occasions.
Still, Obama can’t count on the support of every rapper. Kid Rock, who began his career as a Too Short clone who rapped about sex, drugs and pimping women, has endorsed Mitt Romney for president at a Romney rally after Romney personally sought him out. Rock has changed his tune — and his persona — to that of a country rock star who proudly wears the Confederate flag.
If Fox News tries to bash Obama’s connection to hip-hop by using the lyrics of one of his supporters, the Obama campaign can counter the attack by using some of Kid Rock’s many offensive lyrics, including this one on his collaboration with ultra-offensive rappers, The Insane Clown Posse:
“I’m that n-word that you b-word would die for, the whore showed up at my front door so I f**ked her in the a** and kicked her out the front door.”
Rapper KRS-One, who was one of the most prolific voices in political hip-hop in the ’80s and ’90s, is not supporting Obama, but supports Republican nominee Ron Paul. KRS-One has toured in support of Paul and has appeared on Paul supporter Alex Jones’ DVD The Obama Deception, saying: “[T]hey put a black face on the New World Order and now we all happy. KRS ain’t buying it.”
It is interesting that KRS is supporting Ron Paul over Obama given Paul’s long track record of racist newsletters and connections to white supremacists. He’s not the only rapper supporting Ron Paul; rapper Prodigy is another person caught up in the New World Order conspiracy, while ignoring claims of Paul’s ties to white supremacists and racist history.
It is a sad commentary on both the state of hip hop and politics when pro-black rappers see no other option in politics than to endorse someone who many believe has white supremacist sympathizers and who stands with the South in the Civil War and the segregationists on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Rapper Immortal Technique has become one of the voices of the Occupy Wall Street. In an interview, Immortal Technique claimed he was “willing to put Obama’s second term on the alter of democracy and sacrifice it if we need to to send a message.”
Still, Occupy Wall Street is hardly a hip-hop movement. Recent surveys show that Occupy Wall Street is less than 2 percent black. The movement has also distanced themselves from hip-hop personalities Kanye West, Jay-Z and Russell Simmons who allegedly tried to co-opt Occupy’s message, due to their materialism and capitalism.
In this election year, rappers probably will not be criticizing President Obama. Not because he’s black, but because rap has largely lost its political voice.
Hip-hop will support President Obama, not as a political voice but as a marketing tool. Obama will be once again promoted as a symbol and figure by hip-hop, while the politics behind him will be ignored.
And again, if the Republicans try and use rap to attack Obama, he only needs to counter with the Republican embrace of Kid Rock, whose lyrics are far more offensive than any Obama-supporting rapper’s.
Rap has come a long way, from political scapegoat to political marketing asset. The “Cop Killer” now plays a cop on TV and the “Bush Killer” now works for Wall Street, the same entity that funded Bush’s Presidential campaigns. Rap no longer fights the power; now it fights to keep the president in power.
Follow Casey Gane–McCalla on Twitter at @CaseyGane.