Obama and Hip Hop

In college, a visiting professor made the pronouncement that the President of the United States would own at least one Tupac album by some far off date, somewhere in the 2020s or 2030s. I do not claim to have any intimate knowledge of Barack Obama's CD collection, but Hip Hop has played an important part in allowing the senator to stand on the edge of the presidency.

If we take the assumption that groups of people are linked together because of a shared history, it has been a long journey for black folks in America. Along the way, certain individuals have represented or transcended the condition of black people in America. Frederick Douglas shouted the cause of freedom from slavery. W.E.B. DuBois argued for economic justice for the formerly enslaved. Marcus Garvey articulated the desire for a true home for a group of people who were taken to a new land against their will. Martin Luther King fought for social equality and Malcolm X epitomized the anger within the black community at the lack of opportunities available in their own country of birth.

There have been many others who have had an impact on our society to varying degrees. The names include A. Phillip Randolph, Nat Turner, Shirley Chisholm, Bayard Rustin, Muhammad Ali, Ella Baker, Medgar Evers, Jackie Robinson, and Mamie Till among the throngs of others. Each contributed a brick in the foundation of the black community and by extension, American society. But a black man would not have become president without Hip Hop. During the 1970s, the black youth had largely been marginalized. They were no longer asked to stand up to the establishment for their rights. The larger society did not care about the fate of these young men and women.

So, they did something about it. They gradually created a culture that would become known as Hip Hop. They rapped about their importance in society and about their dreams for a brighter future. They elaborately decorated train cars with their own names so that they could not be ignored. It was a movement by a forgotten group demanding recognition. "Look at me, I matter." It is that humble sentiment for recognition that created a culture which has spread throughout the world.

To run for the presidency, one needs that type of confidence and self-importance that otherwise would not have been available for Barack Obama to tap into without Hip Hop. But Hip Hop hasn't simply provided Obama with the attitude to run, it has allowed this country to vote for him. If Hip Hop is the CNN of the streets, it allowed the larger society to gain a greater understanding of the black community. Hip Hop began the dialogue about the divisions that this country did not want to discuss. What we've learned is that a black person has every right to lead as a white man. Without Hip Hop, that level of consciousness would have come too slowly for Obama to win in 2008.