Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Why Obama Might Drop A Freestyle On The Nation's Domepiece For Inauguration Day

This video is making the internet rounds. Specifically for the "Naw [homey], we straight [my niggy]" a little after the one minute mark. Also more dap at the end:



This was sent to me with the line "a study in code switching", and it's true, Obama does make a fascinating case. I have an old line in a rhyme somewhere, "writing for the man my vernacular switches, with my n's, I say n, more than Michael Richards..." The Barack slang/code switching reinforces the notion that, perhaps, the purpose of african-american identity politics is to help us all more easily reconcile the universal [existential] dilemma of having two selves. The "real" you, and the *you* in your brain. No one is more familiar with saying/doing something in their head, then having it manifest as something different than an Ethnic-American in the US. Eventually we'll all be spiritually calmer for it....

But speaking of rhymes, based on this coding analysis I think Barack must have some hot 16s. I suspect he's just young enough to have written some verses while he was in school. He's 47, which means when he was 25 (unofficially the age when you write your hottest lyrics, provided you've paid some dues to that point) it was about 1986. I would prob draw the age line at 45, i.e. every hip hop appreciating black person under 45 has at least one verse they wrote, but Obama is so precocious I bet he has a whole album and an array of aliases and a myspace page for his demos and all of that.

I'm not going to the Million Man Inauguration, but if Jay-Z or TI ask "The President" to grab the mic and spit something, and he does, remember you heard it here first.

8 comments:

  1. (Note to self: Don't eat chili dogs on camera.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous1/14/2009

    Obama will put the kibosh on any type of nude negro law.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm ready for Obama to kick a wicked rhyme like a fortuneteller. Let's see what happens...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous1/15/2009

    Damn. Best post in a minute.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous1/15/2009

    bama's got oratorical artillery in all facilities,
    but the new york flow, is strictly for the pro

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous1/16/2009

    oh wow, he really said "naw, we straight."

    **DIES**

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous1/17/2009

    ^I know right? LOL I played it again :D

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous1/17/2009

    Is it wrong that this man makes feel so tingly inside? And I'm married.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails