"Obama probably likes this song but he can't be like man this song is the shit when it talks badly about the other candidates. Luda is making some hot tracks as always." -- commenter Ek at the site Baller Status.
No. Not from the dude behind "Chicken and Beer!" How could he produce something deemed "offensive?" Not the guy both Bill O'Reilly and Oprah Winfrey have beef with. I'm shocked, I tell you. SHOCKED that a rapper/actor like Ludacris produced a hot track presidential candidate Barack Obama had to denounce. Shocked, I say!
From BBC News (thanks, Tamra and Bam):
The musician used a misogynistic term to describe Mrs. Clinton and urged Mr. Obama against appointing her as his running mate, saying that she "hated on you".
Mr McCain, the Republican candidate for the presidency, does not belong in "any chair unless he's paralyzed", according to the rapper.
Mr Burton added: "As Barack Obama has said many, many times in the past, rap lyrics today too often perpetuate misogyny, materialism, and degrading images that he doesn't want his daughters or any children exposed to."
The Ludacris song urges black people to cast their votes in the forthcoming election, and lends his support to Mr Obama's bid.
The lyric "the world is ready for change 'cause Obama is here" is repeated throughout the track.
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine earlier this year, Mr Obama included Ludacris when describing hip-hop stars he considered "great talents and great businessmen."
Listen to the track at Pop Crunch.
In the song Luda says W. is the worst of all 43 presidents (for sure) and that Obama is his man because he complimented his business savvy. (He'd also like to be vice president. Hmm ... I'm still holding out for Will Smith.)
Of course the Obama campaign had to get out their denouncement pen to squash this little "paint the White house black" musical atom bomb.
A song by rap star Ludacris criticizing Barack Obama's opponents has been called "outrageously offensive" by the US presidential candidate's campaign.
(The song) "Politics As Usual" calls President Bush "mentally handicapped," and insults both Hillary Clinton and John McCain.
"Ludacris is a talented individual but he should be ashamed of these lyrics," said Mr. Obama's spokesman Bill Burton.
World is ready for change because Obama is here? I just can't hold back all this shock and awe. I'm just so very, very surprised. Oh dear. I think I caught the vapors!
Whew. Now that I've revived myself with some smelling salts I can finally address this issue with some clarity. Not known for their ability to keep it kosher, rappers are not the most, ahem, PC of poets to deal with politically. Traditionally, the classic progressive rapper was all about challenging the established order. Now most of those rappers have been reduced to indie status and the only commercially viable "conscious" rappers left are Nas, Lupe Fiasco and sometimes Kanye "George Bush doesn't care about black people" West.
But these rap individuals are not known for their class, and sometimes their acts of "art" can amount to cultural perfidy. I know some folks consider Luda an artist, but I can't say I'm a fan of his work. I didn't agree with Bill O'Reilly's foolish fatwa on the dude and I really thought he and other rappers should have just dropped the whole "Oprah won't have us on" beef because how hard rock are you if you want to be on Oprah's sensitive daytime hour for women of a certain age? Rapper/actor, be accountable for what you say. You knew you were going to piss of people when you wrote it, so seriously, who cares?
Well ... I guess the Obama campaign cares if a pro-Obama, anti-everyone else diss track comes out.
I'd like to give Luda the "Not Helping!" award today just to make a point, but the reality is Obama's campaign has brought out both the politics and the opportunism in rappers. There are going to be a lot of pro-Obama songs. Nas has his "Black President" jam (which is actually pretty awesome). But while Luda's "Politics As Usual" may be relevant, and some might even agree with the content of it, the Obama campaign can't afford to be cavorting with rappers who've extolled the virtues of licking a woman from her head to her toes. Wha-wha-wha-what's your fan-fan-fan-fantasy, Luda? A black president?
This is a time bomb of a thousand Sister Soulja Moments waiting to happen. Let the great rapper denouncement begin! I personally think the campaign should start "pre-denouncing" some rappers before they get creative. You know? As a form of rapper insurance. Come up with a good/bad rappers list and get to pre-denouncing. I nominate St. Louis' own Nelly. That whole credit card through the crack of a woman's ass could come back to hurt you, Barack. And put Lil' Jon on the list too. And T-Pain. And of course, Lil' Weezy. God. We can't have anyone thinking he speaks for the Great Black Hopemongerer. A matter of fact, all rappers are too risky. They've all dropped the n-word once or twice or a million times. They've all been dissed by Oprah and O'Reilly. They all still scare old white people even though rappers are staunch gun owning capitalists who should all really be Republicans by now anyway.
And The Daily Show agrees with me.
But rappers don't want to out themselves in that manner, I'm sure. Belonging to the GOP this year is not the hip, dope, fresh thing to do. So until the Republicans are able to lure them into their midst, a la Eazy-E, we're going to have to deal with things like this.
I'm not saying rappers should be silenced. Far from that. I'm pro-rappers rapping whatever exists in their little hearts. (Big ups to the First Amendment!) I'm just saying they should be prepared to get denounced, which could actually be a boon for them. After all, in rap all negatives are really positives. I'm sure Luda, et al, can flip this little snub into the ultimate megamix diss track. And that would really help Obama, because then he could disassociate himself from yet another group of undesirables.
You can't be the "rapper's choice" for prez if the rappers are rapping against you.
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