Presidential
written by 4bars
written by 4bars
So I know I touched on this a while ago, but having a black President has effected Hip Hop in a really interesting way.
I’m listening to a DC area radio station the other night and they had a countdown of the top 10 songs by request in the area and I was shocked/intrigued/a little embarrassed by the #1 song: The infectious Ron Browz hit “Pop Champagne….THE BARACK AND MICHELLE OBAMA REMIX!!” My jaw literally dropped in one of those “Did Soulja Boy just say that?” type of moments. I’m not hatin' because everybody deserves a right to express themselves musically and for Ron Browz, that’s his outlet. But I can’t help feeling a little embarrassed as a black person that a remix of “Pop Champagne” is synonymous with the President of the United States, the first black one at that. But I ask myself: “why am I embarrassed?”
I feel like there is an almost immediately negative connotation with Hip Hop in mainstream America, or maybe “stereotypical” would be the best term for it. Have I let this infect me? Am I a critical NAACP member sneering down my nose at this generation because of their sagging pants and braids? I feel like a person should always analyze and question everything about themselves and their life, just to avoid complete stagnation; and my opinion of Hip Hop is no different.
So I ask this: should my/our view of Hip Hop change so that it is more agreeable with a Presidential expectation? Or is Hip Hop fine just the way it is, we gotta take it for all it is and all that it might be? It’s like your drunk uncle, you love him, but let him show up at your balla ass wedding, cue cringing. Holla at me, cause I want confirmation that I’m not a boogie ass Hip Hop head.
4 comments:
Well, I'm just glad hip-hop stop sabotaging the dude's campaign.
Should you be a little embarrassed @ the song? Eh, I don't see why or why not. It's a fun club joint, but it's not like it's super-high quality music. I cringe as soon as the autotune comes on. I definitely cringe when they're autotuning in the name of the President-Elect. But if it's your jam, no need to trip. It's just an extension of the celebration. Some of it is gonna be upscale tuxedo celebrating and some of it is gonna be like fish frying @ drunk uncle's spot.
Guess which category Pop Champagne falls into?
Man this was a deep post. I can see why you would hesitate to celebrate along with Ron Browz but it is because of how the mainstream media has for 30 years tried to denigrate Hip-Hop and its cultural relevance. Its hard to fight that all the time. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't hold ourselves to certain standards but like i said in my "conflict" post, HH is a mirror point blank. Beautiful or ugly, it is what it is. I'm happy that the #1 song is the Barack version of Pop Champagne because it shows that this version of the HH generation finally gets what Public Enemy was doing 20 years ago - that we can use HH to achieve our goals.
And we should Pop Champagne because the Hip-Hop generation was one of the biggest reasons why Barack is where he is...
"oh, oooo, pop champagne, whoa, ooo"
I don't think you should be embarrassed by the song...atleast HIP HOP isn't ignoring whats going on in America. The quality of the song maybe horrible...but I have to give it to HIP HOP...its trying.
wait, wait. don't diss the quality. That song is tough Storm!!!!!
I know you can't sit still when that joint comes on in the club. I know how you gets it in Storm... lol
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