Obama the First Black President
1. Introduction
On January 20, 2009 everything changed for black America with Barack Obama becoming the first black president of the United States. Overnight the African American population got an image that they always wanted to have. It was the greatest political victory in the history of black America.
During the 2008 presidential election Senator Barack Obama received support from many hip hop artists like Young Jeezy, Jay-Z, Drake and Will I am. These artists expressed their support for his election by mentioning Barack Obama´s name and his political affiliations in their lyrics or just spread messages over the daily media which is used today like the Internet. The artists used Facebook, YouTube, Twitter for telling the fans of their music to vote for Barack Obama. This support created a huge interest in politics amongst the younger generation and strengthened support among hip hop fans for Barack Obama´s election as President.
Many people see Hip Hop as party music; where it should just “move the crowd,” the link to gangs and rap, graffiti, breakdance, violence and the extraordinary lifestyle. It is not all like that it can also be regarded as politically important; hip-hop has a long history of artists recording songs with explicitly political intent.
This term paper investigates the link between Hip Hop, politics and Barack Obama as an issue. How Barack Obama got involved into Hip Hop. The first chapter will give you a short overview about what is Hip Hop and when did it come into existence? The second chapter will outline the roots of political hip-hop.
In the last chapter you will get information about how Barack Obama got involved into Hip Hop with the help of media, which artists supported him and spread messages over YouTube, or mentioned his name in their lyrics to make the population of America vote for him during the 2008 election. Examining the song texts you will get an overview about which artist was supportive and which one less.
2.
On January 20, 2009 everything changed for black America with Barack Obama becoming the first black president of the United States. Overnight the African American population got an image that they always wanted to have. It was the greatest political victory in the history of black America.
During the 2008 presidential election Senator Barack Obama received support from many hip hop artists like Young Jeezy, Jay-Z, Drake and Will I am. These artists expressed their support for his election by mentioning Barack Obama´s name and his political affiliations in their lyrics or just spread messages over the daily media which is used today like the Internet. The artists used Facebook, YouTube, Twitter for telling the fans of their music to vote for Barack Obama. This support created a huge interest in politics amongst the younger generation and strengthened support among hip hop fans for Barack Obama´s election as President.
Many people see Hip Hop as party music; where it should just “move the crowd,” the link to gangs and rap, graffiti, breakdance, violence and the extraordinary lifestyle. It is not all like that it can also be regarded as politically important; hip-hop has a long history of artists recording songs with explicitly political intent.
This term paper investigates the link between Hip Hop, politics and Barack Obama as an issue. How Barack Obama got involved into Hip Hop. The first chapter will give you a short overview about what is Hip Hop and when did it come into existence? The second chapter will outline the roots of political hip-hop.
In the last chapter you will get information about how Barack Obama got involved into Hip Hop with the help of media, which artists supported him and spread messages over YouTube, or mentioned his name in their lyrics to make the population of America vote for him during the 2008 election. Examining the song texts you will get an overview about which artist was supportive and which one less.
2.
Bibliography: Forman, Murray. “Conscious Hip Hop, and the Obama Era”. American Studies Journal 54 (2010): n. pag. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. Gosa, Travis L. “Not Another Remix: How Obama became the first Hip-Hop President.” Journal of Popular Music Studies 22.4 (2010): 389-415. Binfield, M.R. (2009). “Bigger Than Hip Hop: Music and Politics in the Hip Hop Generation.” Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin.