POST NO ILLS E-Roundtable: Sucka-Free Democracy--R. Scott Heath (1)


OPENING RESPONSE Though Obama has never actively catered his platform or his persona to a particular hip_hop ideal, rap artists and fans have determined the ways that he represents for them. Barack operates with a swagger that some—for better or for worse—might wish to fit into the rubric of hip_hop convention. Witness major media’s fascination with the so-called “fist bump” shared between the candidate and his wife on a Minnesota stage, a gesture that one MSNBC news commentator called “a private moment in the most public of places,” iterating the hunger for insight into the secret workings of black American intimacy. Hip_hop-oriented? Possibly, but not necessarily. When he selects the theme music for his town hall meetings and campaign rallies, Obama consistently chooses Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye over Jay-Z and Kanye West, intelligently so. ___Let’s compare a politician like, say, Kwame Kilpatrick, the youngest individual ever elected mayor of Detroit and one of the best known among a growing contingent of black thirtysomethings winning public offices across the country. Kilpatrick has been frequently referenced as the “hip_hop mayor,” a dubious title that he has never disputed. And to what might he owe this distinction? His age and race, simply? His chunky diamond studs? His five-button suits? Add to this an interrelated assortment of moral and criminal allegations, including but not limited to marital malfeasance, lavish misappropriation of public funds, and running strippers around the Manoogian Mansion—things that could be said to represent a certain model of hip_hop performance. ___Ultimately, the same communications technology that drove Obama’s successful grassroots campaign aided in Kilpatrick’s political ruin. A record of text message exchanges between the mayor and his former chief of staff revealed evidence of their extramarital affair, information that would subsequently provide the pivot for a series of weighty charges lobbed at Kilpatrick, including perjury, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. Significantly, when news of the scandal broke and Kilpatrick was asked to resign, the young mayor outright declined to do so. Eventually, he would be forced out of office and off to jail on two felony counts. One wonders to what degree a rendering of the “hip_hop” label may have informed Kwame’s style of partying and governance and also how much it may have influenced the level of scrutiny and criticism to which he was subjected on the regular. Obama has smartly avoided a hard and fast hip_hop affiliation, unlike Kilpatrick who has been called “hip_hop” for all of the wrong reasons. ___Not long after Eric B’s modest bid for the presidency back in 1987, Phife Dawg asked, “Mister Dinkins, would you please be my mayor?” Such clear exceptions notwithstanding, hip_hop artists have traditionally kicked it negatively when it comes to mainline politicos and associated public figures. More recently, we hear Jadakiss blasting George W. by name on his widely censored “Why?” and we have Weezy copiously blazing while skewering Al Sharpton on “Don’tGetIt.” One extended function of Barack Obama’s rise to prominence is the requirement of even more specificity and nuance in the manner that hip_hop practitioners, broadly speaking, address “the system” in their work, their thinking, and their activism. Perhaps the Obama campaign’s attempt at a (prematurely assumed) “postracial” approach to electoral politics is coupled with a posthip_hop moment with regard to the utility of “hip_hop” as an organizing mechanism. Perhaps the notions of a “hip_hop candidate” and a “hip_hop president” and even a “hip_hop demographic” are already played. Whereas prior cycles of administration and opinion have made efforts to “discover” it and to “get into” it, we see manifest a generation of citizens and potential leadership for whom hip_hop has always been here, who take it for granted in the most positive sense, in a way that the old guard cannot. Let us hope that none of Obama’s statements thus far, occasionally linking himself to a mediated hip_hop, will offend the cultural sensibilities of a patriotic population that is just now beginning to get a grasp of dis and that hasn't quite figured out how to give dap. OTHER PARTICIPATING RESPONDENTS: Mark Anthony Neal Natalie Moore Adam Bradley Natalie Hopkinson Close Window

OPENING RESPONSE

Though Obama has never actively catered his platform or his persona to a particular hip_hop ideal, rap artists and fans have determined the ways that he represents for them. Barack operates with a swagger that some—for better or for worse—might wish to fit into the rubric of hip_hop convention. Witness major media’s fascination with the so-called “fist bump” shared between the candidate and his wife on a Minnesota stage, a gesture that one MSNBC news commentator called “a private moment in the most public of places,” iterating the hunger for insight into the secret workings of black American intimacy. Hip_hop-oriented? Possibly, but not necessarily. When he selects the theme music for his town hall meetings and campaign rallies, Obama consistently chooses Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye over Jay-Z and Kanye West, intelligently so.

___Let’s compare a politician like, say, Kwame Kilpatrick, the youngest individual ever elected mayor of Detroit and one of the best known among a growing contingent of black thirtysomethings winning public offices across the country. Kilpatrick has been frequently referenced as the “hip_hop mayor,” a dubious title that he has never disputed. And to what might he owe this distinction? His age and race, simply? His chunky diamond studs? His five-button suits? Add to this an interrelated assortment of moral and criminal allegations, including but not limited to marital malfeasance, lavish misappropriation of public funds, and running strippers around the Manoogian Mansion—things that could be said to represent a certain model of hip_hop performance.

___Ultimately, the same communications technology that drove Obama’s successful grassroots campaign aided in Kilpatrick’s political ruin. A record of text message exchanges between the mayor and his former chief of staff revealed evidence of their extramarital affair, information that would subsequently provide the pivot for a series of weighty charges lobbed at Kilpatrick, including perjury, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. Significantly, when news of the scandal broke and Kilpatrick was asked to resign, the young mayor outright declined to do so. Eventually, he would be forced out of office and off to jail on two felony counts. One wonders to what degree a rendering of the “hip_hop” label may have informed Kwame’s style of partying and governance and also how much it may have influenced the level of scrutiny and criticism to which he was subjected on the regular. Obama has smartly avoided a hard and fast hip_hop affiliation, unlike Kilpatrick who has been called “hip_hop” for all of the wrong reasons.

___Not long after Eric B’s modest bid for the presidency back in 1987, Phife Dawg asked, “Mister Dinkins, would you please be my mayor?” Such clear exceptions notwithstanding, hip_hop artists have traditionally kicked it negatively when it comes to mainline politicos and associated public figures. More recently, we hear Jadakiss blasting George W. by name on his widely censored “Why?” and we have Weezy copiously blazing while skewering Al Sharpton on “Don’tGetIt.” One extended function of Barack Obama’s rise to prominence is the requirement of even more specificity and nuance in the manner that hip_hop practitioners, broadly speaking, address “the system” in their work, their thinking, and their activism. Perhaps the Obama campaign’s attempt at a (prematurely assumed) “postracial” approach to electoral politics is coupled with a posthip_hop moment with regard to the utility of “hip_hop” as an organizing mechanism. Perhaps the notions of a “hip_hop candidate” and a “hip_hop president” and even a “hip_hop demographic” are already played. Whereas prior cycles of administration and opinion have made efforts to “discover” it and to “get into” it, we see manifest a generation of citizens and potential leadership for whom hip_hop has always been here, who take it for granted in the most positive sense, in a way that the old guard cannot. Let us hope that none of Obama’s statements thus far, occasionally linking himself to a mediated hip_hop, will offend the cultural sensibilities of a patriotic population that is just now beginning to get a grasp of dis and that hasn't quite figured out how to give dap.

OTHER PARTICIPATING RESPONDENTS: