Would you vote for a rapper for President? With a few exceptions (Diddy in 2016, anyone?), the answer is probably fuuuuck no. But really, are presidents and rappers all that different? They definitely both inspire the people, even with all their personal flaws. In honor of President’s Day, we thought we’d compare some of the biggest names in rap with the biggest names in politics. Jay-Z claims to be the “rap JFK,” but is he really the rap JFK? Check out our match-ups below to find out…
During the January campaign for chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele slammed his opponent Chip Saltsman’s distribution of a CD with a song called “Barack the Magic Negro.” “It doesn’t help at all,” Steele said. “Absolutely, it reinforces a negative stereotype of the party.”
However, while hosting Bill Bennett’s radio show this morning, Steele laughed when a caller called Obama the “magic negro” and seemingly agreed with the characterization:
CALLER: It’s just like the LA Time said last year or two years ago: He is the magic Negro.
STEELE: Yeah he — [laughing]. You read that too, huh? [still laughing]
CALLER: Oh yeah. I read that too. Even when things go wrong, he still manages to come out smelling like a rose.
STEELE: Well, yeah.
Listen to it:
As Steele is facing an internal power struggle, he may be trying to shore up his radical right-wing credentials. Though he earlier refused to call the president a “socialist,” this week he declared Obama was “moving towards a collectivist socialist approach to government.”
Barack The Magic Negro
Lyrics to This Stupid Parody Song
Barack the Magic Negro lives in D.C.
The L.A. Times, they called him that
‘Cause he’s not authentic like me.
Yeah, the guy from the L.A. paper
Said he makes guilty whites feel good
They’ll vote for him, and not for me
‘Cause he’s not from the hood.
See, real black men, like Snoop Dog,
Or me, or Farrakhan
Have talked the talk, and walked the walk.
Not come in late and won!
[refrain] Oh, Barack the Magic Negro, lives in D.C.
The L.A. Times, they called him that
‘Cause he’s black, but not authentically.
Oh, Barack the Magic Negro, lives in D.C.
The L.A. Times, they called him that
‘Cause he’s black, but not authentically.
Some say Barack’s “articulate”
And bright and new and “clean.”
The media sure loves this guy,
A white interloper’s dream!
But, when you vote for president,
Watch out, and don’t be fooled!
Don’t vote the Magic Negro in –
‘Cause — ’cause I won’t have nothing after all these years of sacrifice
And I won’t get justice. This is about justice. This isn’t about me, it’s about justice.
It’s about buffet. I don’t have no buffet and there won’t be any church contributions,
And there’ll be no cash in the collection plate.
There ain’t gonna be no cash money, no walkin’ around money, no phoning money.
I’d Like to Slap the Literal Piss out of Larry Elder (as usual) He is a stupid manbitch. and per usual he talks a whole bunch of apologist bullshit.
Dr Lamont Hill is telling it like it is, so what about his viewpoint ?
Al Sharpton Has Never Expressed His Viewpoint on this mess and I think we need to hear from him. why is he being ignored, even though this 2-clown circus with Michael Steele continues ?
Don Lemon talks to Reid Wilson and Lynn Sweet about the CD distributed by Chip Saltsman which included the Barack the Magic Negro song
Poor Michael S. Steele. The recently appointed GOP chair is already wiping rotten tomatoes off his jacket, and the worst part is, they were thrown by his fellow partisans:
Jim Nussle, who served in the House of Representatives from 1991-2007 and was President George W. Bush’s last Office of Management and Budget chief, told the Des Moines Register that Mr. Steele was not the figure the GOP needed to turn itself around.
“I don’t think we’ve found that yet in Michael or anybody else yet for the party,” he said. “So we’re going to have to struggle through that for a while.”
Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele must have been struck by terminal amnesia. He yukked at and agreed with the swipe a radio caller took at President Obama. The caller called him “the magic negro.” That´s the goofy, tired, worn, ditty that tags Obama as a black man with the supposedly impregnable Teflon shield that renders him immune to any and all criticism, adversity, or just plain bad political luck.
A few weeks back a GOP big shot lambasted then RNC chairman Chip Saltzman for releasing the CD that parodied Obama as the magic negro. The GOP big shot that did the lambasting was Steele. In the short weeks Steele´s been the RNC chief the parade of Steele contradictions, gaffes, shoot from the lip quips, political mugging, media hamming and grandstanding, and alleged financial hijinks, combined with his seemingly insatiable knack for pissing off one and all, and especially one in all in his own GOP, could fill up a mini-telephone book.
The squeals for Steele´s hide by red faced GOP grousers have gotten so loud that even long defrocked GOP bloviator Newt Gingrich had to come to Steele´s rescue. But even that rescue effort seemed more a case of Gingrich using the Steele flap to ax grind with GOP foes than a heart felt bail out of Steele.
Then there´s Limbaugh. Steele first picked a fight with the talk show kingpin, next did a quick mea culpa, and since then has taken pains to zip his lip on the near hourly verbal inanities that gush from the mouth of the GOP´s de facto air waves guru.
Steele´s greatest offense though tells much of why he and the GOP are in what far right-side former Georgia congressman Bob Barr calls deep trouble. He forgot what got him the RNC chair. Steele campaigned hard for the top spot on the promise that he´d be the poor man´s Obama of the GOP. In his acceptance speech Steele prattled on about making the GOP a party of inclusiveness. This is the word that the GOP has forgotten how to say, spell, let alone put into any semblance of practice since Bush loudly declared that it was going to be the party’s watchword in 2000, and then just as publicly did everything he could to make sure that it wasn´t.
Steele crunched the numbers and saw that the country´s political and demographic landscape has radically changed in the past decade and will likely change even more in the next decade. There are more minority, women, gay, young, urban, college educated voters than ever and there are fewer white, rural, non college educated, aged, white male votes than ever. It didn´t take a math wizard to figure that if the GOP stays stuck on trying to win national elections with the same bunch that brought victory in years past it will be well on its way to being a party that can hold future conventions in an airport telephone booth.
But numbers and political realities are one thing, the heat Steele took from GOP hardliners who like things just the way they are, and think that the way to shore up the floodwaters is to keep sticking there fingers in the hole in the dike is another. Steele got the message, dutifully added his finger to the the other GOP dike hole pluggers, then made like Limbuagh and made wild sounds about how the GOP moderates were ruining the party, and vowed retribution against them. He ranted about staying true to the GOP´s less government, less foreign policy engagement with foes, less regulations, more free market remedies, tough defense, and bashing Obama. So much for the GOP´s march under General Steele to a new political millenium.
So under Steele´s watch the GOP (and Steele) has supplied legions of comics with a storehouse of laughingstock fodder, degenerated into endless carping and fingerpointing, lost one and soon another Senate seat, and reduced itself to a toothless, fangless political impotency. Under Steele´s watch polls now show that barely one out of five voters now say they have any hard allegiance to the GOP, and that might be overstating the numbers.
Steele guffawed at a radio caller´s magic negro crack about Obama. But so far the only magic that Steele has worked is to create even more chaos in the GOP. That kind of magic may soon make Steele the disappearing negro.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His weekly radio show, “The Hutchinson Report” can be heard on weekly in Los Angeles on KTYM Radio 1460 AM and nationally on blogtalkradio.com
This is why capital punishment is going to return, and it won’t be long. This guy is about as smart as Chip Saltsman and Michael Steele.
*Rapper Mos Def, a jazz fan who often incorporates the music in his records, has been booked for this summer’s Newport jazz festival in Rhode Island, organizers announced Wednesday.
Todays Updates include news on the Famous and the Faux. Enjoy and remember
It Feels Sooooooo GOOOD TO COMMENT,,,
Mos Def, Talib Kweli and others Rap about the present state of affairs in the USA.
*Apparently black-on-black love doesn’t exist in Walt Disney’s world. At least, that’s what critics of the studio’s first animated film starring a black princess are claiming after finding out that the prince in the story is not also black.
*In Jacksonville, there’s an African American 14-year old working at improving the surgical procedure for stitching up a woman after a hysterectomy. Of all things that 14-year old young men are thinking of, surgical procedures just don’t come to mind as being in the top 10.
*Usher is teaming up with the United Nations Foundation and its Nothing But Nets campaign to create a platform for underprivileged youth to take action through service and make a difference with global i
*The exclamation “aha” has been in existence for many years, but was anyone saying “Aha moment” before Oprah Winfrey? And did the talk show host ever bother to trademark the phrase? Mutual of Omaha is about to find out.
*While Michael Jackson was inside of Cedars Sinai hospital in Beverly Hills Wednesday waiting for his ride, the ride was busy sideswiping a parked ambulance and then taking off.
*While promoting a new documentary about his life, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson was inevitably asked this week about the situation regarding Chris Brown, who has two felony charges.
Published reports say he owes at least $21,403.98 in back mortgage payments, and he’s officially been warned by the bank that foreclosure is next. It’s also being reported that he owes more than $500,000 in back taxes!
*Prince is being sued by a literary agency over his coffee table book “21 Nights,” a multimedia photo essay collection documenting his 21-night residency at London’s O2 Arena.
*While we so were focused on the captain of the U.S. cargo ship that was rescued from the Somali pirates, our attention was diverted from the very person that lead the charge to get him back to his family. Rear Admiral Michelle Howard who took command of the Navy’s counter piracy task force only three days before the pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama and snagged the captain as a hostage.
*This should be one of our “Jokey Jokes,” but it appears that this is a very real and serious slice of documentary that is trying to make the case that President Obama has learned hypnosis techniques to captivate the world.
*Hot off the press and in book stores Wednesday is “Female Force: Michelle Obama,” a new comic book about the nation’s first lady “as she secures her place in American history,” Bluewaters Productions tells USA Today.
*Nearly 30 percent of Americans in a new poll believe that Fox News Channel is extra critical of President Barack Obama, however, the voting results reflect a partisan divide.
Attorney General Eric Holder got it right. Americans are cowards for not talking about race. But the biggest cowards of all have been politicians and especially presidential ones. They’re the ones who’ve ducked and dodged on race at every turn.
President Obama points up the problem. Holder said that he talked tough about race after Obama laid down the gauntlet in his so called “race speech” last March in Philadelphia. The speech was important and challenging. But Obama made the speech to damp down the furor over his relationship with his controversial former pastor Jeremiah Wright. The only other speech that he made during the campaign that explicitly dealt with race was at the NAACP convention a few months later.
McCain did even worse. He talked about race at the same NAACP convention, and issued a terse statement backing the Ward Connerly concocted anti-affirmative action initiative that was on the November ballot in Arizona and two other states. That was it for him during the campaign. Obama and McCain spoke to a mostly black audience at the NAACP convention. This reinforced the notion that racial issues are by, and for, blacks, with none of the broader policy implications for the country as issues such as health care, jobs and the economy, the war on terrorism and Iraq.
Obama and McCain can’t be blamed for their quick in and out on racial issues. Racial issues have seeped into presidential politics only when they ignite public anger and division. In a 1988 debate, Bush Sr. hammered Democratic contender Michael Dukakis as being a card carrying ACLU member, a milksop on crime, and tossed in the Willie Horton hit to drive home the point. In one of their debates in 2000, Bush and Democratic challenger, Al Gore clashed over affirmative action
Race has been a taboo subject for presidents and their challengers on the campaign trail for the past two decades because no president or presidential challenger, especially a Democratic challenger, will risk being tarred as pandering to minorities for the mere mention of racial problems.
Clinton was the one exception. In a speech at the University of California, San Diego in June 1997, Clinton vowed to confront racial issues head on. He announced that he was setting up a panel to help heal the racial divide in America. It was doomed from the start. In this case by the man who announced it, Clinton. He made it clear that the panel was strictly advisory and would not operate independent of the White House. The panel gamely soldiered on and put forth a handful of vague, spotty, and innocuous proposals such as a Council for One America, an education program to inform the public about race, and a call to arms to make racial reconciliation a reality.
The heavy duty stuff as affirmative action, better police-community relations, and reforms in the criminal justice system was mostly window dressing. There was absolutely no chance the White House would propose legislation or issue any executive orders to enact them. Clinton foot dragged for months before he publicly decided to print the panel’s findings and recommendations.
The foot drag was no accident. Following the 1960s ghetto riots, a harried Lyndon Johnson with much public fanfare established the Kerner Commission to confront racial problems. The commission bluntly called American society “deeply racist” and proposed sweeping, hard nosed proposals for racial reform. The proposals inflamed many whites. That was too much for Johnson. He disavowed the panel and shelved its recommendations. Clinton advisors wanted no repeat of that. They were scared stiff that a too aggressive push for racial reforms could cost the Democrats in the 1998 mid-term elections and the 2000 presidential contest. That was too much to risk.
In his script for winning elections, Clinton publicly urged Democrats to talk about the economy, strong national defense military preparedness, and tax relief for the middle class. Democratic presidential contenders Al Gore and John Kerry followed the script to the letter. They were virtually mute about criminal justice reform, hate crimes, affirmative action, chronic black unemployment, the gaping health and education disparities, and the racially skewed drug laws during their losing presidential campaigns.
Obama followed the same script. But he had little choice. Any talk of race by him would have stirred doubts, suspicions, and fears that he was not the race neutral, all purpose candidate that he claimed. That would have been a campaign killer.
Yet shunting racial problems to the back burner of presidential campaigns invariably means that presidents shunt them to the backburner of their legislative agenda. That is until they burst into flashpoints of national debate and conflict. When that happens presidents are ill prepared to craft meaningful legislation and programs to deal with them.
Holder dared to challenge the nation on the taboo R word. Just don’t expect much more to come of it.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is How Obama Won (Middle Passage Press, January 2009).
Black people…there are laws, rules, mores and etiquette to be observed and followed during the 2009 Inauguration. You cannot just roll up in Washington as if you’re going to your mama’s house…IT AIN’T THAT KINDA PARTY! And now a funny and on-time word from ‘Aunty Ida’ (y’all know you know someone like this):
Inauguration Issues – Get on the Bus!
Question: Where are all of those buses going to ?
Do all of these folks really BELIEVE they are actually gon get anywhere NEAR the ceremony ?
Brothers and Sistas, we can’t all go to Washington for the ceremony. The city ain’t but so big! “D.C.” is smaller than Queens. You wasn’t ALL INVITED!
I heard of one church that has?? fifty buses going to Washington ? Have ya’ll all lost yo minds ? FIFTY BUSES ?? Where they gonna go? AN’ you know some our folks don’t do well in the cold.
What’s Sista Jones and her bad hip gonna do standin on the lawn for three or four hours when it’s 10 degrees out?
First of all, you know she cant walk from where yall gon hafta leave the bus to where you gon hafta stan’, which is gonna be ’bout five MILES from where the President’s gonna be!
An’ y’all know ya can’t be draggin’ all yo lawnchairs, beachchairs, piknik chairs an tables wid ya. You gonna hafta stand all through the ceremony. ‘Sides, by the time all them bad hips an’ bad knees gits down there to the lawn, the ceremony’ll be ’bout over!
That brings ta mind another thing. Y’all needs to leave on time! This ain’t goan be like no church piknik or barbeque, an’ it sho ain’t gon start two or three hours late like some gospel show. Now Bam is a brotha, but he know how to handle his bizness! He don’t run on CP Time !
Them folks ain’t gon stand out in that cold all mornin’ waitin for the 10,000 buses and vans comin’ from all over to get there. You church folks migh jes as well plan on leaving Sunday mornin’ – do all yore singin’ an’ prayin’ on the road!? Psalm 95 on I-95! (Check it out – it fits!)
“Jeezy Doing – My President Is Black Live”
An’ y’all best be plannin’ on leavin right afta the ceremony. They ain’t gon let y’all jes tie up Pennsylvania Avenue all daggone day.
I can hear it now – “WOULD YOU PLEASE LEAVE THE LAWN – STEP BACK OFF THE LAWN!”
They ain’t gonna wait while 20 million black folks line up to have they picture taken standin’ in front of the Capitol.
AN’ all your marchin’ bands, steel pan ensembles, step teams, drill teams, Pee-Wee football, cheerleaders, church choirs, jump-rope teams, Elks, Masons, Bisons, Shriners, Miners, Whiners, Evening Stars, Morning Stars, Falling Stars, Alphas, Deltas, Sigmas, Kappas, Phi Beta Slammas, and fine Gamma Hammas cannot ALL be in the pararde.
If you ain’t got an invitation ALREADY, you ain’t invited. So jes plan on goin’ down, an’ soon as you inside the city limits – get off the bus, take your pictures and LEAVE, cause with alla you peeples tryin to git there at the same time, the closest you likely to get to the capitol will probably be Baltimore in the north and Richmond to the South.
Make sure that you SCHEDULE your time off, an’ that includes Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Barack can’t be callin’ all your employers, an’ being stuck in traffic on I-95 comin’ from the Inauguration don’t get you no kinda administrative leave!
Jay Z – Remix of My President is Black – Live 1/18/09
One other thing – remember back in the day when we was all still upset about racism in America, an’ many of us was convinced that THE MAN was constantly plottin’ our extermination.
Remember when everything was seen as an act of racial GENOCIDE – Welfare Reform; requirements that college athletes meet academic standards to be eligible to play; the DISPROPORTIONATE number of brothas in PRISON; drugs; raising academic standards; even birth control.
Well, just suppose there was a way to get ALL of the black people together in one place at the same time. Then it would be relatively easy to get rid of them. Well, as it seems like just about every black person in America is plannin’ on bein’ at the Inauguration, you don’t suppose that all of this could be part of some sinister MASTER PLAN to get rid of black people, do you?
For myself, I plan on stayin’ home that day an’ watchin’ everything on the tee-vee. l’ll probably see mo of it than any of y’all.
Besides, all that aroma of all that perfume, hair stylin’ chemicals, curried goat, fish samiches, baked ham, tata salad and fried chicken on a bus for 16 hours would drive me plum crazy. On the other hand, I might jes go down to the church that mornin’ an’ make a few bucks sellin’ some brown-paper-bag-gourmet-food. Besides, there’s gotta be at least ONE person left to tell about it.
claims to be the “rap JFK,” but is he really the rap JFK? Check out our match-ups below to find out…
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it, 
*Rapper Mos Def, a jazz fan who often incorporates the music in his records, has been booked for this summer’s Newport jazz festival in Rhode Island, organizers announced Wednesday.
*Apparently black-on-black love doesn’t exist in Walt Disney’s world. At least, that’s what critics of the studio’s first animated film starring a black princess are claiming after finding out that the prince in the story is not also black.
*In Jacksonville, there’s an African American 14-year old working at improving the surgical procedure for stitching up a woman after a hysterectomy. Of all things that 14-year old young men are thinking of, surgical procedures just don’t come to mind as being in the top 10.
*John Legend will keep things as green as possible while touring over 50 cities this summer in support of his latest album, “Evolver.”
*Usher is teaming up with the United Nations Foundation and its Nothing But Nets campaign to create a platform for underprivileged youth to take action through service and make a difference with global i
*The exclamation “aha” has been in existence for many years, but was anyone saying “Aha moment” before Oprah Winfrey? And did the talk show host ever bother to trademark the phrase? Mutual of Omaha is about to find out.
*Opening statements began Friday in the civil trial against Snoop Dogg, who is accused of severely beating up a man during a 2005 concert in Seattle.
*While Michael Jackson was inside of Cedars Sinai hospital in Beverly Hills Wednesday waiting for his ride, the ride was busy sideswiping a parked ambulance and then taking off.
*While promoting a new documentary about his life, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson was inevitably asked this week about the situation regarding Chris Brown, who has two felony charges.
Published reports say he owes at least $21,403.98 in back mortgage payments, and he’s officially been warned by the bank that foreclosure is next. It’s also being reported that he owes more than $500,000 in back taxes!
*Prince is being sued by a literary agency over his coffee table book “21 Nights,” a multimedia photo essay collection documenting his 21-night residency at London’s O2 Arena.
*While we so were focused on the captain of the U.S. cargo ship that was rescued from the Somali pirates, our attention was diverted from the very person that lead the charge to get him back to his family. Rear Admiral Michelle Howard who took command of the Navy’s counter piracy task force only three days before the pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama and snagged the captain as a hostage.
*Guess which network has decided not to air President Obama’s prime time address tomorrow night? And the news-less CW doesn’t count.
*This should be one of our “Jokey Jokes,” but it appears that this is a very real and serious slice of documentary that is trying to make the case that President Obama has learned hypnosis techniques to captivate the world.
*Hot off the press and in book stores Wednesday is “Female Force: Michelle Obama,” a new comic book about the nation’s first lady “as she secures her place in American history,” Bluewaters Productions tells USA Today.
*Nearly 30 percent of Americans in a new poll believe that Fox News Channel is extra critical of President Barack Obama, however, the voting results reflect a partisan divide.
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