8:07 p.m. on Friday night found me braving the rain outside of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, listening to visiting rap star Maino.
After sitting through an unfamiliar song about "booty" and "bitches," my excitement level mounted as I heard the familiar strains of Maino's only, but very successful, hit: "All the Above."
Then I realized that I didn't actually know Maino's part of the song. Turns out the lyrics I'd been singing along to were from T-Pain's hook. Go figure.
That, coupled with the relative mediocrity of the concert in general, soon left me waiting politely for the song to end so that I could slip out and run to the bathroom in Novack.
And then I heard Maino rap "something, something Obama."
Wait what?
Later, I found the lyrics: "Trying to hope for tomorrow / When I think that I can't / I envision Obama."
I soon found other songs with unexpected Obama allusions. In "My President," Young Jeezy raps, "Obama for mankind, we ready for damn change so ya'll let the man shine."
And, of course, no list of Obama references in hip hop would be complete without Lil Wayne's remix of "A Milli," titled "Obama," in which, instead of the repetitious "a milli, a milli, a milli" chorus in the background, we hear, "Obama, Obama, Obama."
Rap appears to be just another medium in which our president plays a starring role a trend that should perhaps be unsurprising.
For many, Obama's name is synonymous with change and hope, which may make him particularly appealing to rappers who sing about rising from nothing to the top.
Although Maino isn't quite a political activist, he and other rappers have definitely had an impact on young peoples' perception of our current president even if we have to listen carefully to find it.
