Close drawer menu Financial Times International Edition. Search the FT Search. World Show more World. US Show more US. Companies Show more Companies. Markets Show more Markets. The Common debacle is clearly illustrative of the opposition's strategy. Fully aware that these voters may see Obama's rap connections as a liability, Jay-Z noted the need for caution. In a interview with the Guardian he said: "I didn't want the association with rappers and gangsta rappers to hinder anything that [Obama] was doing.
I came when I was needed; I didn't make any comments in the press, go too far or put my picture with Obama on MySpace, Twitter, none of that. Deciding that potential swing voters are too important to lose in , Obama appears to have capitulated, at least with respect to rap. When his campaign released its song playlist in February, there was not a single rap song on it. There was a healthy dose of country, though, including two songs each by Sugarland and Darius Rucker.
Several months later, the campaign expanded its list, finally adding a couple of rap songs, one of which was K'naan's Wavin' Flag. This addition was probably less of a tribute to rap, however, than a dig at Mitt Romney. Earlier this year, the Republican challenger used Wavin' Flag in his own campaign, but was forced to stop after K'naan objected and then invited Obama to use it instead.
Keeping a safe distance from rap may be a wise strategic move, but putting politics before principle runs counter to the slogan of "change" that Obama ran on, and it has opened him up to some scathing attacks.
Lupe wasn't alone. Using less incendiary rhetoric, the Seattle-based Blue Scholars nevertheless open their song Hussein Obama's middle name with "This ain't the hope or the change you imagined", going on to suggest that Obama has failed to address the US's economic inequality. Obama is hardly the first political leader to reach power and face a backlash from artists who once supported him, but in the absence of the pro-Obama anthems we heard in or the deep-throated support of legions of performers, the voices of dissent have become especially pronounced.
It doesn't help that some of Obama's major fans have changed their tune. Speech, of Arrested Development, who supported Obama in , said earlier this year he was "disillusioned" with the president and would support the Republican Ron Paul instead. The dinner is actually a weekend of events - various media organizations host pre- and post-dinner parties that give the affair an echo of Hollywood at Oscar time.
Entertainment News Updated. By Tanya Basu 4 Min Read. Crucially, the external Republican candidate is yet to emerge. It could be one of several people. Obama is coolness personified. He will ride this rhetorical storm out. He has set the tone of that counter-campaign in the manner of its launch. He occupies the same domestic and geostrategic space as his maligned predecessor. He has kept Guantanamo Bay open. He has retitled the war on terror but continues to fight it.
He has made war on a Muslim state — with a smaller multilateral coalition in Libya than did Bush in Iraq.
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