The latest release from megastar rapper Jay-z has received fantastic reviews worldwide but surely none better than the one that came from the Whitehouse !
President Barack Obama has revealed that he is a huge fan of the rapper and of the album as well. In a recent interview with BBC one Jay-Z spoke of how the president was playing the album during a recent telephone conversation they had.
“Barack loves Hip-Hop, when I called him he was playing Blueprint in the gym,” he explained. “I’ve been invited to the White House a couple of times. Hopefully we’ll keep him in for 8 years so I’ll have time to get there.”
Obama is a self confessed Hip Hop fan and thinks that rappers can use their thinking process and the messages in their music to reach out and bridge generational gaps, it was for this reason that Obama first met Jay-Z back in 2008, when he was Senator he wanted to see Hip Hop artists move away from the negativity that they have been stigmatised with and promote more positive messages.
“I’ve met with Jay-Z, I’ve met with Kanye [West]. And I’ve talked to other artists about how potentially to bridge that gap. I think the potential for them to deliver a message of extraordinary power that gets people thinking [is great],”Obama told BET on the special What’s In It For Us? “There are times, even on the artists I’ve named, the artists that I love, that there is a message that’s sometimes degrading to women, uses the N-word a little too frequently. But also something that I’m really concerned about is they’re always talking about material things about how I can get something; more money, more cars.”
Jay-Z has recognised the potential political power that Hip-Hop could harness, but has in fact stated the opposite and said that artists have a responsibility to speak on issues that may be seen as uncomfortable by society and that they should not use their music as ‘political propaganda’.
“Sometimes there are hard truths in rap, they’re not packaged with pretty ribbons. Sometimes the realities of the situations are harsh and they need to be told,” Jay reasoned to the BBC. “We’re the poets of our generation! Those truths and those honesties need to be told and sometimes that will rub people the wrong way but that don’t mean you don’t tell them. I think when rap is done brilliantly it can inform you of a problem, things that are going on.”
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