{"id":43003,"date":"2015-10-01T00:50:25","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T00:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=43003"},"modified":"2015-10-01T00:50:25","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T00:50:25","slug":"obama-and-hip-hop-a-breakup-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=43003","title":{"rendered":"Obama and hip-hop: a breakup song"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obama and hip-hop: a breakup song<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/a>
\n2015-09-25<\/p>\n

Erik Nielson<\/a><\/strong>, Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts
\nUniversity of Richmond<\/em><\/p>\n

Travis L. Gosa<\/strong><\/a>, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies
\nCornell University, Ithaca, New York<\/em><\/p>\n

Erik Nielson is an assistant professor of liberal arts at the University of Richmond. Travis L. Gosa is an assistant professor of Africana studies at Cornell University. Their book, \u201cThe Hip Hop & Obama Reader<\/a>,\u201d will be published in October.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 2008, Barack Obama<\/a> flipped the script on more than three decades of conventional wisdom when he openly embraced hip-hop<\/a> \u2014 a genre typically viewed as politically radioactive because of its frequently controversial themes and anti-establishment ethos \u2014 in his campaign. Equally remarkable was the extent to which hip-hop artists and activists, often highly skeptical of national politicians, embraced him in return. As a result, for the first time it appeared we were witnessing a burgeoning relationship between hip-hop and national politics.<\/p>\n

As we approach the 2016 election, however, this relationship is all but gone. Ironically, Obama \u2014 often called the first \u201chip-hop president\u201d \u2014 largely is to blame.<\/p>\n

This is especially disappointing in light of Obama\u2019s 2008 run for office, when he encouraged artists such as Jay Z<\/a> and Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs<\/a> to campaign for him, referenced rap music in his interviews and speeches, played rap<\/a> at his events and openly contemplated<\/a> a space for hip-hop in an Obama White House. In one of the lasting images of the campaign, Obama stood in front of an audience in Raleigh, N.C.<\/a>, and referenced<\/a> Jay Z\u2019s 2003 track \u201cDirt Off Your Shoulder<\/a>\u201d to raucous applause. In that moment, voters had every reason to believe that hip-hop indeed would have a seat at the table in an Obama administration…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Obama and hip-hop: a breakup song The Washington Post 2015-09-25 Erik Nielson, Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts University of Richmond Travis L. Gosa, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Cornell University, Ithaca, New York Erik Nielson is an assistant professor of liberal arts at the University of Richmond. Travis L. Gosa is an assistant professor of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1649,12,63,1196,8,26],"tags":[21093,2540,2875,14250,14249,2581],"class_list":["post-43003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropology","category-articles","category-barack-obama","category-literary-criticism","category-media-archive","category-politics","tag-erik-nielson","tag-hip-hop","tag-the-washington-post","tag-travis-gosa","tag-travis-l-gosa","tag-washington-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43004,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43003\/revisions\/43004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}