"And I think many of the rappers, particularly the very visible mainstream rappers, understood that strategy, because it's a strategy that they employ all the time, also. to talk about why my candidacy is important,' " Neal says. "The challenge that Barack Obama had was really to be able to wink to the hip-hop community and say, 'I really can't acknowledge you in the mainstream, but understand that I'm hearing what your critique is, I'm hearing what your concerns are, and you now have a wide-open space in the so-called underground. During the campaign, though, Obama's camp was weary of taking direct public endorsements from rappers and hip-hop artists. Rappers such as Young Jeezy and Nas have had opportunities to vote in previous elections, but this was the first candidate that drew them to the polls. It felt like I went and bought my first car without a co-sign it felt good," he says. This election marked the first time the smash-hit rapper voted. He was a new voice he had a new message." "It's kind of really rough out here for a lot of people, and I think he gave 'em hope. "I was convinced from day one, when I found out he was running," Jeezy says. So why did Young Jeezy come to the senator's aid? Young Jeezy's new album, The Recession, features a song about Obama - "My President." It's become something of an election anthem. "But if you look at it in a more contemporary sense, now you have rank-and-file rappers like Ludacris, Nas, Young Jeezy, who very much became committed to the process and engaged in the electoral process." riots in 1992, Jesse Jackson's run to 1984, you know, hip-hop was seen as black America's first response," Neal says. "Whether it's Katrina three years ago, the L.A. He says that in the past 20-odd years, hip-hop historically has been black America's first response to national news.
Mark Anthony Neal is a professor of black pop culture at Duke University and a visiting scholar at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. And like their hip-hop forefathers, the kings and queens of rap preached about social justice, the economy and the power of democracy. Rappers like Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy, Jay-Z and Nas rallied their fans behind President-elect Barack Obama's campaign. Young Jeezy's song "My President" appears on his latest album, The Recession.
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