I’m not quite sure what Ludacris was thinking when he called Hillary Clinton a ‘B—-’ on his latest song, ‘Politics (Dedication to Obama). She still has an outside chance of being his vice president and will definitely be an influential force in his campaign. If it were any other rapper who said it, it wouldn’t be a problem, but the fact that Ludacris has been photographed with Obama and has had fundraisers with him ties him directly to Obama. This means that anything Luda says or does will be attributed to Obama.
Obama has already criticized Hip Hop for being too misogynist and materialistic and has said that he is concerned with its affect on his daughters. If Hip-Hop had a cleaner image it would be able to be a more powerful influence in the campaign without alienating mainstream white voters.
Why Ludacris even mentioned Hillary is surprising to me. She can’t hurt Obama at all and only help him. By calling her a bitch, he reinforces the stereotypes of rap being negative and misogynist and alienates her many supporters. I also don’t know why Ludacris dissed Jesse Jackson in that song. By disrespecting Jesse Jackson, Ludacris fell into Fox’s trap of creating division and conflict in the black community.
I’m not sure if Ludacris thought the song would just be a mixtape song that would not get out of the hood. Given his previous battles with Fox news did he not think they would pick up on this. Of course Fox’s is going to blow it out of proportion.
However, I don’t know why people are saying that Luda’s disses to Bush and McCain are offensive. They aren’t worse than anything Leno or Letterman would say. It puzzles me that he didn’t use all his energy dissing the GOP and Fox news rather than dissing Hillary Clinton and Jesse Jackson, who despite their conflicts with Obama, are still on his same side.
Fox has once again shown its hypocrisy by blowing Ludacris song out of proportion. A McCain supporter once asked ‘How are we gonna beat the bitch,’ reffering to Hillary Clinton and the town hall erupted in laughter. McCain briefly asked her to restate the question before saying that it was a good question. He did not chastise the woman for her language or condemn her statement as the Obama. If Fox is going to cover Ludacris’s misogynist lyrics shouldn’t they also cover the reports that McCain called his wife a cunt, made a joke about a woman getting raped by an ape and called Chelsea Clinton ugly and said that her father was Janet Reno? After all Ludacris is just a rapper and McCain is running for President
If Hip Hop is to truly support Obama, then it must follow his calls to be less misogynistic, materialistic and violent. If artists like Jay-Z and Ludacris who have been vocal in their support for Obama were to renounce their violent, materialistic and misogynist lyrics, it would show what strong force for positivity that Obama is.
Unfortunately for Ludacris, his ‘bitch’ comments about Hillary bring back memories of songs like ‘Move Bitch’ and (I got hoes in every)Area Codes’ and makes people forget about songs like ‘Runaway Love’ and his performance in ‘Crash’.
I enjoyed the Ludacris song the first time I hard it and even had it #4 in my Top Ten Obama songs. However in retrospect, it had good intentions but a bad result by bringing Hip Hop’s negativity to the picture and wound up doing more harm than good. I’m replacing it with Big Boi’s new song ‘Something’s Gotta Give,’ which shows the need for Obama in the hood without disrespecting anyone else.
