Hip-hop meets politics, interest rises amongst young people
By: Melvin Ward
Issue date: 12/1/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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Oprah Winfrey publicly endorsed Obama, and recently celebrated his election victory on her television talk show.
Hip-Hop moguls, Sean "Diddy" Combs and Jay-Z were very public with their support for the new President-elect.
"As far as African-Americans in [entertainment, they] had a big influence," Nathaniel Smith said, a senior mass media arts major. "Rappers, talks show hosts, sports figures; they were all for Obama."
Many other Hip-Hop artists such as Nas and Young Jeezy were vocal in their music about having Obama as the country's 44th president.
Young Jeezy even has a song titled, "My President," in which he repeatedly chants "my president is Black." Nas is also featured on this song. The song was released prior to the election, on Young Jeezy's album, "The Recession."
Smith said that without the celebrity support, a lot of African-Americans would not have voted. He credits the celebrities for the African-American vote.
A long list of Hollywood's A-list celebrities were outspoken for Obama as well.
Hip-Hop in particular has been believed to have a huge impact on recent generations in American culture. Many people have analyzed this historic election and wondered if it would have turned out different had it not been for all the public support of celebrities in the mainstream media.
"No, I don't think entertainment influenced the election," Morin Rufai said, a senior mass media arts major. "If anything, it helped get a lot of people to vote."
Many other students had feelings similar to Smith's. Not only did some students feel celebrities made a difference, some felt that an entire network influenced the vote.
Junior mass media arts major, Lauren Porcher is one of them. "Yes, I really think it was MTV. They went hard on telling people to vote at every commercial break," Porcher said. She said she felt as though MTV was indirectly encouraging people to vote for Obama.
Obama's fame and celebrity was the focal point on one of Sen. John McCain's campaign commercials. Sen. McCain compared Obama to celebrities Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton. The commercial drew criticism from various media outlets.
President-elect Obama's campaign was predicated on the basis of change. His platform and motto of change has been repeated through all forms of media and entertainment.
His emergence through the mainstream media can be sign of change between entertainment and politics.
