The long-awaited Barack Obama mixtape, produced by DJ Green Lantern and Russell Simmons, has finally come out.
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Announced in March of 2008, it took more than a minute for Eminem’s old DJ to put together this collection of socially conscious songs donated to Obama’s cause by a random collection of modern day MCs. Download it here.
It was reminiscent to the last time Americans had an election – with Puff Daddy’s disappointingly ineffective Vote Or Die campaign.
“I’m having a field day with these Obama speeches,” Green said, when discussing the project. “I actually got joints where I’ll make a beat, I’ll get somebody to sing a hook, and where there’s supposed to be verses, it’s just straight speeches. I played one for my mother, and she started crying. So it’s gonna be inspiring, but then on the street side, it’s just gonna be some descriptions of life on the street, but not any of the thuggery.”
But sadly, in what might be a case of heartbreaking foreshadowing, it slightly seems like hip hop’s support of the first Black presidential candidate might suffer from a case of idealistic lip service – the solidarity of support isn’t all the way there as yet.
First of all, where are the songs and contributions from Common and Q-Tip, the first two artists to be announced as part of the Obama Yes We Can mixtape?
Common was one of the first rappers to ever put Obama’s name on record, on the Why? remix by Jadakiss featuring Nas and Styles P. Plus he had an amazing song on his 2007 album Finding Forever that legendarily (if the rumors can be believed) nearly became the campaign anthem for Barack Obama, The People [YouTube].
Barack is famous for saying “yes we can,” but to get it together in time to save ourselves and our countries (did all you Canuck readers vote in the Canadian election?), can hip hop culture? Sometimes, I hate to say, I think we cannot.
Bonus!
The Can I Kick It? Yes We Can mixtape has also come to fruition very recently.
Popular 90’s era DJ Mick Boogie has put together a mixtape to accompany the T-shirt he just created with the people at Dope Couture. It features pro-Obama artists like Kanye West, Jin, Malik Yusef, Doxx, and Daytona (not the Toronto rapper, unfortunately.) Download it.
