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Former President Barack Obama is still quite the captivating figure and hasn’t quite disappeared from the public eye similar to his predecessor, former President George W. Bush. In a new interview, Obama talked up rappers who endorsed Trump, the recent election woes, and much more.
Obama sat down with The Atlantic for a chat that touched on a number of topics and key moments of his presidency, which he covers in his new memoir, A Promised Land. Much of the discussion is centered on the book and its aims, which is reportedly the first of two volumes. The first portion of the memoir covers Obama’s childhood and takes readers all the way up to the Osama Bin Laden assassination in 2011.
However, and it isn’t a particularly long bit, Obama throws a shot at rappers who endorsed Trump perhaps in a bid to stand next to a shining vision of capitalism and the pursuit of riches. Obama somewhat frames Hip-Hop in limited terms but the larger point was made overall.
From The Atlantic:
It’s interesting—people are writing about the fact that Trump increased his support among Black men [in the 2020 presidential election], and the occasional rapper who supported Trump. I have to remind myself that if you listen to rap music, it’s all about the bling, the women, the money. A lot of rap videos are using the same measures of what it means to be successful as Donald Trump is. Everything is gold-plated. That insinuates itself and seeps into the culture.
Michelle and I were talking about the fact that although we grew up in very different places, we were both very much working-class, lower-middle-class, in terms of income, and we weren’t subject day-to-day to the sense that if you don’t have this stuff then you are somehow not worthy. America has always had a caste system—rich and poor, not just racially but economically—but it wasn’t in your face most of the time when I was growing up. Then you start seeing Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, that sense that either you’ve got it or you’re a loser. And Donald Trump epitomizes that cultural movement that is deeply ingrained now in American culture.
We suggest reading the entirety of The Atlantic‘s interview with President Barack Obama where he touches on a number of past successes and how the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have come to the extreme odds that are the hallmark of Washington currently.
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