WASHINGTON - The hip-hop artist Nas says he was on tour in Sweden in the early hours of Election Day when a line from his recent song "Black President" started running through his mind: "What's the black prez thinking on election night?" Hopeful about the voting to come that day, "I thought, 'Wow, we're really here, he's really here,'" said Nas, speaking from London about President-elect Barack Obama. In the dark of night, he set up a microphone and started to speak on that: "How many old folks been through Jim Crow got tears going down their cheeks," he rapped. "America surprise us, and let a black man guide us." "It was just spontaneous," Nas said. "I have the studio stuff I need and just put it together right in the hotel room. We had a DJ, Green Lantern, who produced it, and heblasted it off online and everywhere else." By daytime in New York, Nas's song "Election Night" had arrived at MTV, and was playing on hip-hop radio stations around the country.
Hip-hop artists have issued a host of new songs in tribute to Obama's victory. Will.i.am, the Black Eyed Pea who created the "Yes We Can" tribute, released the jubilant "It's a New Day," which includes the lyrics, "I woke up this morning feeling brand-new/'cause the dreams that I've been dreaming finally came true." Common leaked the song "Changes" from his forthcoming album.
Ron Browz remixed his song "Pop Champagne" - "It was just about partying," he said - to create "Pop Champagne for Barack," including the line "We pop champagne for Barack's campaign." And Jay-Z's tune is called "History." MySpace pages galore are featuring remixes from lesser-known artists who created their own versions of "Yes We Can." There are songs still in the works, like "First Lady," fromthe all-woman group Crew Grrl Order, about Michelle Obama.
"One of the brilliant things about hip-hop is that it's something that can comment almost in real time," said Adam Bradley, an assistant professor of literature at Claremont McKenna College in California who is writing a book on hip-hop.
"There's obvious joy and celebration, but also a sense of historic moment, and almost a tragicomic awareness of what it took to get to this point." The hip-hop world has long embraced Obama. All summer long, the senator got shout-outs in some of the most popular hip-hop songs. And Obama himself has expressed love for the music even as he points out its negative aspects.
"I love the art of hip-hop; I don't always love the message of hip-hop," Obama told BET, mentioning that the genre can be degrading to women and materialistic.
Chuck D of Public Enemy once called hip-hop "the black CNN," and the music carries a long tradition of criticizing the president - and hoping for a black president.
"Reagan is the prez but I voted for Shirley Chisholm," Biz Markie rapped in 1988. The Rev.
Jesse Jackson was frequentlymentioned in hip-hop during his candidacies in the 1980s and 1990s, at a time when such references amounted to a critique of the electoral process.
In today's age of bling, there is still a vein of political hiphop - whose tone could now change, said some artists.
"The commentary has to be rewired," said Chuck D. "It's a big difference between pointing the finger at a government run by George Bush or Ronald Reagan to a situation at hand where you feel you can address President Obama." He said the critique might move to community ills, internationalism and the status of women.
"We are believing in certain aspects of politics now," Common said. "Nov. 4 is the first time in my life that I ever felt that America was one." "The next generation of kids will have something new to rap about," Nas said. But he also wrote lyrics expressing his hope - and his uncertainty - about Obama's presidency: I'm thinking I can trust this brother But will he keep it way real?
... When he wins, will he care still?
Style, Pages 31, 36 on 11/20/2008