New Era of Responsibility

A New Era of Responsibility was the name of Obama’s budget proposal. But it might also be a phrase that describes what some expect for hip hop, now that a black man is the leader of the country.

In Slate magazine, Jonah Weiner writes about how Obama’s rise to the presidency could help to change the definition of power and success in hip hop.

“[Jay-Z] never tried to rewrite the rules of the game beyond the one that said a black man couldn’t win. While he takes pains to portray his success as, at bottom, a racial coup, he’s never been interested in dismantling the status quo so much as infiltrating and mastering it. This is a fair description of what Obama did, too—with one crucial exception. For Jay-Z, the fact that he got rich as a businessman constitutes its own rebellion. Obama, though, is a former community organizer who chose public service over private-sector paychecks. His example might open up new sorts of narratives in hip-hop, ones where power isn’t a synonym for wealth.”

(On a related note, peep this mini-documentary about Obama and 50 Cent.)