Remember Wyclef Jean’s “If I Was President”?
Watching the video now, I can’t help but think about how much of the song and the imagery both predicts and falls short of our current moment. It presents the idea of a Black man as president as a desirable possibility paired with the worry that it may ultimately be dangerous for the person elected. So, the chorus makes me kind of… nervous. However, the song has to be historicized: it was released around the time of the last presidential election, which had a totally different political climate. More importantly, it is certainly not about our current President-elect, who was barely on the national radar at the time. Despite the nerve-wracking chorus, the song is ultimately one of hope and dreaming for things like an end to war and poverty, better schools in the ‘hood, and a cure for AIDS and cancer.
I bring up Wyclef’s video because I just saw will.i.am’s new video, in which cynicism and fear have been replaced by pure joy and celebration.
What a difference four years makes. It’s like Wyclef went to sleep four years ago dreaming of being president, and will.i.am woke up “feeling brand new/ ’cause the dreams that I’ve been dreamin/ finally came true.”
Finally, there’s no official video yet, but what do people think about Nas’s “Black President”? You can find fan videos on youtube, or listen to it at his myspace page.
I’m loving the string of posts about music and the presidential election. I myself knew that Hillary (Clinton, that is) was a goner once she launched that failed effort at having her supporters “vote” on a campaign song. (Eventually settling on a tepid Celine Dion snooze-fest. Shudder.) By the way, any one remember the scene in Dave Chapelle’s Block Party when Wyclef asks members from the Ohio State Marching band what they would do if they were president?
And it really is great to hold Wyclef’s song right next to will.i.am’s. But I also like to extend the analogy even further back– it’s like Woody Guthrie went to sleep dreaming of being president, and will.i.am woke up…
NPR had a good story this past weekend about Hip-Hop and the Obama campaign. One of the interviewees, Mark Anthony Neal, predicts that the Obama presidency will cause hip-hop to turn a corner, with artists shifting from a critique of the political process motivated by disenfranchisement to “a more sophisticated conversation about the governing process.” Stay tuned, I guess.
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