Rap

1. Obama Gangster Rap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhMCiFLdJyg

2. Hip Hop For Obama - Public Service Announcement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLHvHT7ysx8

3. Fallen Angels, feat Barack Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFj1WFPSfdc

4. Common for Barack Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1dc6KcGeQw

5. Representin' Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9IHM4XL_Ws

6. "Party Like Obama" by The Obama Boyz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHqg_g8lq10

7. Do the Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maqF2FpnZy8

8. Barack Obama Rap Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaMccee1iOY

9. Something about the man/Yes We Can Remix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw4fRvFhuh4

10. Yes We Can
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY

When it looked like Hillary Clinton was winning New Hampshire, I hit the exit poll data to see what patterns emerged. I found that compared to Iowa, there were less voters of the "Hip Hop Generation".

Jeff Chang puts the birth of this demographic at 1968 given the historical importance of the year. I'll play devil's advocate and say that the HHG goes back to 1963 with :

Yeah, I watched Oprah...This ain't about poetry, hip hop...or censorship!

I am a poet, and I took exception to Russell Simmons donning the breastplate of artistry, while standing on his righteous indignation over censoring said artistry to defend and legitimize the output of various rap performers. (I refuse to give many of them the dignity of being called poets much less artists.) His naming, those who write and perform rap music as poets, without making distinctions regarding the type of rap music they perform was circumspect, best case scenario, or worse case scenario, duplicitous.

As far as I'm concerned, all rap is not created equal, and Hip Hop is not the commodity mass produced and blasted on radio and television stations. Hip Hop depicts a culture of consciousness one that observes, analyzes and reflects the world in which it exists. It seeks to educate and uplift, to offer criticism and critique, to mobilize its listeners to pursue positive change, both inwardly and outwardly. Sometimes, Hip Hop is just plain fun. Hip Hop lives mostly off the screen of mainstream entertainment, creating the occasional blip--Common....Mos Def...Eryka Badu....Jill Scott.

In my opinion, much of the rap music produced, sold and shoved via the spoon of mass marketing down the throats of those who once loved it, is an over exuberant exercise in mediocrity. Rap has become a festival of depravity in which the most base and debasing elements of human existence are glamorized and presented as life pursuits. I won't focus on the misogyny of rap, because it is guilty of many other abuses as well. From its perspective, the world is full of black people who are moving targets which receive every type of abuse, mental, physical and sexual, especially from their own.

A Song I Wrote i don't know if i'm gonna finish it, it's a song/ rap
by Mariah Occhi

After all my pain my gain my aches my ways my days. After all my stress I’m still blessed still striving to impress struggling in my happiness. My power to exist is to be someone else living life through others and not myself. To the sky through lies i swear i deny it wasn’t me is that why i’m still alive? X2

When I was born I lost my mom don’t really know about my dad alls i know is the mom i have now is the best one i’ve ever had and you know it’s really sad for someone to keep givin and givin but they ain’t getting nothin back five kids under one roof with one parental unit honestly she’s exhausted i have no clue how she does it. I wrote a letter to Oprah but it just got passed up just like any other sad story or homeless guy askin for money to tell the truth i am upset it really meant a lot and plus that shit was just way to important to be forgotten I’ve been worryin for so many years feels like I lost it but that’s not the end of my story i’m just getting started. My ****** hasn’t she suffered enough blood work needles and followups every month? This shouldn’t be somethin she has to handle sometimes wish it was my stomach she came outta. Even though she has it her brother didn’t seem to catch it, now tell me, would you pop pills, take drugs, or drink booze if you knew that you was pregnant, nope i didn’t think so but now because of those wrong decisions she in special ed and she thank that everything is hilarious. Laughin it up it’s all a joke but what happens when she runs into the wrong person and they don’t know now i gotta have this up on my brain i just cant stop thinkin even though it’s driving me insane to know one day she could get hurt and i swear i’d just kill myself if one more person i loved got buried under the dirt