Obama is hip hop’s first president

Barack Obama embodies the dream of a lot of people. On the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, he accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party as presidential candidate in November’s elections. For many, the fact that Obama, an African American is able to aspire to the highest office in America is a fulfillment of King’s “dream”.

Like many young people, candidate Obama loves rap music and on his top 10 list are songs like the Fugees’ Ready or not and Kanye West’s Touch the sky, big rap hits. It is not farfetched why he has a strong connection with young people.

But for the hip hop generation, Obama’s coming might be the fulfillment of the visions of the prophets of Hip Hop. Rap legend Tupac Shakur asked the question in his song Changes: “And although it seems heaven sent; We ain't ready, to see a black President; It ain't a secret don't conceal the fact; the penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks”.


In Shakur’s vision of the condition of the black man in America, it was easy to dismiss that a black man could ever become president considering the fact that the bulk of them were in jail. But the clock has turned full circle with Obama becoming the first black man with the best realistic shot at the White House. Obama's optimistic message of "change" finally answers Shakur's pessimistic "I see no changes; all i see is racist faces".

Obama's might be the hip hop dream come true.