Not that we needed proof, but Barack Obama showed last night that even at 63 he remains the coolest US president out there. He rapped a portion of Eminem’s Lose Yourself at a rally in Detroit, and produced a viral moment that for 99.9% of politicians would be knuckle-clenchingly embarrassing, but which, coming from him, sounded naturally funny, and yes, kinda cool.
He came on after Eminem himself, who told the crowd that he was backing Kamala Harris. “It’s important to use your voice,” he said. “I’m encouraging everyone to get out and vote, please … I don’t think anyone wants an America where people are worried about retribution of what people will do if you make your opinion known.
"I think vice-president Harris supports a future for this country where these freedoms and many others will be protected and upheld.”
He was followed by Obama who started his speech by admitting nerves: “I gotta say, I have done a lot of rallies, so I don’t usually get nervous, but I was feeling some kind of way following Eminem.”
The 44th President then neatly segued into some familiar lines: “I notice my palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy, vomit on my sweater already, mom’s spaghetti, I’m nervous but on the surface I look calm and ready to drop bombs but I keep on forgetting…”
Politicians that rap are usually pretty embarrassing. The last time it happened on this side of the Atlantic was in the early years of the Cameron government when then-Education Secretary Michael Gove treated a selection of primary school kids to his version of Wham Rap. Check this out...
You have to wonder whether Gove was familiar with the whole song, which delights in thumbing its nose at the work/time discipline that sustains modern capitalism. Even at the time it seemed deeply strange for a Tory minister to quote lyrics celebrating the life of what would now be regarded by the right wing media as a ‘dole scrounger’.
To return to Eminem, it remains to be seen whether the Detroit rapper’s intervention makes a difference on November 5.
You may recall that on the eve of the 2004 Presidential election – when he was one of the most famous men on the planet and had real cultural power - he released Mosh, a single which contained the memorable lines: ‘Stomp, push, shove, mush/F**k Bush until they bring our troops home’. To make his point the video ends with a blank screen and a simple instruction: Vote November 2.
And George W Bush won that election too, by 286 to 251 in the electoral college.
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