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President Barack Obama has been covering some important topics in an interview with Snapchat‘s “Good Luck America.” The former president has been discussing his new book “A Promised Land.” The platform has been releasing clips of the interview over the last two days and on Thursday Obama dished about why he thinks rappers supported Donald Trump, and how he keeps up to date with today’s music. Obama always releases a year-end playlist and revealed that his daughters Sasha Obama and Malia Obama keep him hip- but Sasha doesn’t share all her music because he isn’t “hip enough.” She even has a secret playlist she refuses to show dad. Read more about his interview below.
During the forever-lasting 2020 election, several rappers like Lil Pump and 50 cent endorsed Trump. The endorsements ended up causing some funny drama in the pop culture community. Chelsea Handler called out her ex-boyfriend 50 Cent for his approval and even offered to pay his taxes. And before getting on stage for Trump’s rally, Trump called Lil Pump, “Lil Pimp.” Even John Legend called out the rappers.
Obama shared why he thinks the endorsements happened and explained, “I think men generally are more susceptible to public figures who act tough, sort of a stereotypical macho style… A lot of the values of popular culture are constantly extolling wealth, power and frankly greed, not thinking about other people because you‘re so ruthless that you’re just looking out for yourself. If there are some in the hip hop Community who are constantly rapping about bling and depicting women in a certain way and they hear Donald Trump basically delivering the same version they might say hey that guy- that’s what I want, that’s what I want to be.”
Obama has a playlist to accompany his book with music featured inside. It‘s filled with classics like Aretha Franklin, and Paul McCartney. But he always releases a year-end playlist filled with “fresh cuts.” He confessed he doesn’t stay hip all on his own though and has help from his daughters. “My year-end playlists, those are the fresh cuts. There, I will confess that I do consult with Malia and Sasha throughout the year,” he shared. “I’m constantly listening to their music, sometimes by request, and sometimes just because that’s what’s blaring in our house. So, you know, I pick up on some trends.”
Obama then shared that Sasha is protective of her swag and has a private playlist. “Sasha is more protective of her music. There’s certain things on SoundCloud. She has like a private playlist,” he shared. “She won’t share all of them with me, because she’s not sure I’m hip enough. But nah man, I’m keeping up for an old guy.”
Obama also shared the one thing he learned during his presidency, “The one thing the presidency taught me is the country is complicated- the media simplifies it. When you actually get on the ground and you talk to people, you go into some small rural town and find out there‘s a huge Vietnamese population you didn’t expect, or you go into a black neighborhood and you sit in a barbershop and you’ll find out there a bunch of folks, church-going folks with some pretty conservative views about a lot of things, and that’s all for the greater good… Folks are always simpler in a 140 character version and when you actually take the time to hear their stories and where they’re coming from, why they think the way they do, why they feel the way they do, they’ll surprise you. That gives you then the opportunity to build bridges, build coalitions, and move the country into a better direction.”