Senator Barack Obama sat down in an exclusive interview with MTV personality Sway, after his first historical presidential debate with Republican John Mccain to express how he feels about the hip-hop community that has rallied around him.
Hip-hop indeed loves Obama. And everyone from Lil' Wayne to Young Jeezy, and Jay-Z to Kanye have saluted him in their lyrics, and he's inspired a slew of mixtapes, bootleg t-shirts, and on-stage shout-outs.
The presidential hopeful also admits to having songs from Jay-Z and Kanye West on his iPod, and famously brushed the dirt off his shoulder at an April campaign stop, referencing one of Jay's biggest hits.
When asked how he feels about the genre that has shown him so much support, Obama told MTV: "I enjoy it, but these days I don't have the time to listen to it all the time."
"I'm a little older than hip-hop culture," he added. "I was there at the beginning, but I was already getting older. What I've appreciated, watching this hip-hop generation, is to see how entrepreneurial they've been. In the past, musicians oftentimes were commodities. They were just shuffled around. Obviously, they did well, but they didn't have the vision to say, 'I'm going to build a business. I'm going to build my own studio. I'm going to create my own production operations.' I think they're a lot more sophisticated than in the past, and that is a wonderful thing."
Obama went on to tell MTV that he's still seeing growth in the genre and that he's optimistic about what's ahead for hip-hop.
"What I'm starting to see is them stretching out more and thinking about social responsibility and how they can impact the culture in a positive way," he said. "And I hope that continues."
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