Hip-Hop Media Training

Oprah, How Do You Like Ludacris Now?

Right now, Ludacris is looking a bit like the drunk cousin who shows up to the family picnic uninvited, slurring, knocking the 2 liter bottle of Pepsi off the table and making everybody wish that he'd just shut up and leave.

We know Chris meant well with his pro-Obama "Politics As Usual" track from his Gangsta Grillz: The Preview mixtape. The problem is the anti-Clinton, McCain, Bush and even Reverend Jesse "Cut His Nuts Off" Jackson part.

It's not simply the fact that the song condemns the others, but that Ludacris trashes them in such indecent terms. He calls Clinton a bitch, comments that McCain is better suited in a wheelchair than the oval office and that Bush has mental problems. He didn't say anything too bad about Reverend Jackson, but for the imperfect civil rights activist to own up to the negative off the record comments he made about Obama during a television show commercial break.

These things have been said publicly about these people. But not by Obama.

When Hilary repeatedly stressed that she was not going to back out of the Democratic nomination race early because "We all remember that Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June," many took offense on behalf both the Kennedy and Obama families.

But Obama played it cool as he has when responding to allegations made by McCain and Jackson.

So if Obama has taken on this position, why would he want one of his so-called "favorite rappers," whose music he has said to have in his iPod, to speak out in such a way?

He wouldn't.

Ludacris writes a good lyric. The song is funny. It entertains. It speaks to what people are feeling. It expresses his artistic creativity, but it was a bad decision to release it now. He should have kept it in the vault until months after the election.

It's too close to November. Obama has come this far. He doesn't have a second to spare wasting his spokesperson's time responding to inquiries about some unofficial hip hop endorsement littered with foul, misogynistic and discriminatory content.

Let's hope that Luda's old friend Bill O'Reilly doesn't turn this into another Reverend Jeremiah Wright fiasco. 'Cause we all know that if anyone starts checking the lyrics for Ludacris songs on Obama's iPod it's not going to be a good look.

Should Ludacris make another film as good as Crash that would warrant him making second appearance on Oprah, the billionaire TV mogul would beat him down again. This time, she would hammer him with questions about "Politics As Usual."

I would actually like to see that.

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