President Obama Comes Under Fire for Saying He Listens to Rappers Jay-Z & Lil Wayne on iPod

Stanley Crouch, a New York Daily News columnist, came out swinging against President Barack Obama's choice of music on his iPod, specifically songs by Lil Wayne and Jay-Z. Considering Lil Wayne is behind bars for drug and gun possession, plus his music is profanity-laced and degrades women, I am shocked that the President listens to this garbage. Jay-Z is no paragon of virtue either. The lyrics spewed by hip-hop artists are derogatory, often-times racist, glorifies drugs dealing and their love of money. This isn't what I expected the President to love hearing. Whatever happened to the music of Alicia Keys, Patti Labelle, John Legend, Mary J. Blige, Chrisette Michele, etc.? Here's an excerpt from Crouch's column:

Now we are faced with a tempest in a teapot that has daunting implications. Obama gave an interview to Rolling Stone, which asked what he thought about pop music. The answer that he gave about what was on his iPod probably sent Michelle Obama chasing him through the White House with a rolling pin.

Obama mentioned Jay-Z, then went on to say that he has now expanded his listening to include Lil Wayne, that tattooed gargoyle now serving time for drug and gun possession at Rikers Island.

Obama is too young to have musical tastes as sophisticated as Bill Clinton's, but that's not an excuse Williams will accept. He was deeply disappointed by Obama's answer, because, as he wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "Lil Wayne is ... a modern-day minstrel who embodies the most virulent racist stereotypes that generations of blacks have fought to overcome. His music is a vigorous endorsement of the pathologies that still haunt and cripple far too many in the black underclass." Uh oh.

Thomas Chatterton Williams speaks from authority. As a young man, he found himself in the thrall of hip hop culture, only to later slip from its grip. Now he calls Jay-Z "an unrepentant ex-drug dealer." Obama does not need to apologize for his listening choices. But hopefully, he knows that the message he is sending to young people is a dangerous one. At the very least, you know that neither of his daughters would ever be allowed to date a man like Jay-Z or Lil Wayne. Michelle will make sure of that. Source

I am personally offended that President Obama could even utter the name of Lil Wayne when saying who his favorite artists are. Surely he should have realized he was stepping into a field filled with land mines. While we can't choose the music President Obama listens to, we can tell him that we don't approve of singers/rappers who exhibit criminal behavior and denigrate women. Of course, President Obama is no stranger to the "foot-in-mouth" syndrome. Let me drop a few names to jar your memory -- Professor Louis Gates Jr. & Sgt. Crowley, Shirley Sherrod, the mosque near Ground Zero. I am pretty sure the president was just trying to come across as cool but it backfired. He's playing right into the hands of those conservatives trying to paint him in a bad light.