All successful hip-hop MC's know the importance of originality, authenticity, spontaneity, credibility and the ability to reach your core audience with the rhyme and rhythm that makes a difference in the consciousness of people. But when it comes to evaluating, from a hip-hop perspective, the substance, style and impact of the recent 2008 Presidential and Vice Presidential debates, certain cultural and political observations are more than in order.
Senator Barack Obama v. Senator John McCain and Senator Joe Biden v. Governor Sarah Palin public debates gave Americans and others throughout the world the opportunity to see how those who will be elected President and Vice President of the United States on November 4, 2008 responded to the domestic and global issues, pressures and challenges in a controlled debate format. How they handled the mike gave an interesting insight into their individual experience, knowledge and level of preparedness to lead the United States for the next four years.
It would not be exactly fair to judge these four national political leaders only using the cultural standards of hip-hop. It is fair, however, to raise critical questions about how the debates helped to inform potential voters, particularly among the millions of young people who have registered to vote this year as a consequence of encouragement and motivation from hip-hop artists and leaders.
In the first Presidential debate held in Oxford, MS, on September 26, 2008, Obama and McCain squared off on the issues of the nation's financial crisis as well as the foreign policies problems and responsibilities that the next administration will certainly face on day one. When two MC's do a battle face to face, they look each other straight into the eye. McCain defiantly refused to look Obama straight in the eye during the first Presidential debate. Obama was overly courteous towards McCain. Obama, however, managed to repeatedly jab McCain with a staccato of effective rhetorical blows to McCain's pretentious facade.
It was clear that while the Republican and the Democrat both use the term "change," the beneficiaries of the "change" were quite different. The debate exposed the reality that on the issues of rescuing the economy, insuring national security, providing universal health care, equal quality education for all, protecting the environment, creating new jobs, ending poverty, expanding economic development opportunities and establishing energy independence, Obama appeared, in my opinion, to be better prepared to be the next President. Obama clearly rocked the mike.
In St. Louis, the Vice Presidential debate witnessed Joe Biden and Sarah Palin go head to head in direct debate combat. It was a hot exchange of views and ideology. Irrespective of the question that was asked, Palin appeared to be pre-programmed with a caged set of answers. Biden rocked the mike with a forceful, but measured volley of assertions about McCain and Palin representing more of George W. Bush failed policies.
We are now in the COUNTDOWN TO CHANGE. Just 30 days before the election. Make sure that you are registered to vote. America is ready for a change. The world community is ready for a change. The hip-hop generation demands a real change.
-Dr. Benjamin Chavis