Obama Meets Jay-Z in YouTube Mashup Slamming Clinton & Debate

Barack Obama is clearly taking that abysmal ABC News debate in stride. He told his supporters not to fret about all the "textbook Washington" drama on Thursday, recounting the superficial moderators and Hillary Clinton's attempts to "twist the knife" on trivial issues. Then Obama made pop cultural history, miming the rapper Jay-Z's iconic hand signal to "brush the dirt" off his shoulders.

That popular youth gesture grew out of "Dirt Off Your Shoulder," a hit song in 2003. As Wikipedia explains, it refers to "getting enemies off your chest by brushing your shoulders off." Blogger Spencer Ackerman, who regularly mixes political analysis with hip hop references, immediately heralded the move as "perhaps the coolest subliminal cultural reference in the history of American politics." A YouTube clip of the cultural moment, uploaded by the Obama Campaign, swiftly drew over 100,000 views on Thursday. And then the mashups started.

On Thursday night, YouTuber Bill3948 uploaded a one-minute mash-up of Jay-Z songs, Clinton attacks and Obama's inspired response. The sequence opens with clips of Clinton's cheap shots, accompanied by the Jay-Z ballad "Moment of Clarity," pivots to lowlights from the ABC debate, and then scores Obama's response with the original "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" track. While Obama brushes, graphics of Hillary, Bill and Charlie Gibson fly off his shoulders. Then he shakes off a kitchen sink -- a nod to Clinton's desperate strategy -- as Jay raps about hanging out "in the kitchen with soda." It's a fun, sharp extension of Obama's call to brush off some of the ridiculous attacks:
(More after the clip.)

Obama really is a Jay-Z fan, too. When asked which hip hop artists he likes in a recent interview, he said, "lately I've been listening to a lot of Jay-Z -- this new American Gangster album." But he also stressed his opposition to the degrading and materialistic themes that run through too many hip hop albums:

I love the art of hip hop. I don't always love the message of hip hop. There are times when even ... with the artists I named -- the artists I love, you know -- there's a message that is not only sometimes degrading to women; not only uses the n-word a little too frequently; but also something I'm really concerned about, it's always talking about material things. Always talking about how I can get something. How I've got more money...

Ari Melber writes for The Nation, where this post first appeared.

Follow Ari Melber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AriMelber

Comments

[JustifiablyParanoid]

Apparently Jay-Z likes Obama as much. At his concert the other night at the Hollywood Bowl, he asked the audience if we were ready for change in America, with a huge, smiling photo of Obama glaring out at us.

Politics as usual....

[BrighidG]

Love it! My friends and I got what he was doing right away.

[Paladine]

Love it!!

[neenj]

This is too cool and funnnny! Best part? MSNBC talking heads don't have a clue what he's doing. I can just imagine them on their laptops googling the words "dirt off shoulders"

Ha...too funny!

[leftoflennon]

Brush ur shoulders off Senator!

:D

[MariaHopeful]

Funny!

[ethearch]

To use a boxing metaphor from THE GREATEST, Obama is the first (and probably only) presidential candidate who can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee!

Obama '08

[Lucille]

Wow, Obama looked so earnest and young brushing off the BS of the Clintons, Joe Scarbourgh, MSM and the rest, but I believe the voters are with him; that is why all of the above are trying so hard to discredit him.

If we want our country back we must hang tough with Obama, because Hillary will hit us harder than even Bush has; I believe that.

Hillary is not interested in a pure democracy anymore, rather if she were president , she would be a more determined dictator than George Bush. That is why she dares to want mandates on health care and if the populace doesn't cooperate, she will garnish our salaries to the delight of the heatlh care industry.

Go Obama!

[GuyInNC]

do you work now? Do you have insurance now? Do you understand that if you already have insurance and you like it, then Hillary's plan doesn't apply to you?

Hillary's plan talks about poeple who currently don't have indurance or have insurance that they aren't happy with.

Hillary's plan has cost control measures, and subsidies to help low income people afford the cost of insurance. Low income people will be able to afford insurance under her plan.

The mandate in her plan is intended to force people who CAN AFFORD insurance to buy it instead of letting young, healthy people opt out.

When people who could afford insurance choose not to buy it because they think they don't need it, it raises the cost of insuramce for everyone else. The estimates say it raises the cost about $900 per year for everyone else because there are fewer people in the system to spread the risk.

[hank48188]

50% of high-earning people that do not receive group coverage from their employer WILL NOT buy health insurance, I'm talking about people earning up to $180,000.

[daveny]

I wish I had indurance.­.. i could barely finish a half marathon last year...

[PioneerKing]

this is a false paradigm and a flawed microeconomic stance that is not justifiable. insurance companies are raking in profits on par with the oil companies. if they wanted to keep costs down they very easily could.
GuyInNC get a grip on reality your ignorance is showing

[findingthetruth]

Why did someone INFORM Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist of the "meaning/origin of the brushing off the shoulders"? Their depition this morning led to once again "elitist comments". Scarborough and Geist needed to CONTINUE to look stupid. They continue to TRY to find ANYTHING to undermine Senator Obama. THEIR VIEWERS NEED A GOOD LAUGH.

[bison1]

I sent them an e-mail with a link trying to inform them

[foufou]

me too!

[GuyInNC]

I especially liked the hand gesture he used when he gave Clinton the finger.

[castlerider]

Come on; that wasn't there anywhere. Obama would not sink to that level.

Cool post. Thanks!

[GuyInNC]

Obama gives Clinton the finger

http://poligazette.com/2008/04/18/obama-gives-clinton-the-finger/

It sure would be great to have a president who is so cool he could just have those meetings he wants to have with our enemies and just give them the finger.

Yes indeed, I sure would love having the first hip-hop president

[Hullaballoo]

You know, that's why I love this blog. I was commenting yesterday about how much I was impressed by Obama's articulate, humorous and culturally hip response to the debate. And here's a lovely post & a clip hilighting my feelings exactly! Meanwhile, the MSM is calling Obama's response "whining". Really, now? Thank whatever-g­od-you-lik­e for the internet. I finally have an outlet that "gets it" like I do, and "gets it" that Obama "gets it" too! Yay!

Obama/Peace 08

[goodsnservices]

I absolutely agree with you, HB. When I saw this clip after the debate, I was delighted. Time to throw MSM out the window. They don't 'get' it at all. They run on manufactured controversy, fiddling while Rome burns.

[aquarius2001]

OMG...too funny and wayyyyyy too cool! For those that say Obama is "out of touch"...y­eah, show me another pres. canidate who can "Get...tha­t...dirt of ya shoulders"!!

Aweome!!!!!! =)

[audiodramatist]

Yeah that was cool; you also should check this from Jay Smooth: http://www.illdoctrine.com

[bison1]

Enjoyed it!

[Kim445588]

Gobama!

[laborgrunt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWLHQ3S-Oq8

[DeanLowe]

If you want a hip hop President, vote for Mos Def.

[rosecar]

If you want a figher choose Mike Tyson!!

[MetryJen]

I would totally vote for Mos Def. Maybe not for prez, but he's undeniably one of the smartest, most talented rappers out there.

[vandyprofessor]

Finally someone gets it!! I was watching MSNBC this morning and they were clueless as to the cultural meaning of Obama dusting the dirt of his suit. Yikes!!