Barack Obama reportedly told People magazine last week that he would like to hang out with the family on A&E's Duck Dynasty.
Eli Lake, the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast, disagrees, and thinks the President would be better off sitting down with - wait for it! - rapper Kanye West.
After addressing the People interview - "Obama acknowledged he thought Kanye’s music was 'outstanding.' But he also said he’d rather socialize with the family from Duck Dynasty than Kanye and his bride Kim Kardashian" - Lake explained why in his view, this would be a mistake:
Since its infancy there has been a division of labor in hip hop between the master of ceremonies (MC), or the rapper, and the DJ who would later become the producer. When hip hop music began as soundtracks to parties in the Bronx, the DJ was the more important than the MC. The MC hyped the party, but the DJ extended the dance breaks on those records to keep the party going. As rap music became a business, the rapper emerged as the star and the DJ who created the sonic landscape for the rapper was relegated, with a few exceptions, to the background.
In Lake's view, if Obama was in the hip hop industry, he'd be a rapper because his speeches "inspire, his rhetoric soars and he exudes charisma."
But he couldn't be the producer because that job requires "the skill to manage the egos of artists and pay attention to the details that can turn a rapper’s lyrical vision into a downloadable single."
Of course, without realizing it, Lake was saying what people on the right have about Obama since the day he tossed his name into the presidential ring in February 2007: he's just a charming orator without the managerial skills to run anything.
What's the solution in Lake's view?
West could "teach Obama how to better manage a project and seeing it through despite the opposition of those wishing him to fail."
Does the President of the United States really need a vulgar, anti-Semitic manager who thinks Obama's inability to get his agenda passed is because black people don't have the connections that Jewish people do?
Lake didn't address this.
Instead he concluded, "An evening with game hunters from Louisiana has its charms, but Obama would benefit more today from the head of a rap dynasty than the duck variety."
Now THAT'S entertainment!
