LETTERS: President Obama is NOT a Battle Rapper

In the culture of hip-hop, “battle rapping” is the ability to spar verbally with your opponent.  Battle rapping is a fierce competition of two rappers free styling (many times with prewritten raps about their opponent) exchanging verbal rhetoric to win over the crowd for personal prestige and supremacy.  President Obama is not a battle rapper.  Yes, he can rap, but improvised rapping is not his strong suit.

In a freestyle battle, each rapper’s goal is to “diss” their opponent such as address why the opponent threw 47% of the population under the bus, address the other’s assertions that Obama’s plan to cut $716 billion from Medicare will have a devastating impact on Medicare recipients, Bain Capital, or the opponent’s “carried-interest” tax loophole.  Obama allowed his opponent to “diss” him freely with no verbal retort.  He wasn’t sharp, witty, passionate, nor did he gain the respect of the crowd, something a true “battle rapper” would have done.  Obama failed to make his case and call his opponent out, therefore losing the battle.

President Obama is a “studio rapper”.  He needs to go into the recording booth (i.e., in front of a pro-Democratic audience), read his raps off of a piece of paper (i.e., teleprompter), have the engineer give him his cue (i.e., have the audience applaud his every word), and then forcefully delivery his rap (i.e., energize the crowd by conveying a message that caters to the audience).

The problem with studio rappers is that they make songs that mainly play on the radio that dominates the airwaves.  The more you hear the song, the longer the tune stays in your head.  The lyrics of “hope” and “change” have been stuck in the American peoples minds for almost four years now.  Maybe he needs to write a new song that includes the lyrics of “jobs” and “more jobs.” Many rappers base their lyrics on current situations, so a studio record about “jobs” would be cool.

With the presidential election in a few weeks, President Obama doesn’t have the luxury of going into the studio and recording an “inspirational” rap song that will be played in heavy rotation by liberal media outlets.  He needs to get in battle mode, stand toe-to-toe with his opponent, have the best delivery, disseminate accurate facts, and hope to win over the majority of the crowd (i.e., the American people).
Can President Obama do better in the next two rap battles (i.e., debates on October 16 and 22)? The only way would be to attack the lies and inaccuracies of his opponent.  But, does Obama think his opponent will not have an effective response? I bet his opponent will be ready to “diss” him again.

Obama didn’t lose the first rap battle because he performed badly.  He lost because his opponent performed better than him.  The quest to become president by days end on November 6 will be a battle.  A battle won by whichever rapper can rock the crowd.

William T. Hoston
UHCL Assistant Professor of Political Science