IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 333many other voters would not understand. Laluchasigue pointed out that the key to interpreting
Obama’s antics over these days were the following lyrics:
‘[Chorus: Jay-Z]
If you feelin’ like a pimp n*a, go and brush your shoulders off
Ladies is pimps too, go and brush your shoulders off
N**z is crazy baby, don’t forget that boy told you
Get, that, dirt off your shoulder.
Laluchasigue went on to elaborate his thesis: ‘Now, get this Obamabot’s reaction to the gesture:
“Dude, I nearly swooned — SWOONED, I tell you — when I saw that. That’s one of my fave Jay-
Z joints of all time. HUGE SWIRLING VORTEX OF LOVE. I could not pink-fuzzy-heart Barack
one iota more.” Violet Socks posted a diary about that “swooner” over at the terrific new
blog...Laluchasigue continued: ‘Obama’s gesture prompted a mash-up video that made the Jay-
Z/Obama connection explicit. Ari Melber, the other Obamabot named Ari at The Nation, posted the
video on The Nation’s website, noting, “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.’” Spencer Ackerman, another young white male media Obamaton,
called Obama’s gesture “perhaps the coolest subliminal cultural reference in the history of
American politics.” So what is the hype about? What did Jay-Z actually say that captivated Barack
Obama? Here is the hook and first verse to the new theme song of Obama ‘08:
[Chorus: Jay-Z]
If you feelin’ like a pimp n*a, go and brush your shoulders off
Ladies is pimps too, go and brush your shoulders off
N***z is crazy baby, don’t forget that boy told you
Get, that, dirt off your shoulder
[Verse One]
I probably owe it to y’all, probably to be locked by the force
Tryin to hustle some things, that go with the Porsche
Feelin no remorse, feelin like my hand was forced
Middle finger to the law, na grippin ma balls
Stab the ladies they love me, from the bleachers they screamin
All the ballers is bouncin, they like the way I be leanin
All the rappers be hatin, off the track that I’m makin
But all the hustlers they love it just to see one of us make it
Came from the bottom the bottom, to the Top of the Pops
Na London, Japan and I’m straight off the block
Like a running back, get it man, I’m straight off the block
I can run it back na cause I’m straight with the Roc.’
Laluchasigue continued: ‘Obama hasn’t flipped a “middle finga to the law” but to Hillary instead
(his godfather Tony Rezko and possible financial angel Nadmi Auchi were the ones flicking off the
law). He got his clock cleaned in a debate about his closest associates, his domestic policy proposals
and national security credentials, but after a quick, not-so-subliminal reference to Jay-Hova,
Obama’s back to “feelin’ like a pimp.” (Laluchasigue, ‘Obama Invokes Jay-Z “Stab the
Ladies...Middle Finga To The Law”, noquarterus.net, April 18, 2008)