How hip-hop made Obama win

Able Joseph the emcee-rapper on how a form of music can turn slumdogs into millionaires

How hip-hop made Obama win

Able Joseph the emcee-rapper on how a form of music can turn slumdogs into millionaires

Rap trap: In a land of a billion people, there is an Akon among us, feels the writer

And it certainly isn't all faff. It is a genre with a lot of meaning, and I believe one of the prime reasons why a black man, who was once a slave, is now respected like never before. I feel, in India, people don't spend much time understanding and researching music, they're only concerned with listening and dancing to it. If that wasn't the case, it could play an active role in mobilisation of masses for important causes, just the way it has, in the West. For example, rappers like Ludacris and Kidd Skilly wrote rhymes for President Obama during his campaign, which played a major role in binding different communities within America for one man's victory, which was also the world's.

What is being experienced in our country is just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of rappers respected even by mainstream artists for their service to the community; their desire is not commercial success but awareness. We only need to dump our prejudice towards young, fun forms. This is a tool that has turned slumdogs into millionaires. In a land of a billion people, I'm sure among us is a Dr Dre or an Akon. The problem, however, lies in the fact that neither the corporates nor the babudom takes us seriously. I've seen lakhs of international DJs ditched by sponsors, since all clubs are bothered about is sales of liquor.

The nightlife across the nation consists of nothing but drinking, Bollywood tak-dhin-a-dhin and psychedelic dhik-chiks, for a reason I'd never know why. But there is hope; youngsters today are much wiser than ever. Real hip-hoppers aren't sideys as they presumed to be, they are intelligent men, poets, writers, performers and entertainers, all at the same time. If this country could produce a couple of political rappers, that's all it'd take you see, we can rhyme for or against anything and everythingu00a0now how many genres of music can claim that?u00a0 A song, be it of any genre, has the power to change your views, plans and even your life, as long as you listen to what it's really saying.

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