Campaign Music

Ludacris has recently put out a rap song that endorses Obama but unlike most other endorsements a candidate receives this one was in rap form.

Apparently a lot of old cranky white guys are pissed off because Ludacris among other things calls George W. Bush mentally handicapped, raps John McCain should be in a wheelchair and he calls Hilary Clinton a bitch. He also raps which most of the commentators in the media don’t like as well because they are old, white, prude men who still haven’t gotten over the death of Elvis who they still think is totally rock and roll. I will admit that I do find this song offensive but not for the same reasons everyone in the media is. If you ask me, like the rappers name, the way this whole situation has gotten out of control is ludicrous.



First of all most of the people in the media criticizing the song like Sean Hannity and Bill O Reilly do not know one thing when it comes to rap (and a lot of other general aspects of life). I can’t go on the record and say I am the most knowledgeable person when it comes to the history of rap and the popular artists. What the commentators don’t know is that rap has a lot of hyperbole and ego in it. I always thought that like most musicians they sing about the things they know, the things they’ve witnessed in their lives and the places they came from. The Eagles can sing about Hotel California because they originated in that area and I’m pretty sure they had a pretty sunny upbringing. Most rappers are brought up in less than ideal situations and environments that commentators like the aforementioned don’t care about because the policies they endorse don’t typically help those in the communities these rappers come from.
Secondly, it makes me a little upset how most of these commentators have the critical thinking skills of a third grader. Obama was once quoted as saying something to the effect that Ludacris is a talented artist and a great businessman but can sometimes have lyrics that are derisive. Some commentators say Obama can’t have it both ways and I call bullshit. What about the businessman who cuts jobs and other expenditures so his company can turn a higher profit? These people are considered great business people and he will be praised because he is taking advantage of the free market. What about the shrewd stock broker who makes all his clients money but has a coke problem? But when someone like Ludacris has a song calling a prominent politician a bitch it is the greatest injustice known to man but not a good business move even though he is getting a lot of free publicity.
What I find really horrible about this whole situation is that all the people who are outraged about Ludacris calling Clinton a bitch have never been her biggest fan. In the past they have used words to describe her that are as unflattering as Ludacris but have not actually used the same term he did. Even though you are not explicitly calling her a bitch does not make you any better than Ludacris when you do it implicitly.
So now Obama is expected to disavow and condemn Ludacris’s song and this makes me mad. Apparently because they met one or two times and Obama has a couple of his songs on his Ipod that instead of talking about foreign policy or social security he has to condemn a song that truthfully isn’t that good to begin with and was probably thrown together in a couple hours. Obama is running for to be president of our god damn country; he is not a music critic from Rolling Stone magazine and should not have to condemn every little thing like this that comes out.
Never fear because McCain has had a prominent country music artist write a song for him and I can tell you that it rocks. Actually, if you ask me I think it is as offensive as the Ludacris song. How can a song that comes from a music industry that basically crafts songs that are so bland and patriotic as to not offend their target demographic come out with a song that is offensive? It’s not like that fucking hillbilly who sings the Monday Night Football song ever wrote a song about how great life would have been if the South won the war.
The popular country artist that I have never heard of named John Rich wrote a song about McCain probably in response to the overwhelming amount of songs and artists who have come out to support Obama. Rich is on the show called Nashville Star which I have never seen but I’m sure is a rip off of American Idol which is a rip off of Star Search which I’m sure is a rip off of something, and he is half of the country rock group Big & Rich. I’m would not be able to pick him out of the group but I am sure he would be the one who wears the tight wrangler jeans and the big goofy fucking hat.
Looking at his discography I notice Big & Rich have the song called Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy which every time I hear I want to pull a Picasso and cut off my ear and not for a romantic reason but on the chance that I’m ever in any location ever again that might play this song. I’m sure his discography is full of great hits about Ford Explorers and loving God but the song I want to look at in particular is the song he made as a gift for John McCain called Raising McCain.
Actually it was not just a gift for McCain but as Rich has stated "the words to 'Raising McCain' are my gift to the campaign, and the song is my gift to America." Thanks Rich it’s the gift that America never asked for; some shitty song you wrote on the kids placemat with a red crayola at the Knoxville Cracker Barrell while eating your Chicken and Dumplings after what I’m sure was one of your well received shows that had more American Flags around than the Taiwanese shop that mass produces them. He also stated, "Senator John McCain is a man of extraordinary integrity who I believe has, and will always, put our country first...." which doesn’t even make sense because I don’t think anyone has ever thought otherwise. Anyways, I find this to be just as offensive as the Ludacris’s song and I think you will agree with me after examining the lyrics.

Well we're all just raisin' McCain
Everywhere across the USA
You can get on the train or get out of the way
We're all just raisin' McCain

And we're all just raisin' McCain
Everywhere across the USA
You can get on the train or get out of the way
We're all just raisin' McCain

Well he got shot down in a Vietnam town
Fighting for the red, white and blue
And they locked him up in the Hanoi Hilton
Thinking they could break him in two

He stayed strong, stayed extra long
'Til they let all the other boys out
Now we've got a real man with an American plan
We're going to put him in the big White House

Well we're all just raisin' McCain
Everywhere across the USA
You can get on the train or get out of the way
We're all just raisin' McCain

Play that American guitar, son
And we're all just raisin' McCain
Everywhere across the USA
You can get on the train or get out of the way

We're all just raisin' McCain
I said we're all just raisin' McCain
Everywhere across the USA
You can get on the train or get out of the way
We're all just raisin' McCain

Well you can get on the train or get out of the way
We're all just raisin' McCain

This is the song which is supposed to, as according to Rich "…energize and engage people across the country.” This piece of garbage that is made up of eighty percent of the same lyrics is what is supposed to be the song that captures the " maverick spirit” of McCain. I’m sorry but I think if McCain really did have a Maverick spirit, instead of some lazily thrown together country song he would actually have a song by I don’t know, someone like Ludacris. That would be something a maverick would do if you ask me.
And also, what the fuck does the song mean when it says “Well you can get on the train or get out of the way?” Does McCain even ride a train to his campaign events? A matter of fact if McCain had his way we wouldn’t have to worry about getting out of the way of the incoming train because as he has demonstrated in the past he refuses to give the only major passenger train service Amtrak any funding to modernize. It might just be me but if you are too fucking stupid and get hit by a train because you are standing on the tracks you deserve to get hit by it no matter who the Engineer on the head end is pulling for in the presidential election.

But besides the lame lyrics the reason this song and the Ludacris one offends me is that it was lazily thrown together over the course of a couple hours to appeal to their narrow minded fan base who is more interested in shit like this than the real important issues that affect them. These people should not be allowed to vote. And these songs are not art. They come off as cheap and lazy, which offends me more so than the content because they do not really have any redeeming value in an art context and will not endure the test of time.



End Note: I'm actually watching the John Rich video right now for the first time and it is a whole lot lamer than I thought it could possibly be.