Views From The CCTV: Rap And Paranoia In Obama’s America
Barack Obama was sworn in on January 20, 2009, but Obama’s America was founded on September 2, 2008, the release date of Young Jeezy’s The Recession. The album was standard Jeezy fare–everyman coke rap laced with mid-aughts trap exuberance–but its narrative arc was unmistakable: The first track is “The Recession” and the last track is the Obama-boosting “My President.” Straight up: Obama’s America was the promised land. Then and now, it was hard to parse what Jeezy expected that promised land to offer beyond blue Lamborghinis with matching blue rims (not the worst deal, honestly), but the overall message was clear: whatever Obama’s America offered, it had to be better than Bush’s America. In 2008, the hope was real.