OK, Spike Lee. I know that those thrilling, inspiring moments leading up to the election of President Obama led a lot of people to say some overly optimistic things. Those were heady times when almost all of us were intoxicated with the prospects of Hope and Change prevailing. And they did!
But of all the inspirational statements espoused by celebrities in pre-election fervor, yours was the one that I really wanted to believe, despite it's glaring naiveté. In fact, I still want to believe that President Obama will inspire an Elizabethan-type era of artistic renaissance. It's only been a few months, after all. And he's rightfully too busy working on the economy to be bothered with resuscitating the arts, particularly music.
It seems to me that the problem, Spike, isn't what you said. It's who you were saying it to. Case in point: where has the good music gone in 2009?
Are we experiencing a hope hangover or something or has great music been hard to come by this year? nOva said it best in his post about Spike's statement:
Although I'm 125% for an Obama presidency, I have little faith that Black popular music as a whole will use such a historic moment to sit down, think for a moment, and create something spectacular and nuanced.
Sure, there have been tastes of good stuff so far. For example, the fantastic PPP sopohmore album and the LAUSD, Blu and Jack Davey collaboration "iFeel" have been satisfying. And alright, it's still early to expect any sort of products of the galvanization you predicted, Spike. Hopefully Obama's influence on Black music, like Miss Jack's, is no flash in our pan. I mean, it won't be left at "My President is Black." Right?
Maybe since we're now settling into the reality of getting what we wanted things will begin to pick up for 2009. We do have the long (long, long, long) awaited Maxwell album to look forward to. And there's a lot of this year, and Obama's presidency, left.
What great music are you listening to in this burgeoning Age of Obama, SoulBouncers? Is it all that Spike promised it could be?
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