Uba Kontrovasie

Obama won because of hip-hop

I saw this interview live whilst I was eating my supper, other friends who also saw it said they cringed.

I’ve got all of Dizzees’ albums and I know for a fact he’s not stupid, some of his lyrics are quick witted and quite clever. Part of me thinks was he playing up to the camera?

Judging by the comments on youtube his views, combined with Jeremy Paxman selecting him for the interview did not go down too well with the public.

Did Obama win because of hip-hop? Er…No!

I do however think that rap superstars and I mean real rap superstars like Jay-Z and Puffy endorsing Obama definitely worked in his favour. Obamas’ political campaign was executed in a close to perfect manner, endorsements from key celebrities showed that he understood or at least was trying to understand youth culture and I believe this helped him secure a lot of crucial votes from younger 18-25 year old voters.

Who did McCain get backing from? Arnold “Hum-Vee” Schwarzenegger (I can’t believe I spelt that right the first time) and Sly Stallone, hmm…who do you think made the smart the move?

Either way if you were ever looking for a good example of word of mouth marketing try Jay-Z bigging up Barack Obama at a packed Glastonbury headline performance.

Tags: advocacy, McCain, Obama, US election 2008, WOM, youth culture