Hip-Hop invaded the White House last night, as rapper and actor Common performed at a celebration honoring American poetry along with the likes of Jill Scott, Elizabeth Alexander and Alison Knowles for the poetry-inspired day.
The event was hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama, and saw an afternoon workshop for students. The gig has stirred up a lot of negative press for the White House with some right-winged political websites who have written his rhymes off as being riddled with violence, even labeling him a “gangster rapper.” Ha!
Karl Rove who worked in the White House for President George W. Bush, labeled Common a “thug” and said on Fox News Channel that the performer had advocated assassinating Bush and violence against police. Rove added that the White House decision to include Common in the event “speaks volumes about President Obama and the White House staff.” Sarah Palin, also tweeted, “Oh lovely, White House…” and provided the link to an article critical of the decision to bring the conscious rapper to the event.
What Rove is talking about is the poem Common recited on Def Poetry Jam back in 2007 called “A Letter to the Law”
“With that happening, why they messing with Saddam? Burn a Bush ’cause for peace he no push no button/ Killing over oil and grease/ No weapons of destruction/ How can we follow a leader when thisa corrupt one?”
The Chicago rapper took to his Twitter: “Politics is politics and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I respect that,” wrote Common, who’s been a longtime supporter of the US President. “The one thing that shouldn’t be questioned is my support for the police officers and troops that protect us every day. Peace yall!”
Michelle Obama did not address the criticism during the afternoon remarks at a workshop with some of the artists for dozens of students invited in from around the country. The first lady urged the students to keep on writing and made a pitch for arts education. She also confessed to once being a “budding writer.”
“When I was young, I was a passionate creative writer and sort of a poet. That’s how I would release myself,” Mrs. Obama said. “Whenever I was struggling in school, or didn’t want to go outside and deal with the nonsense of the neighborhood, I would write and write and write and write.” “So this workshop and celebrating you all is important to me, as well, because I think it was my writing that sort of prepared me for so much of what I’ve had to do in my life as an adult,” she said.
It’s not like Obama invited Eminem over to perform Mosh or got Odd Future to perform “Yonkers” to the kids! It’s Common one of the most conscious rapping emcee’s.
Check out the performance from The White House below
