Musicians singing, rapping joy over Obama victory
If you’re happy about this week’s presidential election results, there are plenty of ways you can get your groove on.
For starters, in the Sun-Times mailbox yesterday was a fresh copy of the new compilation CD created by and for Barack Obama’s campaign. “Yes We Can: Voices of a Grassroots Movement” features 18 songs — some new, some classics — by such heavy hitters as Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow, Jill Scott, John Mayer, Lionel Richie, Jackson Browne, Chicago rapper Kanye West and others. Embedded among the tracks are snippets of Obama’s speeches.
(AP file)
The new songs include Richie’s “Eternity,” Dave Stewart’s “American Prayer,” John Legend’s cover of U2’s “Pride in the Name of Love” (which originally appeared earlier this year in a History Channel documentary about Martin Luther King Jr.), Suai’s “Am I All Alone?,” Ken Stacey’s “America,” Malik Yusef’s “Promised Land” (featuring Kanye West and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine) and Shontelle’s “Battle Cry.”
A digital download is available now at the Obama campaign Web site (www.barackobama.com), for $19.95, and the CDs will be in stores on Tuesday, for $24.95. All proceeds benefit the campaign’s coffers.
Meanwhile, here are several fun new tracks we’ve heard on the Web:
• Our favorite: DJ Paul V. is some guy who does regular mash-ups for the celebrity-news Web site Pop Bytes, and his offering this week is a blast. He explains: “I’m featuring the lead-off tracks from my Obama Megamix — the first being ‘Obamatat’ by Justin Lowe, and the second being ‘AerObama’ (Daft Punk vs. Adam Freeland). You'll hear Obama’s voice itself in the mix, plus a pretty cool spelling lesson/chant at the end. Play it loud, play it proud, and remember: Yes we can, and yes we DID!”
• A Minneapolis rapper Brother Ali allegedly recorded this stylin’ track called “Mr. President (You’re the Man)” the night of the election. It opens with him telling his baby to come in and see the results, then analyzes and proselytizes on Obama’s behalf. “You will never get elected again without us!” he assures future political hopefuls. (We love the suggestive backing track: “I got to vote for you!”) And what a closer: “Two years of saying, ‘Yes we can,’ and today Barack Obama’s the man, you gotta love it!”
• Chicago rapper Common has a song on his new “Universal Mind Control” disc called “Changes” that speaks directly to the election, and it’s been making the download rounds (catch it here). “We see change in the wind, it’s a new day … see a black man to run, we need him to win,” the Chi City native sings.
• The R&B stylist behind two special celeb-stuffed Obama-centric songs already, “Yes We Can” and “We Are the Ones,” Black Eyed Peas star and CNN’s own holographic correspondent Will.i.am on Wednesday was supposed to release his latest celebratory tune and video, “It’s a New Day.” The video is supposed to finally show up Friday on the announced Web site, after debuting on Oprah Winfrey's talk show.
• Hip-hop icon M.I.A. posted a curious new video on her MySpace blog on Tuesday. “S.U.S. (Save Ur Soul)” finds M.I.A. vs. Blaqstarr dealing with themes of good vs. evil and winds up with Obama vs. McCain — and a final image rife with controversy (even though it’s a generation old in the rock canon).