Ghost, Rae, & Pharcyde on Barack

Ghostface, Raekwon, and Pharcyde were all in Denver this past weekend for Rock The Bells. MTV was there too to prepare for the Democratic National Convention. So, as the two words collided – hip-hop a& politics, MTV went and asked these artists how they felt about Barack. Some interesting quotes.  The homegirl will be giving me a scoop on the DNC since she will be there this week.  Full article after the jump.

On a total different note, KTL gives it condolences to Andre Young (Dr. Dre) who lost his son this weekend. As a future father, I can only imagine the pain/grief is it to lose your child. Stay up, homie. Our prayers are with you.

Liz Nord and Kristin Grimmett write:

DENVER — If hip-hop and Barack Obama were on Facebook, their relationship status would be: “It’s complicated.” So when the ladies of Choose or Lose descended upon the Mile-High City Saturday to cover the Democratic National Convention, where Obama will officially be named the Dems’ presidential candidate, we went backstage at the Denver Rock the Bells show — where we saw so much Obama gear that you’d have sworn it was an Obama concert — and talked politics with everyone from Ghostface Killah to the Pharcyde, and even got a special message for Obama from Wu-Tang Clan’s Raekwon.

We had hoped that, this being the week of the DNC, some of the groups would at least mention politics onstage. Unfortunately, unless “ice-cold bi—es” is code for “McCain and Obama,” we were outta luck. Of course, Nas wore an Obama T-shirt and served up politics with songs like “Sly Fox,” about the Fox News network (”Bush tells lies and Fox trots it”), but most artists kept politics offstage. They were all pretty reluctant at first to talk about the presidential election offstage, too, but all had plenty to say once they opened up.

Ghostface insisted that he didn’t have anything to say on politics, citing reports of funny business during of the ‘04 presidential elections. “If McCain wins but Barack really won,” he asked, “how are we supposed to know?” However, when pressed, Ghostface showed himself to be knowledgeable about the presidential race and current events, and made his support for Obama’s candidacy clear. Raekwon said Obama is connected to the black community and addresses its issues, so “if he wants to sh– on hip-hop, that’s cool with me.” However, he did predict, “They aren’t going to put a black man in the White House.”

Raekwon let us know that he wants Barack to win, but said he’s worried that “if he do win, they’re going to put him in a situation where the country’s going to be haywire,” meaning that Obama could be set up for failure since he would be entering the presidency at a difficult economic time for the country. He also commented on John McCain, saying, “McCain is cool but nobody knows about McCain. Barack is connected to the community, and people in the community want to see a change.”

Finally, the Pharcyde said they don’t bring up political issues during their shows because fans are there to have fun and not get preached to, but Slimkid3 (Tre) and Imani in particular got passionate about the topics backstage. “I used to talk sh– about America, but now people feel some hope and it makes me want to do more,” Tre said, adding, “I think people forgot that government is supposed to be about the people.” On a lighter note, when asked about Michelle Obama, Imani made the observation that she will bring “the first hot comb and press in the White House.”