Obama: Hip-hop hooray.

I’m a HUGE fan of The Washington Post.  Maybe it’s because I grew up with it, maybe it’s because of their great reporting and writing, maybe it’s because I got to take a really cool tour of the printing plant in second grade.  Or maybe it’s because of this story by J. Freedom Du Lac – who I just discovered, after years of reading, is a man. Hmm.

The WaPo gave J. Freedom Du Lac – who is an excellent writer, by the way – the freedom and latitude to write a highly-entertaining, though short, piece about Barack Obama and hip-hop. It wasn’t exactly an essay; it was more of a commentary, a brief look at a story that is getting a lot of press but maybe isn’t as big of a deal as other things in Campaign 2008. The Style section of the WaPo is so good at taking front-page newsy items and twisting them around to make for interesting explorations of culture.

I was particularly intrigued by this article because:
A) I’m a fan of hip-hop and know of the effect Obama’s popularity and candidacy is having on artists and the community at large.
B) I heard about Ludacris’s profane Obama shout-out song, “Politics” and got curious about how the candidate would respond/spin his way out of it without alienating rappers and their fans. Or denigrating his right to freedom of speech.

Now, listening to the song – I must admit, I’ve heard worse. Hillary as an irrelevant bee-yotch, McCain only good for a wheelchair, Bush as mentally handicapped. Not flattering but…not as poisonous as we may have been led to think. But in any case, Obama’s response to the whole situation was pretty artful. He didn’t alienate hip-hop heads because he acknowledged Ludacris’ skills; he didn’t alienate non hip-hoppers because he condemned the lyrics. Dislike the message, not the man? How very…centrist…of our friend Mr. Obama.

Watch out for this guy people. He’s clever.

All jokes aside, J. Freedom Du Lac’s piece helped get my morning started right and reaffirmed again my devotion to The Washington Post.

Searching for inspiration.

My dear Time editor told me that part of what I should be doing during this internship is looking for story ideas that he – or hopefully, I – can pitch to the bigwigs in New York.  I’ve been seeking inspiration in tiny publications and larger ones; from Al’s Morning Meeting on Poynter to Facebook notes left by friends.  But I learned from Glenn Proctor at the RTD that the biggest help I can give to a publication in finding stories is to be myself.

“You’re a young, black, female,” Proctor said gruffly during our first meeting, right at the start of my internship.  “Work with that.  Use that.  We don’t have that here.  Show us how to get it.”

When I heard that, it made real sense to me: use who I am to develop unique story ideas.  If I’m unique, the topics and subjects I could come up with would, in turn, be unique.  But how exactly do I tap into me?    How do I transform what I’m doing and who I am into something that a large audience would want to read?

I’m still figuring that out.  But my editor here at Time told me that good magazine stories and featurettes can come from exploring what I’m doing, what my friends are doing, who we’re doing (just kidding).  Taking that to heart, this is the best thing I can come up with (for now, anyway):

• Getting married young – or marrying young in the military.  Maybe it’s the fact that I went to school in Mississippi, but I have probably 10 friends and friends of friends who are engaged or already married.  I also have friends who entered the armed forces around 18 and got married before they could legally take a sip of alcohol.  I’ve done a little research, and it appears people aren’t really marrying young anymore – they’re getting married older than over.  So what’s up with my friends?  Sure, part of it is because they’ve had babies and marriage is the next step, but for so many others it must be about…love?  Or is it the social custom and stability of marriage that is so attractive?  And why are there so few young, black people making this commitment to each other?  With the exception of those in the military, the only engaged-married couples I know happen to be white.

I’ve thought about this topic and talked it over with my friends many, many times over the course of the last few months. Maybe other people out there are curious too?