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.

Ooo that smarts.

There’s nothing like pouring your energy into an article, turning it in to your editor with a smile and a hopeful heart, then getting it back 5 minutes before quitting time covered in blue marker.

I’m hurt.  Maybe the article wasn’t amazing…but wasn’t it decent? Passable?

One of the most important things that I want from this internship is to see some growth and improvement in my journalistic abilities – writing, reporting, interviewing, everything.  But especially writing.  I firmly believe that writing consistently on different topics makes you better.  And that’s the only place my high-profile internship falls short: the magazine is too high-profile to have an intern bump a columnist/correspondent/reporter from their own work.  I can report, I can research, but can I write?  Maybe.  And ONLY for the Web site.  Or perhaps a half-sentence in an infographic that accompanies someone else’s opus in the magazine.  I’ve had the pleasure of doing all that.

I get the meaning of “intern.”  I appreciate the incredible opportunity I’ve got to even be able to meet someone like my editor and our bureau chief and all the amazing writers.  But understanding all that doesn’t make the sting of blue marker any duller.  Then again…

“Only a mediocre writer is always at his best.”
– W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)