So, have any of you 'bags been following the thread having to do with Barack Obama's stance on rap music? I'd be lying if I said that I have, or that I give a rat's ass about any of this one way or the other, but I did read up on it the other day after having come across the new issue of VIBE, with him on the cover, in the grocery store the other day.

Apparently, a few months ago, in the wake of the Don Imus incident, a reporter with the AP tried to get Obama to talk shit about rap music. Obama was more than happy to oblige, presumably as an overture to anti-hip-hop feminist beyotches like Oprah, who's a big-time supporter of his, as well as cracka-ass crackas who were concerned that he may have once taken some money from Ludacris.

You'll recall that there was a similar incident back in the 1990s, in which Bill Clinton had to throw Sister Souljah under the bus in order to prove to his cracka-ass cracka base that he wasn't down with the hip-hop community, even though he'd gone on the Arsenio Hall show that one time.

Obama's playing it down now as a matter of him coming to the defense of black women in the wake of the Don Imus incident, but I went and tracked down the original AP story, and that's not how it read to me. I'd quote from it here, but you might just want to check out the entire story for yourself, courtesy of the First Amendment Center.

Debate in Imus imbroglio turns toward rap lyrics

Of course if it was just yours truly who had an issue with his comments, that could easily be written off as a matter of me being "racist." But Russell Simmons also took issue with Obama's stance on hip-hop, and I think we all know there isn't a racist bone in his body. His "special relationship" with the Jews is the stuff of legend, and also TV commercials.

In an interview with the Times Magazine, Blood Diamond Rush suggested that Obama ought to focus on the conditions in America's ghettos that would make a brother want to call a black woman a beeyotch, rather than trying to censor rap music. Which happens to be my stance as well. He also criticized the Senator for fronting about his being in the pocket of big business.

To tell you the truth, I'm not sure how much of a threat this little spat between him and Blood Diamond Rush really posed to Obama's campaign. My guess is that not only is the vast majority of the voting hip-hop community altogether unfamiliar with his stances on the issues and how they compare to the other candidates, but I'm sure they'd vote for him regardless just because he's black. Still, I guess his handlers felt something needed to be done.

I don't mean to suggest that this is how his cover story in VIBE came about, and that the people who created were basically tools charged with misrepresenting his stance on hip-hop to you ignorant fucks, but I suppose it's a sheer matter of coincidence that the main part that's being excerpted all over the place is the bit where he "clarifies" his stance on hip-hop. Which is the reason why now you can hardly find his original stance anywhere in Google.

Or maybe I'm just a cynical bastard with too much time on my hands. It's not necessarily my goal here just to criticize VIBE magazine. I can appreciate the fact that they're trying to turn their readership on to politics. Plus, you know VIBE and XXL have a special relationship. All I'm saying is, anytime you see some bullshit like this, you should consider the real motive behind it. Vote for the guy if you want, but don't let yourself be duped into thinking he's any different from the rest of them.

Except for his being... you know, kinda black.

More From XXL