Last year, President Obama said his favorite song of 2015 was “How Much A Dollar Cost” off of Kendrick Lamar’s third studio album, To Pimp A Butterfly. The overtly political album is Lamar’s reflection on what it means to be a black man with power, and struggle to improve a system that is built against people of color. It’s incredibly powerful that Obama validated these strong sentiments — real recognize real. For the Fourth of July, President Obama invited Lamar to play five songs at the White House: “Swimming Pools”, “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe”, “Poetic Justice”, “ADHD”, and “Alright.” The best part? The whole set was kicked off with one of the more famous samples from TPAB: “Obama say what it do?”.
The sample comes from “Hood Politics”, a song about how our political system commodifies gangsterism, and ends with Lamar directly addressing Obama. Watch the complete set below:
Credits
Text Annie Armstrong