the tone def gop

I'm late to the party on this one, but it had sort of sifted into my consciousness this week that there was some sort of kerfuffle over a certain rapper being invited to a poetry event at the White House. I figured it must have been somebody overtly political, like Chuck D, or maybe someone whose lyrics might be interpreted as a bit misogynistic, like Kanye West.

Nope. It was Common. The guy that did a Christmas ad for The Gap. That guy.

I swear, given his choices in music, I'm tempted to think that President Obama is whiter than I am sometimes.

One of Sullivan's readers makes a point upon which I really cannot improve:

"I always find it amusing that Johnny Cash can sing lines like "Early one morning while making the rounds, I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down" or "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die" and everyone pretty much accepts that he's in character telling a story. But a rapper has gotta be squeaky clean if he or she doesn't want to be labeled a "thug". Even more amusing is to consider the legacy of Cash's famous appearances at Folsom and San Quentin prisons. Can you imagine such an event happening today with a rapper, even one as milquetoast as Common?"