Nice piece by David Skinner on the WSJ’s Taste page today on the Democratic candidates trying badly to be hip, including Howard Dean’s affinity for Wyclef Jean:
No, the alternative to rock is rap, and not only for Mr. Dean. Dick Gephardt told Blender that his favorite artist was Eric Clapton, but according to MSNBC he told a documentary filmmaker on the campaign trail that he has taken a shine to Eminem, whose movie, “8 Mile,” Mr. Gephardt “raved about.” Mr. Kucinich’s hip-hop outreach project, the “Representin’ Tour,” has yielded a campaign rap song, available on the Kucinich Web site, written and performed by “hip-hop activist” Joel Tyner. Titled “Go, go Dennis,” its recurring line is: “Dennis / he ain’t no menace.”
And then there is Wesley Clark. He is now appearing in a Rock the Vote television ad, surrounded by earnest-looking college students. “I don’t care what the other candidates think,” Gen. Clark says. “I don’t think Outkast is really breaking up. Big Boi and Andre 3000 just cut solo records, that’s all.” Yes, it’s meant facetiously, but it comes from the same youth-pandering shtick.