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In February, Black Eyed Pea Will.i.am set one of Barack Obama's speeches to music, and a pop-cultural movement for the candidate took on new life. Rolling Stone spoke to the rapper-producer about the clip, which has been viewed 16 million times on YouTube.
What inspired the "Yes We Can" video?
About four years ago we worked with the DNC and I became really
good friends with Terry McAuliffe, who represented Kerry. He called
me and he asked if I was gonna support Hillary, and at the time, I
was confused — I didn't know what I was gonna do. A couple of
weeks passed and at Super Tuesday in New Hampshire I saw Obama's
speech, and that's what did it for me — he inspired me to
want me to change myself to better America. It made me reflect on
the opportunities I had. I thought of all the civil rights protests
and Kennedy and Martin Luther King and all the freedom fighters. I
was like, "Wow, this is crazy, because Obama is probably one of the
only blatant freedom fighters that we have right now in the media."
And it all made sense to me, the difference between an agenda and a
movement. And I was like, "Wow, this is a movement."
Had you ever responded to a politician's speech the way
you did that day?
Nope. When I went to school we had the teacher recite Martin Luther
King speeches, Abraham Lincoln speeches, John F. Kennedy speeches,
and I started thinking, "Who are these kids reciting?" Children
say, "I wanna be like 50 Cent, I wanna be like Kanye West, I wanna
be like Madonna, I wanna be like Fergie." Shouldn't they say, "I
wanna be like Barack Obama?" "I wanna be like Hillary Clinton?"
That's when I had the idea, I'm gonna turn this speech into a song. Because there's really no difference between a speech and a song. [Starts rapping 50 Cent's "In Da Club"] "Up in the club, sippin' on ..." People sing the lyrics to all these songs, they know them verbatim, homie. So, that's what I wanted to do. And when I finished it I sent it to John Legend via e-mail, and then I was like, "Yo, can you record yourself doing it on video?" We finished the song and the video in four days. I took it to my record company and they said, "Well that's cool, we can't really do anything with it, you know, 'cause it's endorsing the candidate." So we were on our own. It all happened without a campaign — the campaign didn't come up with the concept. Meanwhile, Hillary spent millions of dollars on content and this one that accumulated tens of millions of views on the Internet cost nothing.
What signs did you see of its impact?
I think it put an emotion to the campaign. I think the song
completed that it's a we. It's not black, it's white, it's Latin,
it's America. And it's today's America realizing how powerful we
are. It moved so fast through the Internet, it proved that these
little tools — that most politicians didn't even notice
— were powerful. When you're watching TV you have no choice
but to watch that propaganda commercial. The Internet doesn't work
that way. You have a choice whether or not you wanna forward it to
your friend, or whether or not you even wanna watch it. The rules
changed because of the Internet. And "Yes We Can" and the Obama
campaign figured that out before any of them did because what Obama
stands for is truth. It is engaging and it is leveling the playing
field to where the common folk realize the power the elitists have.
Pepsi and General Motors and Ford are on the same level on the
Internet as my sister.
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How did it affect you to learn that you were able to move people that way?
I was sitting in my hotel room right before I was going to the Super Bowl and I was reading the comments on the Huffington Post and I started bawling. That ain't the most hip-hoppingest thing to say. It's different, dude. It was life. It's humanity, it wasn't like, "Yo, I'm trying to go platinum" or "Yo, I'm trying to sell out the Staples Center." It was to express a concern and to exercise how I've been moved and inspired and align myself with the source of inspiration.
Did you ever hear anything directly from the campaign or
from Obama himself?
Much later. I opened up for him in Philadelphia. And it was me and
Ed Kowalczyk from that group Live. I was backstage and he thanked
me for conceptualizing it and helping out. It's surreal to see how
regular people can affect things. 'Cause at the end of the day I'm
a regular person. I don't have a crew. My friends are in the Black
Eyed Peas, I'm not Diddy. I'm not Jay-Z. Those guys are like super
super super duper icons in music. We sell more records than a lot
of artists but for some reason my persona is that I'm a regular
dude. Here's the difference: When 50 Cent goes to Jay Leno and I go
to Jay Leno, 50 Cent sits on the couch — I perform and leave.
So when you look at that kind of celebrity, I'm a regular guy. And
what I represent to people is that regular people are powerful. I
just proved it!
What do you think musicians can do going forward to help
Obama, assuming they're supporters?
I'm gonna do more concerts for the Internet. It's gonna take a lot
of content on the Internet from artists, not just celebrities but
regular people are going to make a difference, more than
celebrities, believe it or not. There was a perception among some
corporations and celebrities that regular people were idiots, they
sat on the couch and they read their content and looked at
commercials and they did what they told them to do. That's not the
case anymore. These people are so savvy that they've crippled big
companies like the record company; it wasn't just technology that
crippled the record company, it's the people's savvy-ness about how
to use technology that crippled the record company.
In 2004 there was the Vote for Change tour, which
featured mostly white rock artists. Is there anything that urban
artists can do as a group in this election?
There are little to no urban tours, primarily because it's a club
culture. And the way that urban acts can participate this time
around if they're not included in touring is by making songs,
mixtapes, viral things for the Internet and believing in things,
doing shows in communities, empowering communities, collaborating
with people that have an opinion. You're up against "I don't
believe that. I don't believe you." People don't think it makes a
difference. It happened with Bush two elections in a row. People
think, "I don't think I can really do it. Nah, I'd rather not. I'm
gonna focus on my job so I can pay these bills. I don't got time to
go vote." So urban communities and urban artists have to see what
they're up against. You have to make people believe in them, that
they can make a change.