Obama won a second term on Tuesday, despite the fact that crucial swing state Florida (aka Americaâs penis) will not have its results in for another two months. To celebrate the occasion, certified goon rapper and Florida Dade County resident Plies put out âObama Forward.âThatâs cute, you are thinking, that ridiculous dude who I know about from a couple kinda gross songs with T-Pain and that song about how white chicks give good brain decided to get political.Not so fast. While you were scoffing at Plies calling his girl âwet wetâ on âBust It Baby,â he was steadfastly building up a deep catalog that is introspective, intelligent and occassionally hilarious. In short, Plies is a way better rapper than you thought he was.âObama Forwardâ isnât just cool because itâs a political statement from an unlikely source, itâs also moderate and well-researched. The hook is âRome wasnât built in a dayâ--Plies openly acknowledges Obamaâs somewhat disappointing first term without abandoning hope. He also namechecks the âcrack laws,â the laws Obama passed to reduce the disparities between sentencing for crack and cocaine possession. That was a huge step forward that we donât hear about very much.So enter the video for 2010âs âWhy You Hate Us,â in which Plies plainly breaks down racial conflict in America. He spits in a noose and in handcuffs in between shots of Martin, Malcom, Biggie, Tupac, Bushes and numerous working-class black people. Itâs not a complex song and itâs one long verse, but he lays out all the inherent advantages white America has over black America. Itâs a great counterpoint to âObama Forwardâ: here is why black people inherantly donât trust white people, and thus why black people give a black president a lot of room to work while the rest of the nation gets frustrated.My beef with political rap these days is that it starts somewhere smart and tends to go over a cliff with chemtrails, 9/11 truth conspiracies and the Illuminati. Meanwhile, America has a 250+ year history of totally confirmable racism and benign neglect. Like Killer Mikeâs âReagan,â these two Plies tracks are bare-bones facts.But wait! Thereâs more! In the grand tradition of southern OGâs like Scarface and Trick Daddy, Plies has a bunch of soulful jams questioning the street life. âWorth Goin Fed Forâ is my favorite; plenty of rappers take it as a given that you canât deal drugs forever (in the words of Biggie, you either get shot or go to jail), but few spend an entire track wondering if âtwenty-five years worth two years of ballin.â Not surprisingly, he spends a lot of time worrying about his family on tracks like âRunnin My Mama Crazyâ and âFamily Straightâ; the stakes are higher than his own lavish lifestyle. Leaving the dope game also means letting his struggling extended family down.(Not surprisingly, Plies also put out a sad Trayvon Martin tribute, with a video full of racial harmony and symbolic Skittles.)But Plies isnât just hitting up Obama rallies and frowning at his jewlery in the mirror. Heâs also making some of the dumbest and therefore best rap you havenât heard. Enter âShe Got It Madeâ which flips Jimmy Buffetâs âPina Colada Song.â I guess this isnât really a surprise because, well, Florida is Florida. You're going to listen to this now and be like âholy fuck turn it off,â but listen to it when you're drunk and you'll change your mind. Other great stupid Plies concept songs include âRob Myselfâ (where he realizes he has so much money he wants to rob himself) and âModelâ (in which he decides to stop rapping and just be a model because he looks so good). Oh also, the cover of his first album is him magically springing out of a bible, so that's also a thing that is good.All this comes together on âPants Hang Low,â in which Plies celebrates the joys of letting your ass hang out your jeans over a hot-ass Mannie Fresh beat. The video (which for some reason isnât on YouTube, or seemingly the rest of the internet for that matter) is one of those hard-to-follow hood documentaries--they interview a bunch of locals about why they sag their pants or why they hate it when the local goons sag their pants. The kids say it gives them swag and the girls like it, and the resident old timer says this wasnât what he fought for when he was fighting for civil rights (really). Then the cops arrest one of the kids and tell him to pull his pants up. Mannie Fresh wears a Captain America shirt.Pliesâs On Trial 2 is out now.@skinny412
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