5 Rap Songs That Did Not Put Obama In The White House, Despite What Ice-T Says

During a Today show appearance earlier this week, rapper and B-list Law and Order star Ice-T put in his two cents on why Obama won the presidency in 2008.

Arguably, he had a number of options to choose from. The powerful Yes We Can campaign? Nope. American's frustration with a so-called War on Terror and the loss of thousands of troops in the Middle East? Keep trying. Eight years of George W.? Obama Girl? Wrong again!

Give up? Ice-T is crediting rap music -- and by extension, himself -- with putting Obama over the edge. He fervently believes the rap community, of which he is a prominent member, put Barack Obama in the presidency.

... if it wasn't for rap, white people would've have been so open to vote for somebody like Barack Obama, said the Ice Loves Coco star.

When questioned about whether rap music has had any negative influence on the public, Ice T firmly defended his line of work. It's totally positive. It's brought the races together.

As Kathie Lee helpfully pointed out, the majority of voters *probably* did not make their decisions exclusively based on race, as Ice-T seems to believe. At one point, he even seems to suggest that the rap music of the 1980s and 90s ago inspired people to vote, period. How exactly? He doesn't say. It was hip hop 20 years ago, 30 years ago, that got people... willing to vote.

Here are five classic rap songs that most certainly did not inspire any voting decisions whatsoever. (There are far more effective examples of how rap and hip-hop music did not elect the leader of the free world, but we can't print them here.)

Whoomp There It Is (Tag Team): The 1993 ear worm party track didn't lead a call to political action, but it did inspire a commercial for Swoops chocolate potato chips and a Luvs diaper commercial in which cartoon infants groove to Poop! There it is.

Baby Got Back (Sir Mix-A-Lot): The immensely popular ode to plump female rears caused a storm of controversy. The music video, which featured Mix-A-Lot singing atop an enormous inflatable butt, was banned from MTV. Since then, the song has earned a place in pop culture history but alas, aside from a newfound love of round behinds, the song has yet to inflict social change.

Booty Meat (Soulja Boy): The song's chorus goes something like: Girl Shake Dat Bootymeat Dat Bootymeat Shake Dat Bootymeat Dat Bootymeat over and over. Wait! Maybe if it's played backwards it says Get Out the Vote.

Get Low (Lil Jon/East Side Boyz): Citing his appreciation for this song, Chris Rock joked that In the old days it was easy to defend rap music. It was easy to defend it on an intellectual level. My favorite song right now is impossible to defend. We should all be ashamed of ourselves for liking this f---ing song. Rock than did his own rendition of Get Low, which primarily involves lyrics that talk about sweat in unfortunate places.

Back That Azz Up (Juvenile): Not to be confused with DJ Jubilee's song Back That A$$ Up, the song features Lil Wayne rapping After you back it up and stop/then drop, drop, drop, drop it like it hot, wob-bo-dy wob-bo-dy. Other than pulled hamstrings, the club anthem has had no known effects on American's electoral process.

[via Mediaite]