While Senator Barack Obama has (mockingly) been compared to Britney Spears (and Paris Hilton) by his opponent for his celebrity-like status, filmmaker Byron Hurt thinks otherwise. In his short documentary “Barack and Curtis,” Hurt examines both the similarities and differences between Senator Obama and rap mogul Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. The documentary specifically focuses on how the Senator and Jackson maneuver and command the routes of manhood, power, and respect.
Though both go about each component very differently, with Obama using a more refined, paced approach and 50 Cent using a vastly more aggressive and dominant method, the men are joined by a common thread: the simple fact that they are successful. Obama and 50 Cent are unlikely candidates for the power they have acquired; Obama (who is the biracial son of an immigrant), does not, as he said, look like the “other Presidents on the dollar bills” and 50 Cent (who was left motherless and once a drug dealer) does not fit the mold of the typical millionaire.
But this type of uncommon success can be found throughout Hip Hop and R&B music. From the dark skinned, dreadlocked Lauryn Hill to the once homeless David Banner to the adopted Keyshia Cole and the project-raised Jay Z.
Perhaps it is for this very reason that individuals of all shapes, sizes, colors, and classes have invested and believed in the ideals of Senator Obama. Because somehow, within “the Other” he represents, they can easily see themselves. —— By: Bethany N.
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