Barack Obama's Summer Playlist Is A Celebration Of Black Women
Barack Obama continued his annual summer tradition of sharing which songs he has been bumping, taking to Twitter this week to share his 2020 Summer playlist.
On Monday (August 17), the former president shared his list of his favorite songs of the season via Twitter, writing, “Over the past few months, I’ve spent a lot of time listening to music with my family. I wanted to share some of my favorites from the summer — including songs from some of the artists at this week’s @DemConvention. Hope you enjoy it.”
Admittedly, this year’s summer season did not pan out as expected due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. But Obama’s list of tunes might be enough to cure your summer blues in the midst of quarantine. A handful of this year’s biggest releases such as Megan Thee Stallion’s Beyoncé-assisted “Savage Remix,” J. Cole’s “The Climb Back,” Anderson. Paak’s “Lockdown,” and Frank Ocean’s “Cayendo,” made the cut alongside old-school throwbacks such as Stevie Wonder’s “Do I Do,” Nas’ “Memory Lane (Sittin’ in da Park),” D’Angelo’s “Higher,” and Nina Simone “My Baby Just Cares For Me.”
Most notably, his list highlighted a number of rising newcomers and Black women that've been taking over the charts such as Summer Walker, Chika, H.E.R., Koffee, Jorja Smith, and Princess Nokia. Established acts such as Beyoncé, Rihanna, Jennifer Hudson and Teyana Taylor were also included.
Obama’s selection of tunes was an eclectic mix of quarantine bangers, R&B classics, and inescapable earworms (i.e. “Work”).
A number of stars reacted to their inclusion on the playlist across social media and, unsurprisingly, they were equally excited and floored by the recognition.
“WOOOOW!!!!! thank you so much!!!!!” Khalid gushed on Twitter. Teyana chimed in, “Wow my president be jamming to my music!!!!” in response to “Made It,” a track from her third LP, The Album, being included.
John Legend tweeted out a humble “Thank you, Mr. President.”
UK hip-hop duo Young T & Bugsey were nearly rendered speechless, simply commenting “crazy” with a prayer hand emoji.
Chika, who was recently unveiled as one of XXL’s 2020 Freshman honoree, couldn’t believe it, writing “a song i wrote at 19 after dropping out to pursue music, while living at home and working at f***in chipotle ended up on Obama’s 2020 summer playlist. what thee f**k?”
Check out their reactions below.
