(Source: YouTube screenshot)
The Obamas have done it again. The first family of the Unites States of America has time and again challenged the austere image associated with their position by being more accessible to people, and speaking ‘with’ them than ‘to’ them. This time it was FLOTUS who floored everyone with her musical skills.
Michelle Obama teamed up with Jay Pharoah of Saturday Night Live fame to record a music video encouraging college enrolment. The US has been seeing a steady decline in college enrolment over the past two decades. A major factor for this is said to be the exorbitant tuition fee.
The sentiment conveyed in the fun video is ‘You should go to college’ after high school. Shot primarily at the White House (for obvious reasons), Pharoah and Michelle rap out “If you wanna fly jets, you should go to college; reach high and cash cheques, fill your head with knowledge; If you wanna watch paint, don’t go to college; But for everything else, you should go to college.”
“I want to honour and empower young people who are working hard in school and pursuing their dreams – and I want to do it in a fresh and fun way,” Michelle Obama said in a statement. And fun it definitely was. The American First Lady was an absolute sport as she donned sunglasses and pulled up the attitude. She has rapped with so much swag that Sam Reich, College Humor’s head of video, said, “I think the country will join me in saying, ‘Mrs. Obama, we think you should cut an album,'”
The problem plaguing the American higher education system isn’t new. In fact, Barack Obama himself took 25 years to clear his student loan debt. Chicago Sun Times reported that Obama took out $42,753 in loans to pay for his Harvard Law School tuition. Michelle signed notes for $40,762 in loans for her Harvard Law education. That’s on top of their undergraduate loans. The US President has been quoted as saying, “I was in my 40s when we finished paying off our debt. And — and we should have been saving for Malia and Sasha by that time… ”
As serious as the issue of cost of education is, the First Lady’s rap is certainly up with times to appeal to the youth.
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