President Obama has tweeted out his summer playlists (one for daytime, one for nighttime) for the final time as commander in chief, and they are pretty much perfect. Last year, he deeply wounded me by leaving off One Direction's recently released "Drag Me Down," but since One Direction doesn't have any new music this year, or possibly ever again for the rest of my life god help me, I can't blame him for ignoring them. All I can do is rejoice in the knowledge that even the most powerful person in the world couldn't resist the bizarre charms of "Classic Man."
Also, Obama snubs Drake. Drake — the man who more or less copyrighted the phrase "Summer Sixteen." He's not going to reward someone who tried and failed to come up with a suitable song of the summer! "One dance? More like one snooze" — paraphrased quote from President Barack Obama, August 2016.
Been waiting to drop this: summer playlist, the encore. What's everybody listening to? pic.twitter.com/mqh1YVrycj
— President Obama (@POTUS) August 11, 2016
Obama is big enough to publicly cop to his guilty pleasure throwbacks, including Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes' "Home," which is best known for soundtracking a 2011 Blue Cross Blue Shield commercial. He's also here to give America's Twitter-ing youth a lesson in jazz, cracking out classics like Billie Holiday's "Lover Man" and Miles Davis' version of "My Funny Valentine," as well as newer R&B-infused jazz hits like Esperanza Spalding's "Espera" and Corinne Bailey Rae's "Green Aphrodisiac."
obama likes 'acid rap' better, too!
These playlists are full of great picks that paint a delightful mental picture of the world's most overworked human relaxing for five minutes by a picture window. Most importantly to yours truly, Obama selected "Acid Rain" to represent Chance the Rapper's body of work and his love for the city of Chicago. It's a song about taking your shoes off and walking around in the rain, tripping on acid, and having an existential crisis involving grilled cheese sandwiches. It's also beautiful, and kicks off the perfect three-track run at the end of Chance's 2013 mixtape Acid Rap. Coloring Book is great, but Acid Rap is better, and I'm thrilled to have a president who knows that!
I'm honored that our President would include in his summer playlist BUT THE FACT THAT HE PICKED ACID RAIN ⛽️ https://t.co/M2ypVhCQFA
— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) August 11, 2016
In case the president gets tired of the 39 tracks he selected, I made him another playlist. I imagine it really reflects the emotional ups and downs of being the guy in charge, as it has incredible depth.