Al Gore is a Marketing Genius
Check out An Inconvenient Truth’s MY SPACE page for the “artist on artist” interview. Mos Def interviews Al Gore about global warming, and asks why the former presidential hopeful thinks it’s the most important domestic and foreign policy issue for the 21st century.
At one fell swoop not only does Gore recast himself as an “artist” as opposed to a failed political figure, but he does it on MY SPACE, which even with the flap over their fine print is the (virtual) place to see and be seen. Everybody who is anybody is on MY SPACE. Guess it comes easy for the man who invented the internet to know how to exploit it.
Not to mention, Gore’s hipness factor increased about 500% by appearing with hip hop icon Mos Def. (Hmmm…seems straight outta the Clinton playbook, yet slightly modified. Ditch the triangulation, but keep the miscegenation.) The “Mighy Mos” is hands down the most important hip hop artist today. Through his various film and TV roles he’s garnered mainstream cross-over appeal, while maintaining mad street cred among EVERY segment of the notoriously divergent hip hop community. (Remember East Coast vs. West Coast?).
Whether Mos’ mass appeal translates over to Gore is yet to be determined, but it’s a safe bet that a lot more young people, black and non-black alike, will see the film. Fan or not, hip hop is where it’s at! Those who ignore its power as the race-crossing (or class, or gender, or fill-in-the-blank) worldwide cultural force that it is risk going the way of the Dodo bird. Perhaps Al got hip to the game after he read this?
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