Share

Obama’s summer playlist: Check out what the president is listening to

No, it’s not a new economic plan or a treatise on Trump.

Advertisement

It’s Obama’s official summer music playlist. We’ll miss this guy’s ability to engage with the culture in ways that few Presidents do, and also-these playlists are really friggin’ good. Now we know exactly how you relax after a frustrating day dealing with Republicans in Congress and foreign dignitaries.

“The former’s “Smooth Sailin'” and the latter’s Don’t Owe You a Thang” both landed on the daytime side of the playlist. Not because it’s lame dad music – they’re all great and very hip song choices – but because, “Dad!” Barnett’s tunefully droll Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit was one of the finest albums of 2015 and a proper USA breakthrough that earned her a Best New Artist nomination at the Grammy Awards earlier this year, but an endorsement from Obama himself is arguably far more respectable than an endorsement from the stodgy American Recording Academy.

The event, a roundtable discussion with the president, with tickets costing $33,400 per person, was ultimately held May 18th at The Jefferson, a luxury hotel just blocks from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The “Day” selections begin with Wale’s “LoveHate Thing” – a fitting choice, given that the rapper is from Washington, DC. He likes Common, Chance the Rapper, and Floetry, so when recommending some Texas rap for Obama, we’ll steer him in the direction of someone like Austin’s Magna Carda.

What’s President Obama’s song of the summer?

The president also chose Fiona Apple´s 1997 hit “Criminal”, a song often interpreted as feminist with its theme of male fragility in the face of female sexuality.

The White House today unveiled the five books the president is tucking into during his two-week vacation, which range from a surfer’s memoir to a sci-fi epic.

Advertisement

But “Classic Man” by Jidenna, curiously, did.

Kiwi musician Gin Wigmore has been included on President Obama's summer playlist