Lil Wayne Critiquing The Big Man

Music is art. Rap being classified as a type of music; therefore, categorizes it as art also. Rap is not my favorite type of music or art. Although I feel as if rap is art, I do not believe it is fine art or even good art. It does however provide as an example of art being used as a social critique. The example of this that comes to mind first for me is Lil Wayne’s single “Georgia Bush”. See link below for music video via YouTube (for fair warning the lyrics do get very vulgar.)

Georgia Bush by Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana - a city and area he still has strong ties to. Shortly after Hurricane Katrina he released his single “Georgia Bush” which critiques the president of the period, George Bush (Georgia Bush as referred to in the song) and his effort for relief during hurricane Katrina. Due to Lil Wayne’s close ties to New Orleans, he felt as if Bush’s lack of timely relief during the catastrophe was racially motivated, unjust, and insufficient. Whether or not that it was racially motivates or not is a debate to be had elsewhere but the point being is Lil Wayne used his art or music to socially critique not only President Bush’s support of hurricane relief effort but also the efforts of other public figures. The question here is how much effect do artistic social critiques such as Lil Wayne’s rap single have. I personally stray away from political involvement so my views of hurricane Katrina came out of the lens of daily updates on the status of the affected areas. Therefore, I was unaware of the relief efforts headed up by our president at the time until I stumbled upon this song. At which point I automatically made the assumption that the information the song contained was true because human nature usually leads humans to believe what they hear.  I do not personally listen to rap music often and I am also not involved with the culture usually associated with it. People who are avid listeners and hold highly regarded artists such as Lil Wayne as role models must have had their views on our president swayed. Lil Wayne’s arguments were not completely untrue and most certainly not unbelievable. It is hard to blame people who enjoy rap music and follow closely to the rap culture to not listen to what Lil Wayne produces. After all Lil Wayne did help in the relief efforts and even donated over 200,000 dollars to the cause which lends him some credibility to his name in the area in which the hurricane struck. Many of his listeners live in or around Louisiana and the site of hurricane Katrina; thus, in a dire situation such as a hurricane people want someone to blame. Blaming Mother Nature does not make anyone feel any better; moreover, blaming the lack of relief efforts on a public figure head does serve as a convenient scapegoat for the suppressed anger. In this way Lil Wayne and the art he produced had a major impact on the opinions of people who follow his music.
     Do you think music as social critiques has an actually effect in society? How would you compare the effect that art as social critique has to the opinions of famous and well groomed people?