Barack Obama was the most recent guest on the Deep Cut podcast with barber and media personality Vic Blends, and their conversation (which you can watch in full by clicking here) eventually led to his musical interests. More specifically, they spoke on "The Big Three," everyone's favorite talking point in 2024 a decade after the title was most relevant. Regardless, Blends shouted out J. Cole as his GOAT as a proud fellow North Carolina native. But the former POTUS had some hot takes – or omissions, we should say. He mostly focused on Kendrick Lamar, briefly referencing the Drake battle but also suggesting that there's still an MC on top of all of them.
"Kendrick is a friend of mine," Barack Obama remarked regarding the "Big Three" conversation. "I’ve been knowing him for a long time. He actually performed at the White House. I was the first, I think – I am pretty confident saying that not that many presidents were familiar with hip-hop before I was president. And I do think that Kendrick has a unique status right now, not just because of this summer. But he’s not just gifted, he’s serious about the message. He digs into himself. He digs deep. You’d enjoy Kendrick because when we get together, he wants to talk about fatherhood, those are the questions he’s talking about."
Barack Obama Speaks On "The Big Three"
"I just talked to J [J. Cole] last week," Barack Obama said of the Fayetteville lyricist, saying that he's "very high on the list." However, that's when he revealed the rapper that he still thinks is on top, or at least, the one who holds the crown over any of the "Big Three." "There’s a guy named Jay-Z from closer to my generation," Obama posited. "Look, this is a lot like the MJ [Michael Jordan] versus the LeBron conversation, right," he compared, pointing to all of their greatness.
Of course, there are other "Big Three" metrics to consider. Travis Scott, for example, is one of the top three most streamed rappers in the world, but he doesn't fit in the historical and stylistic barriers of the Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and J. Cole conversation. If anything, Barack Obama's words show that it's more of an era-defining title than your absolute top three of all time. Both, though, are high praise.