It's only been a week since the USA’s president elect Barack Obama held his acceptance speech in Chicago, but it already feels like history. When Obama referred to the song A Change is Gonna Come, he invoked the spirit of the civil rights movement that was still struggling forward when Sam Cooke wrote the song in 1964.

All uplifting will.i.am songs aside, this was a moment of gravitas, because as ?uestlove said on his video blog: “This is not the end, ladies and gentlemen, this is only the beginning.” And so Aloe Blacc’s version of the Sam Cooke song, with its plodding beat and awkward, earnest juxtaposition of harp sample and choral rendition by Aloe, felt like the best musical reference point to that night – more appropriate than joyous songs like Signed, Sealed and Delivered by Stevie Wonder (which was included on a CD released by the Obama camp).

Aloe (who was a participant at the 2006 Academy in Melbourne) says it was an exciting moment when he heard the song’s lyrics referenced in Obama’s speech, and Stones Throw boss Peanut Butter Wolf checked it too, sending Aloe a text message after the live broadcast of the speech. Aloe recorded his version after months of listening to Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday and Change Is Gonna Come. “The message was so powerful and the music was so haunting and gripping that it moved me every time I listened.”

Aloe thinks a less cynical era of music will begin as his country adopts a new political vision. He’s always been one to explore different modes of expression – last year he wrote a Frank Sinatra-style operetta. Lately listening to a lot of Chicago, Steely Dan and song writers like John Lennon, he says: “I think the national psyche will be uplifted. It is entirely possible to feel the hopefulness expressed (by musicians) in the ‘60s.”

Similarly profound emotions were expressed by team member Jeff Mao, who with NYC’s egotrip crew helped pen the acerbically funny Big Book Of Racism. That book, published in 2002, took a wry look at racial stereotypes and slurs in music, pop culture and politics, with sections titled Who Are the Black Muppets and The Yella Pages. It even included one very special comment by John McCain on his use of the word ‘gook’, and professed that the Florida electoral college “just proved what we knew all along – voting don’t mean shit!”

Suddenly, last Tuesday November 4 2008, that conviction, held by many, was disproved. Jeff, who lives across 135th St in Harlem, spent the evening with his wife, baby son, and a bottle of Dom P. He wrote: “You couldn't help but be awed & humbled by the images from Grant Park in Chicago – the sheer volume of people heading down there to celebrate, every race and generation represented. It looked like something imaginary or scripted – I mean we'd had no reference point in our actual lifetimes for any scene like this. But this was the real deal. And it was incredible to witness. With every announcement that Obama had won another battleground or traditionally red state like Virginia, Nevada, or Florida, it was cause for another celebration – validation that he and we were on the correct side of history.

Finally, America had done the right thing. (The non-white thing.)

After the news cycle finished its live coverage I stayed up to watch Obama's victory speech again – I'd done the same thing after his nomination acceptance speech in Denver. It all felt like a dream. The next day and today it still feels like a dream. Of course the country's still in the shitter. But at least we got someone on the case who’s smart and actually cares. And is capable of changing the prevailing culture in such a way so others will also care, and ultimately find some way to pitch in and serve the country.

A while back I'd said to Drea that if Obama wins then the concept of a Black POTUS will never be a foreign one to our son. Well... done deal!

That's my story & I'm stickin’ to it.”

BONUS:
Across 135th Street - Volume 19 - Election Special - Chairman Mao (RBMA, Egotrip)
Download: Aloe Blacc - Anything Can Happen (Various Assets 2006)
Stream: Aloe's 'Vote For Obama' remix of Radiohead's Reckoner