Middle Age Hollywood

Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner has published an extremely long interview with Barack Obama, during which he was asked about Rolling Stone's "specialty," popular music. Turns out the president's rap taste is expanding beyond your grandfather's plain old Jay-Z.

What music have you been listening to lately? What have you discovered, what speaks to you these days?



My iPod now has about 2,000 songs, and it is a source of great pleasure to me. I am probably still more heavily weighted toward the music of my childhood than I am the new stuff. There's still a lot of Stevie Wonder, a lot of Bob Dylan, a lot of Rolling Stones, a lot of R&B, a lot of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Those are the old standards.

A lot of classical music. I'm not a big opera buff in terms of going to opera, but there are days where Maria Callas is exactly what I need.

Thanks to Reggie [Love, the president's personal aide], my rap palate has greatly improved. Jay-Z used to be sort of what predominated, but now I've got a little Nas and a little Lil' Wayne and some other stuff, but I would not claim to be an expert. Malia and Sasha are now getting old enough to where they start hipping me to things. Music is still a great source of joy and occasional solace in the midst of what can be some difficult days.

"Hipping." God, he's so likable sometimes.

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