The Day Michelle Obama Put Me on Her Playlist — and What I Did About It

I've had a lot of moments in this career that stopped me cold. But few of them hit quite like the day word came back that Michelle Obama — First Lady of the United States — had publicly named "Treat 'Em Right" as one of her personal workout records. Not a ceremonial mention. Not a throwaway quote. Her get-me-going music. The song that fires her up.

Let me put that in context for you. A record I made with my cousin Howie Tee in 1990 — in a booth, chasing a feeling, with no formula and no master plan — had found its way into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The most powerful address in the world. And it was on the playlist of a woman who is, by any honest measure, one of the most extraordinary human beings of our generation.

"When Michelle Obama says your record gets her going in the morning, you don't just smile and move on. You feel the full weight of what you made — and what it actually meant to people."

But here's what people don't know: I didn't just accept the compliment and go back to my life. When Barack Obama was running for president in 2008, I wrote and released "Obama We Believe" — a record specifically in support of his campaign and what it represented to Black America and to this country. Because when the First Lady has your record in her ears and her husband is trying to make history, you pick up the pen. Full stop.

That's what hip hop does at its best. It moves between the personal and the political without losing either one. "Treat 'Em Right" was about decency between people. "Obama We Believe" was about decency between a nation and its own ideals.

From a basement in Brooklyn to the halls of the White House. I don't take a single step of that journey for granted.

— Chubb Rock  |  The Chubbster