Obama is still America’s cool-playlist-maker-in-chief

By William Hughes | May 4, 2017 | 4:25am

Aux Features Music

Barack Obama may have left America’s seat of power, but he still occupies the national DJ booth in our hearts. Consequence Of Sound reports that the former president—via his Obama Foundation—is continuing his efforts to serve as America’s cool-playlist-maker-in-chief, releasing a new set of tracks celebrating his home base of Chicago. To pay tribute to the city, Obama asked a number of Windy City artists—including Chance The Rapper, Mavis Staples, Jennifer Hudson, Nick Offerman, and Dan Aykroyd—to submit songs for his “Hometown” list.

The end result is an eclectic collection of Chicago songs, from soul covers of Wilco songs to somber Tom Waits tracks (the latter courtesy of Offerman, who says they hearken back to his old theater days.) Chance stumped for his pal Kanye (“Family Business”), Staples offered up some smooth Curtis Mayfield, while Aykroyd, predictably, went with an old blues track. You can listen to the full playlist via Spotify, or right here: