It is easy to imagine Malia Obama going to Lollapalooza and Michelle Obama rapping with Missy Elliott, and yet even though it’s well known that President Obama enjoys good music, it’s nevertheless more difficult to visualize him kicking back and taking in some tunes. In my own tableau of this, he is sitting in a robe and slippers next to a fire, drinking a White House Honey Ale, reflecting on the day and bobbing his head to some night jams. He’s also wearing sunglasses in this fantasy. It’s tempting to try to decode this playlist as if it were a chapter of Ulysses, but for the purpose of brevity we will take it for what it is: an extremely chill, R&B-heavy mix of sensual grooves and hard-hitting, emotional lyrics. There’s also a rather sentimental, melancholy dimension to many of these songs, from Billie Holiday’s “Loverman” (“I don’t know why, but I’m feeling so sad/ I long to try something I never had”) to Janet Jackson’s “I Get Lonely” (“I get so lonely/ Can’t let just anybody hold me”). This mix in particular lets us see him as a complex and passionate dude, one who’s as entitled to a groovy dark night of the soul as anyone.
