Barack Obama Was Maybe in a Rap Video, But Then He Wasn't

By PopEater Staff Posted Jun 10th 2010 05:45PM

Buzz started building this week that President Barack Obama had maybe possibly perhaps taken some time out of his busy schedule in 1993 to appear in Tag Team's video for hip-hop jam 'Whoomp! (There It Is).'

It was a fun couple days of wondering. But it just ain't true. "It is not him," White House spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield told the relentless fact checkers PolitiFact. Whoomp, there it isn't. (Sorry.)

"I've never heard of this before," said Judd Miner, a colleague of Obama's from his Chicago law days. Obama was 31 at the time. "Barack never had an earring," Miner added, noting the bejeweled lobe of the Not-Obama.

Despite Gawker's noble speculation on the matter, including comparison photos and For and Against points, Barack Obama's MTV cameo was never meant to be.

"To paraphrase the Tag Team, we decided to go upside-down and inside-out and show you folks what it's all about," wrote PolitiFact, and they did indeed, going so far as tracking down Tag Team member DC the Brain Supreme. He told the website he was stunned by the attention and had received calls from 'Inside Edition' and New York magazine since the weekend.

"This is like an episode of 'South Park.' You can't pay for that kind of publicity," the rapper, real name Cecil Glenn, said. He doubted that it could have been Obama in the video. "It doesn't add up. It's hard to say he was in Atlanta and said, 'Ooh, I want to be in the 'Whoomp! (There It Is)' video. I can't be for sure because that was a real big video shoot and thousands of people showed up."

The video was produced at a fairground in Atlanta, Georgia -- a local radio station and word of mouth mustered a massive crowd for the shoot.

"We tried to pin down Obama's whereabouts during the June 1993 video shoot. We didn't have a detailed calendar, but the timing didn't mesh with Obama's biography," PolitiFact wrote.

That settles it. For those still curious, or those looking to get the song stuck in their head, here's the video. Not-Obama appears at the one minute mark: