God damn, that’s a smile. Here’s another.
Damn! A photo op is a photo op, but the glo up is something else entirely: it’s one of the great pleasures of President Obama’s presidency to watch what happens when he extends his staggering charisma towards young people of color, and black kids specifically—even Kendrick Lamar, a stated fav of Obama’s and a leader of the free world in his own way, doesn’t look immune to what this kind of welcome in the White House means.
Lamar visited the White House in connection with the affiliate network of mentoring organizations called the National Mentoring Partnership, for which he just released a PSA called “Pay It Forward,” where the above images are found. And he was nervous on the visit, as Valerie Jarrett told BuzzFeed:
JARRETT: [Lamar] was at the White House. He came and he visited the president, and you know what the president said to him? [Because] he was a little nervous — bless his heart, he’s really a very nice young man, and the president said, “Can you believe that we’re both sitting in this Oval Office?”
The PSA features Lamar adorably clowning on a little kid on an outdoor basketball court, and dropping gentle bars: “Sometimes I reflect and think back where would be if I didn’t have the presence of an older acquaintance telling me what’s right and what’s wrong, telling me the pros and cons of every move I was about to make, telling me how to plan success for my future,” he says. Watch it below.
Kendrick Lamar - Pay It Forward from Top Dawg Entertainment on Vimeo.
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