'Obama Effect' Cleaning Up Rap

Thanks to President Obama, today’s rap focuses less on drugs, bling, and violence, and the “conscious rapper” is on the rise—at least according to Common. “I don't find as much gangsta talk,” the rapper/actor tells CNN. “You see the whole chain-shining-and-rim era is gone. That's like super-played out. Just to have that, I think, is part of the Obama effect.”

Hip-hop fans are ready to hear more positive, upbeat messages from socially aware artists, Common says—and he, for one, is ready to give that to them. “What America was built on was being able to say, 'Hey, we're going to come in and use our resources to build for ourselves and our communities and build around that.' I think that's what hip-hop is starting to do to a certain extent.” (More rapper stories.)