Both President Obama and Kanye West guested at a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee today in San Francisco. It had been reported that West would use the occasion to perform songs from his upcoming album, SWISH. Tickets cost up to $10,000.
Variety reports that, before Kanye's performance, Obama gave a speech and made a few jokes about Kanye's 2020 presidential candidacy, which the rapper announced after he won the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the MTV Video Music Awards in August.
"In a little while you are going to hear from a guy who is thinking about getting into politics...in case Kanye is serious about this whole POTUS thing, or, as Kanye calls it, 'peezy.'" He went on to offer some words of advice for Kanye if he, indeed, is able to become the country's second black president.
"You've got to deal with strange characters who behave as if they are on a reality TV show. Saying you have a beautiful dark twisted fantasy — that's what’s known as off-message in politics."
And perhaps his best joke of the day:
"Do you really think this country is going to elect a black guy from the south side of Chicago with a funny name to be president of the U.S.?"
Obama's got jokes. Stay tuned to see if Kanye does, in fact, premiere new material from SWISH.
