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While evaluations of President Barack Obama vary widely in various subsets of black America, hundreds of Obama mentions in hip-hop over the last nine years show that the immediate legacy of the first black president will not only be shaped by his accomplishments, but by the challenges he faced and by the policies of presidents yet to come, who could either advance his work, or dismantle it.

A CNN analysis of Obama mentions in song lyrics reveals a divide in hip-hop over whether Obama did enough to uplift black America. A particular artist's opinion of the first black President is tempered by the their mistrust or acceptance of establishment politics.

Lyrics that came out between 2007-2016 chronicle the idealism of 2008, the disappointment that followed, the pride that transcends politics and how the nation's first black president and the rise of his successor, Donald Trump, forced America to confront its ongoing struggle for racial justice.

Common reflects on black America, Obama's legacy and the silver lining of Trump

Evaluations of Obama are often shaped by whether the artist is part of mainstream hip-hop or the counterculture, and whether the artist is assessing Obama "as a leader of the free world" or as a revolutionary leader who was expected to "bring about racial change," Bakari Kitwana, the CEO of Rap Sessions, told CNN.

"My President (is black)" by Young Jeezy was released in 2008 amid the worst economic downturn the US had seen since the Great Depression. But the promise of "hope and change" was in the air and this pro-Obama anthem captures the sense of triumph and hope that many black Americans felt during Obama's rise.

The video features exuberant crowds with Obama posters, surrounded by names of iconic African American leaders, black children holding up newspapers announcing Obama's win and a jubilant Rep. John Lewis, an early civil rights leader who helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, waving a sign that reads, "My president is black."

Jeezy gets political: Reflections on hope, change and Obama

"I think Obama provides hope and challenges minds of all races and colors to erase the hate and try to love one another," Nas raps in the 2008 track, "Black President."

Chicago rapper Common, who was invited to the White House and has remained one of Obama's most loyal supporters, paid tribute to the incoming President in his 2007 song, "The People," and his 2008 song "Changes."

And once Obama took office, Brooklyn rapper Maino released "All the Above," chronicling the rapper's struggles through a rough childhood, a painful life on the streets and his eventual incarceration:

"You've been seeing me lately, I'm a miracle baby/ I refuse to lose, this what the ghetto done made me/ I put that on my father, trying to hope for tomorrow/ When I think that I can't, I envision Obama."

As Obama's first term in office came to an end and partisan politics kept Congress deadlocked, poverty and hardships endured in the inner cities and the prospects of change seemed dim.

"Button on his lapel, picture of Obama/ Four years later we stuck in the same drama," Brooklyn rapper GZA raps in Wu Block's 2012 song, "Ridin' Round."

And in October 2015, Jeezy strikes a darker tone in "Streetz" -- a track off his "Politically Correct" EP that touches on issues like mass incarceration and street violence.

"Seen a black president, I ain't see no change tho/ They say street life numb ya, all I feel is pain tho," Jeezy raps. "... All the good jobs firin, ups ain't hiring/ Man this stress getting tiring in these streets."

The video takes place in a cemetery, as names of those killed by street violence flash across the screen.

"When we talk about Obama not being able to do enough for black people, a part of the problem is that the needs are so great," Kitwana said. "... These issues are so huge that it would be impossible for him to solely focus on those things without getting push back from the right."

Obama, who has commuted the sentences of 1,000 inmates to date -- more than the past 11 presidents combined, made criminal justice reform more of a focus during his second term in office, promoting new initiatives to rehabilitate former prison inmates, commuting sentences of non-violent drug offenders and becoming the first sitting president to visit a federal prison.

Jeezy told CNN in November 2015 that while he would have "gone much further" on issues like criminal justice reform, Obama's efforts are "better late than never."

"I think that's a great gesture by Obama ... and that's the beginning of some type of slight change," he added.

Chicago rapper Vic Mensa told CNN that while representing black people "was not necessarily his job," Obama "could have been a lot more vocally sympathetic" to issues that impact black America.

Lyrics show that Obama was criticized for not speaking out on race and racism, particularly on the issue of police brutality, which gained mainstream media attention following the 2014 police shooting death of unarmed Missouri teenager Michael Brown, which sparked an uprising in Ferguson and fueled the rise of the "Black Lives Matter" movement.

"People saw Obama go and speak about Sandy Hook when young people were killed and then they saw Mike Brown get shot in broad daylight and the president didn't say anything," Kitwana said. "That hurt a lot of people."

Over the last two years, the Justice Department, headed by Obama-appointed Attorney General Loretta Lynch, launched several investigations into police departments around the nation, including Ferguson, revealing patterns of racial discrimination in policing.

"We haven't been convicting police officers for their murders," Mensa said.

"If Obama was to address it he would give you 45 seconds of why we need to respect our officers and give you 15 seconds about how they might be going wrong, and that's not an honest assessment of the situation," he added.

In The Game's 2016 song, "Let Me Know," the rapper slams Obama's silence following the July police shooting death of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, rapping, "Why it take 3 days for Obama to respond? Cause Minnesota 3 days from the White House lawn."

Long Beach rapper Crooked I told CNN that while he was heart broken by the President's silence on the 2014 police shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Obama was often "backed into a corner" on issues of race.

This was demonstrated by the intense backlash leveled against him following his response to the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old unarmed teenager from Sanford, Florida.

Obama was accused by Republicans, from Rush Limbaugh to Newt Gingrich, of inciting racial divisions following his heartfelt message to Martin's parents, where he said, "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon."

"When Obama said Trayvon resembled 'em/ Nobody hurried to arrest George Zimmerman," Brooklyn rapper Papoose raps in the 2012 song, "Crooklyn Remake." "It's not black and white it's not a contest/ It's just wrong and right."

While Obama rose to become the leader of the free world, lyrics show that he was simultaneously viewed as a victim of the American establishment and as a mouthpiece for a capitalistic, imperialist superpower that has kept people of color down.

"The Republicans said on day-one ... they're going to make him a one-term president, and that they're going to give him hell," Crooked I said. "I've never seen a person of power get treated like that ... that would have never happened to a white president."

New York rapper stic.man of the hip-hop duo Dead Prez warns in the 2008 song "Politrikkks," that "it's still white power, it's the same system, just changed form ... Even if Obama wins, Uncle Sam ain't my friend."

Atlanta rapper Killer Mike, an establishment critic who backed Bernie Sanders in 2016, echoes a similar sentiment in his 2012 song "Reagan," rapping that Obama is "just an employee of the country's real masters."

"Ronald Reagan was an actor, not at all a factor/ Just an employee of the country's real masters," Killer Mike raps, criticizing American militarism and the war on drugs. "Just like the Bushes, Clinton and Obama/ Just another talking head telling lies on teleprompters."

In his 2013 song "Progressive 3," which slams mass incarceration, Long Beach rapper Vince Staples proclaims that Obama has no real power.

"The black and brown been going through a holocaust/ You see Obama just a house n**** to me," Staples raps. "They locked the children up in prison and they ditching the key."

And in The Game's 2014 song "Don't Shoot," Swizz Beatz touches on the racism Obama experienced, rapping, "They don't really respect Obama out here."

But as hip-hop braces for a Trump presidency, lyrics shows that Trump's rise has already begun to have an impact on how Obama is viewed.

"(Trump) can't make decisions for this country, he gon' crash us/ No, we can't be a slave for him/ He got me appreciatin' Obama way more," Compton rapper YG raps in the 2016 anti-Trump anthem "FDT," which stands for "F*** Donald Trump."

Hip-hop entrepreneur Karen Civil, who was invited to speak at the White House by the first lady, told CNN that the Obamas made it possible for people of color to have a seat at the table because they are "connected to society."

Civil fears that in a Trump White House this will change.

"I know I'll never be able to sit in that room. I know it will go back to sitting in the back of the bus," she said.

In his 2016 song, "The Day the Women Took Over," Common hails black women leaders, rapping, "Mothers get medals for being courageous soldiers/ On dollars, it's Michelle Obama, Oprah and Rosa."

Hip-hop lyrics show that as first lady, Michelle Obama was more insulated from political critiques than her husband.

"A bar has been raised by Michelle Obama for what we expect out of the first lady," Rapper and singer Lizzo told CNN. "She's like the Beyonce of first ladies ... If people don't' like Obama, they love Michelle."

As Obama leaves office, he also leaves behind images that for many in the hip-hop community, remain powerful and profound.

From the time a young black boy touched the President's hair, realizing it felt like his own, to the time 106-year-old Virginia McLaurin, who waited her whole life to see a black president, was moved to dance in the White House upon meeting the Obamas, there is an enduring sense of pride and hope that transcends politics.

This pride is captured in Ta-Nehisi Coates' 2016 essay, "My President Was Black:"

"... I also knew that the man who could not countenance such a thing in his America had been responsible for the only time in my life when I felt, as the first lady had once said, proud of my country," he writes. "... The feeling was that little black boy touching the president's hair. It was watching Obama on the campaign trail, always expecting the worst and amazed that the worst never happened. It was how I'd felt seeing Barack and Michelle during the inauguration, the car slow-dragging down Pennsylvania Avenue, the crowd cheering, and then the two of them rising up out of the limo, rising up from fear, smiling, waving, defying despair, defying history, defying gravity."

And Jeezy, whose lyrics are both reminiscent of the idealism of 2008 and the disappointment that followed, still maintains that Obama "gave us hope."

The Atlanta rapper told Genius during Obama's last month in office that Obama "led by perfect example. He showed people how to move as a unit, and be a family, and strive."

Common, who reflects on the state of black America in his 2016 album, "Black America ... Again," expressed a profound sense of pride in the nation's first black president:

"(Obama) provided the scope of what a black man can be ... how much depth and intelligence and resolve and courage and compassion and strength and humanity we have as black people. He's been a shining example and that's been a beacon for us," Common told CNN. "... As a black man, I know that he has represented black people in a beautiful way. and we thank him for all his hard work, his commitment, his heart and his spirit."

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Marissa Alexander celebrates being released from house arrest

WJAX

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A Florida woman whose conviction sparked a change in the states gun laws is now completely free and says she plans to run an organization to help victims of domestic violence caught up in the criminal justice system.

Marissa Alexander told The Florida Times-Union that she wants to help others because from what Ive been through I know a lot more about the system and how it fits together.

Ive been contained since 2011, Alexander said. But Im excited to have the chance to give back using whatever platform I have.

Alexander attracted national attention after she was sentenced in 2012 to 20 years in prison for firing a shot near her estranged husband during an altercation. She argued she had fired a warning shot and unsuccessfully tried to use Floridas stand your ground law as part of her defense.

According to Alexander, her estranged husband, Gray, accused her of having an affair and questioned whether their 9-day-old baby was his. She says she locked herself in the bathroom until he broke through the door and shoved her to the floor. She says she tried to escape through the garage but the door wouldnt open. She retrieved a gun from a car, went back inside and says she fired a warning shot after Gray said he would kill her - an account backed by one of his sons. No one was injured.

Her husband denied abusing her and said she shot at him in anger after he insulted her former husband. Prosecutors insisted it wasnt a warning shot because it hit the wall behind Gray and not the ceiling.

Alexanders case became noticed because it was contrasted against what happened to George Zimmerman who was acquitted in the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin after he said he shot the unarmed Martin in self-defense.

Alexanders conviction was thrown out on appeal and she reached a plea deal in 2014. Her case was cited by legislators when they altered Floridas mandatory sentencing law nearly three years ago.

Alexander was released from home detention this past week. She has begun the process of setting up the Marissa Alexander Justice Project which will not only focus on female victims of domestic violence but will be critical of minimum-mandatory sentences like the 20 years Alexander once faced after she was initially convicted.

She told the newspaper that her fame is still something she struggles with, rolling her eyes when a reporter tells her shes famous but also acknowledging the oddity that many people whove never met her are familiar with her case.

The surreal moment for me was getting mail from Great Britain and Australia, Alexander said.

2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Marissa Alexander, Fla. woman jailed for firing a "warning shot," now free - CBS News

Jaleesa M. Jones , USA TODAY 12:58 p.m. EST January 30, 2017

by Sybrina Fulton

(Spiegel & Grau)

in Memoir

The world will never know who Trayvon Martin the unarmed 17-year-old fatally shot in Florida by neighborhood watch coordinatorGeorge Zimmerman on Feb. 26, 2012 could have grown up to be.

In a way, wenever knew who he was. His humanity was lost, broken down intoschool records,headlinesand 140 charactersin the ensuing media scrutiny and trial of Zimmerman for his role in the altercation that ended in Trayvon's death.

In Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin (Spiegel & Grau, 331 pp., ***out of four stars), Trayvons parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, gather the pieces and attempt to present the whole of who their sonwas when he was just a boy before he became a martyr and before his death sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.

USA TODAY

Trayvon Martin's parents, five years after his shooting, weigh political bids

He was aboy whofell in love with aviation and dreamed of flying beyond the world he knew. A boy trying to find his place in a society that already viewed him as a man.

But as much as the book is about Trayvon's life, it's also a meditation on the criminal justice system that his parents believe did not do himjustice.

Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin have written 'Rest in Power.'(Photo: Adrian Freeman)

In Fulton and Martins words, it was Trayvon their "Tray," who called his mom "Cupcake" and counted everyone he met as a friend who was put on trial. In alternating chapters, the parents detail how their son's nonviolentinfractions were examined under a microscope while Zimmerman's previous run-ins with the law were, in their view, glossed over. (Zimmerman was arrested in April 2012 after nationwide protestsand charged with second-degree murder. At his trial, Zimmermansaid he felt threatened by the teen, whom he had followed in his car and then on foot. He was later acquitted.)

The divorced couple tunnel into how the prosecution was barred from using the phrase "racial profiling" and how cultural differences and linguistic racismhurt the credibility of the prosecution's key witness, Trayvon's friend Rachel Jeantel.

Later, Fulton and Martin write that prosecutors neglected to ask the right questions and present more character witnessesto humanize Trayvon in the eyes of the jury.

Trayvon Martin, left, and George Zimmerman. right.(Photo: AP)

But while Rest in Powerlaments the pitfalls of the case and the state of racial justice, Fulton and Martin also offer a glint of hope in the rallies for justice, the support which extended from Hollywood to the White House, and the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement, which brought together people who understood that, no,Trayvon wasn't an angel because he was a human being.

Rest in Powerstands as a reminder not only of Trayvon's life and deathbut of the vulnerability of black livesin a country that still needs to be reminded they matter. It also offers a prayer that someday, as Fulton writes, "the killing will stop" and "the healing will begin."

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Trayvon Martin's parents honor son's 'Enduring Life' - USA TODAY

Five years after their son was killed in a shooting that sparked controversy around the country, the parents of Trayvon Martin have written a book in memory of their son and his life.

The book, titled "Rest in Power," was released Tuesday and chronicles the lives of Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton before and after the death of their son, and the eventual impact of his passing.

At the time, Trayvon's death and the acquittal of shooter George Zimmerman sparked protests and debate across the country about racial profiling and justice. The case would help to fuel the beginnings of the Black Lives Matter Movement.

Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton joined Radio Times host Marty Moss-Coane to talk about their experiences.

We really dont know what happened those 71 seconds, Martin said of the time before Trayvon was shot. Preceding the shooting, the sequence of events between him and Zimmerman left room for interpretation, as there is still time unaccounted for. Martin said Zimmerman was unafraid and looking for trouble.

Click through to listen to their whole conversation.

Fulton and Martin will be at the Free Library of Philadelphia Thurs. February 2, 2017, at 7:30 p.m. for a conversation with Associated Press reporter Errin Haines Whack.

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'Rest in Power': Trayvon Martin's parents talk new book, heartache on Radio Times - Newsworks.org

The founders of Black Lives Matter urged UC Riverside students and community organizers to rely on one another at a time when they say President Donald Trumps administration is targeting women, immigrants and people of color.

Its going to take all of us to stop what 45 is doing right now, said Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, referring to Trump, the 45th U.S. president.

Cullors and Alicia Garza, who together founded Black Lives Matter, an international organizing network, talked to a packed crowd at UC Riverside on Wednesday. The room at the Highlander Union Building appeared to be filled to capacity. Some students stood against the wall. A number of security guards were present.

The duo talked about the origins of Black Lives Matter, which started as a hashtag reacting to the July 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman, a Florida neighborhood watch volunteer, in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager.

A large part of the UCR discussion dealt with how people from different backgrounds can work together to organize against the number of executive actions Trump recently has signed.

Trump has moved to temporarily ban refugees and immigrants from seven mostly Muslim countries from entering the U.S. He also has moved to deport immigrants convicted or charged with committing a crime.

Earlier this year, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Republicans would move to defund Planned Parenthood as part of a push to repeal Obamacare.

Theyre coming after all of us, and we dont have the luxury of abstaining, Garza said.

This is an opportunity for us to build a different movement, she added. Thats not to say that this is the time to stop holding people accountable for the ways that we get erased or moved out of the way.

Whats the work that we need to do together, she asked, so that we can actually fight together?

The event was co-sponsored by UC Riversides Center for Ideas and Society and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which had given UCR over $450,000 in grants over three years to conduct seminars on campus diversity and marginalized groups.

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Black Lives Matter founders urge unity during Trump era - LA Daily News