Voters: Fenty “ain’t mad atcha”!

Though it’s a few days old, my Twitter is abuzz (again) with references to this video produced by Ron Moten for his pal, the Mayor: “Don’t leave us, Fenty”. If you can’t (or don’t want to) watch it, I’ll summarize it by saying that Moten borrowed BLACKstreet’s hit from 1996, “Don’t Leave Me” to create his jam. I can’t be the only one who thought of Tupac’s “I Ain’t Mad Atcha” when I heard the familiar melody, not when both BLACKstreet and ‘Pac sample the same song (“A Dream“) from DeBarge.


So why are there new tweets about this five-day old plea to retain Fenty? Sarah Godfrey over at TBD Arts analyzed the video and wrote “Don’t Leave Us Fenty”: A study in ’90s hip-hop video imagery. It’s a fun piece comparing the visuals in Moten’s campaign joint to those from Bone Thugs and Common videos.

As for “Don’t Leave Us Fenty”, I don’t know if this tactic will be effective in attracting the African American voters who definitely prefer Fenty’s challenger, Vince Gray. Perhaps Fenty would’ve been better served by borrowing BLACKstreet’s #1 hit, “No Diggity“, instead. An endorsement from Li’l Penny would be so much more impressive than one from the Washington Post, don’t you think?