Barack Obama’s likes to, in his self-deprecating way, expound upon how unhip he is compared to his wife and daughters. He also often seems more on the side of the hip hop police than the hip hop community. And yet, some rappers have latched onto him, casually dropping his names into their songs. Either he’s the first major candidate they can positively relate to since, well, ever (despite the black enough BS) or his name is just really easy to rhyme.

Take one of the summer’s biggest songs: In his new single “The People,” Common uses the lyric: “My raps ignite the people like Obama,” while the song’s music video flashes on an “Obama ‘08″ bumper sticker.

“He’s fresh, you know, he’s got good style,” Common told CNN. “As far as people in my age group and people that love hip-hop, there’s a love for Obama. He represents progress. He represents what hip-hop is about. Hip-hop is about progress, the struggle.”

Then there’s “Say Something,” a new track from the popular Brooklyn-based lyricist Talib Kweli, who raps: “Speak to the people like Barack Obama.”

Those references follow a song from Asian-American rapper Jin, who recently penned an up-tempo song called “Open Letter 2 Obama” that’s garnered more than 320,000 hits on Jin’s MySpace page.

Common and Talib Kweli aren’t exactly the last rappers one would expect to drop a politician’s name in their songs, and they are also safe for Obama to be associated with. Wait until 50 Cent rhymes “glock” with Barack. His enemies are gonna pounce.

[CNN]