Former President Barack Obama is setting the record straight regarding his annual end-of-the-year lists.
On Wednesday (June 21), writer and comedian Hasan Minhaj uploaded an interview with the Hawaii-born politician. During their conversation, he asked Obama if he read the books, watched the shows, and listened to all the songs he listed at the end of every year.
The 61-year-old Democrat quickly responded, “I do,” before explaining more about the lists. “I am so glad that I have this opportunity,” he continued. “People, they believe the books and the movies. But the playlists, they somehow think, and this is mostly coming from young people like you,” Obama added, referring to Minhaj. “Somehow, you all think you invented rock and roll. You invented hip hop. And so, the fact that my lists are, you know, pretty incredible, people seem to think, ‘Well, he must have had a 20-year-old intern who was figuring out, you know, this latest cut.’ No, man. It’s on my iPad right now.”
Mr. President, be honest… who’s making those playlists? 👀
As the discussion continued, Minhaj asked if Obama honestly had SiR’s “Life is Good” featuring Scribz Riley on his iPad. The former president proudly responded, “Yes, I do,” before jokingly adding, “Come on, man. Don’t play with me.”
Then, the 37-year-old political commentator attempted to test Obama’s book knowledge by asking him about the plot line for “Afterlives” by Abdulrazak Gurnah, a book featured on his reading list. “Dude, how much time do we have here?” Obama replied. “Look, here’s the bottom line of my playlist and my book list and my movie list. I am very scrupulous about making sure that this [is] stuff that I actually like. I will confess that there are times on the playlist where I would get suggestions because it’s not like I got time to be listening to music all the time. So, typically, at the end of the year, what happens is folks will be like, ‘Man, you need to listen to this. This is good.’ But unless I’m actually listening to it, watching it, [or] reading it, I won’t put it on there.”
Watch the full interview below: