2024 DNC in Chicago: The Political Source Awards, Where Democrats Finally Channel Their Inner Death Row Records

On August 3, 1995, at the Paramount Theater in New York City, one of the most extraordinary events on American soil took place: the 1995 Source Awards. It was the place where Notorious BIG won the award for Best Lyricist, Outkast won Best Group, and Andre 3000 said his famous quote, "The South got somethin' to say!"

But what sticks out the most about this ceremony is the famous Suge Knight quote going at Puff Daddy. If you've been around any pop culture in the last 30 years, you've heard this quote or variants of it. A 6'5 Knight in all red gets to the mic and says, "Any artist out there wanna be a' artist, and wanna stay a star, and don't wanna – and won't have to worry about the executive producer tryna be all in the video, all on the record, dancin' – come to Death Row!"

After the comments, you see a smiling Tupac screaming in excitement and a charged-up Snoop Dogg yelling at the New York crowd.

Anyways, I bring all this up because the 2024 DNC in Chicago is the political version of that Source Awards, and dammit, it's about time.

Remember when Michelle Obama famously said, "When they go low, we go high"? None of that was the case in her or anybody else's speech. Everybody on stage this week has been a version of Death Row Records on the podium.

Even Barack, now with all white hair but still giving zaddy energy, gets up there and, while talking about Trump's obsession with crowd sizes, does a hand gesture that's going to be in every woman's group chat from here on out after going the distance with future lovers.

This has been a refreshing approach from the Democrats, and finally, dare I say, it looks like they are getting it right. I often lamented the Democrats' rhetoric when going against Trump and the GOP that empowered him, simply saying they weren't like Trump rather than saying what they were.

Now, the approach is to call out the bullies and call them weirdos while we're at it. The most powerful response from the Democrats wasn't to be on the defensive but rather to offer a mirror for the American public to see what the Republicans are.

Even though I love the DNC's 1990s rap energy, I still have a bit of fear. On election morning of 2016, the New York Times's Upshot blog had Hilary Clinton's chances of winning over 90%. Saturday Night Live had skits with Clinton impersonator Kate Mckinnon dancing and drinking champagne as if it was a done deal. Nobody knew what was coming.

The 2016 results still have me worried. We focus a lot on registering people to vote, but what about activating the people who are already registered but don't get out? The worst thing that can happen when the Democrats get momentum is for the ticket's supporters to feel as if Harris's win is inevitable. I don't need to do anything.

In other words, in the spirit of 90s rap, we don't just want to win this election; we should want to pulverize the competition. So much so that the GOP should go down and recalibrate their party to ensure nothing like Donald Trump happens again. Anything other than a landslide victory for the Democrats in November will be met with utter chaos. We've seen it before.