When MTV News' Sway headed down to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration, he was expecting it to be one giant party. And while it certainly was for some, he didn't do much besides rehearse for his gig as the MC of MTV's "Be the Change" Youth Inaugural Ball. Matter of fact, he didn't really leave his hotel room ... aside from one day, that is: when he took a moment to reflect on the historic impact of the events with his 84-year-old grandmother. He also reflected on the feeling in D.C. on that historic day, and on his interviews last year with Barack Obama.
"I managed to leave the hotel in the afternoon and meet up with my grandmother, Elsie Waters. ... She's the matriarch of my fam, and she made the pilgrimage to D.C. to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama. We met up at the Smithsonian, and we just talked about everything that was happening. I didn't know how to sum it all up, but she said so many things that were so right.
"She said she felt very rejoiceful that she not only got to see this moment, but that she got to experience it in her lifetime. It made her reflect on her life and on everyone who has lost their lives in the struggle for equality — but not just black people. Everyone who marched in the civil-rights movement. Everyone who has been discriminated against or felt disenfranchised. She said this was the first time she ever thought that people were galvanized by something ... and how, for the first time in a long time, it felt like good was winning.
"The feeling of euphoria [in D.C.] was amazing. ... I walked by myself — it was just a couple of miles, but it took me, like, an hour. I hugged so many people and shook so many hands. There was this feeling in the air ... it was a feeling of love. And it made me think back to when I was a kid, and they asked you to imagine what heaven was like. To me, heaven was a gigantic playground that everyone played on. Everyone you had met before, everyone who you would meet. And I thought, 'This could be what heaven is like.' And when Obama spoke, he was like a messenger. For a brief moment, it all looked and felt like heaven. ...
"[Last fall] we had flown to interview Barack after his first debate with [Republican candidate] John McCain, and I was focused and on my game. But before we talked, some of his friends and advisers were around him, and they came up to me and were like, 'Hey, man, we saw your list of the Hottest MCs in the Game ... we think Jay-Z should've been #1.' [Laughs] They were talking to me about hip-hop, man. And I tried to get on them, like, 'I don't know if you're qualified to be talking about this ... show me your iPod.' And sure enough, one of the guys had, like, every Jay album on his iPod. And he said Barack listened to a lot of Jay too. It threw me off my game, you know? But I gotta respect him for that. He knew what he was talking about."
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