If it wasn’t already clear, Barack Obama’s year-end lists – a tradition dating back to 2015 – pretty much cement the former president’s “cool dad” aesthetic. The Carters’ “Apeshit” makes the cut, as does Cardi B’s “I Like It”, giving us an upsetting reminder of what it was like to have a more forward-thinking figure in the White House.
Other mentions on the list span many genres: there’s Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, Chance the Rapper and J Cole, and “Mary Don’t You Weep” from Prince’s posthumous release, Piano & A Microphone 1983.
On Obama’s “favourite movies” list are the wildly successful Black Panther and BlacKkKlansman, as well as The Death of Stalin, Eighth Grade, and If Beale Street Could Talk, among others.
Particularly cute is Barack Obama’s mention of Michelle Obama’s Becoming on his book list – with the added comment: “(obviously my favourite!)” – but there are also new essays from Zadie Smith and David W Blight’s biography of Frederick Douglass, the escaped African American slave and leading abolitionist. He has also revisited older books too, though, such as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Grain Of Wheat and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, which get honourable mentions.
Read the whole list in Barack Obama’s original Facebook post, or just the songs below.