I’m a sucker for hip hop and I know this because as soon as a back beat was added to Suzanne Vega’s Tom’s Diner (-eh-), I felt as though the song had been religiously transformed, taking me along with it.

Of course I’m not alone in this thinking. Since hiphop was discovered, musicians have been using it to give life to all kinds of songs, even to the macarena. I would never say the White Album was lifeless (far from it) but Danger Mouse certainly gave it a second life through hiphop. There’s even a hiphop educational song series (the next generation of SchoolHouse Rock) that teaches math and science (and they’re not bad songs either).

I just saw the movie Iron Man, and though it was a great movie, I can see where adding a beat here and there might have helped. The movie did get me back in touch with the classic Black Sabbath song (which, no disrespect, has no hiphop in it and also drags a bit with that long guitar solo). However there is a remake of the song by the Cardigans which I think is awesome, and probably not coincidently because it contains that familiar beat we all know and love.

Besides being a really fun movie, Iron Man also makes a plug for truthtelling, which in our current election cycle is extremely relevant. I won’t give away the ending, but I think Iron Man and Barack Obama have a lot of similarities.

So in a nutshell: Go somewhere and tell the truth. And if you can use hiphop to do it, all the better.