Jay-Z to invite President Barack Obama to play Made In America Fest

Following the official announcement of his latest endeavor, the two-day Budweiser Made In America music festival set for Labor Day weekend in Philadelphia, Jay-Z has revealed ambitious plans for this momentous event. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the mogul revealed that he is looking for artists “that embody the American Spirit” and that he will try to convince President Barack Obama to perform at the music fest.

“I’m gonna try. I’m gonna tell you guys right now: I’m gonna give him a call and I’m gonna try to get him to perform – do a little rendition of Al Green – but I doubt it. I think that opens up the political season. He’ll be so far into helping the world that he probably won’t have time, but I’m absolutely going to ask him.”

Watch Obama’s performance of “Let’s Stay Together” earlier this year above and find further excerpts of the conversation below.

You’re curating this festival. Pharrell is curating Karmaloop. Swizz Beatz and Kanye West are doing the same with shoes. When did curation become a buzzword for rap moguls?
It’s always been there; it’s just that now it’s official. You know, we’ve always been curators of style – that’s what music is. We’ve always been curators of culture, always, by default. It’s just that now it’s in an official way.

In 2005, you performed the second “I Declare War” concert in Philadelphia, ending your feud with Nas. Is there any chance of you doing the same thing in September and reconciling with Beanie? It’s the city of brotherly love, after all.
Um, I dunno. You know, I haven’t spoken to Beanie, so I don’t know how that plays out. It’s kinda, you know. And I’m going on tour tomorrow, to Europe, so I don’t know how that works.

What new things are you bringing to the European tour, besides converters for the outlets?
I don’t know. I just thought about the flag. It’s a major part of the show. We just gonna have to drop the flag everywhere. Everyone has to know we’re from America – I hope no one boos us.

There are all of these rumors flying around for who you’re working with on Watch the Throne 2. The name Kanye West keeps coming up. How is it different working together in 2012 as opposed to the last go-round?
I don’t know. We haven’t actually started working on Watch the Throne 2 yet; I had to put that to the side. I had a little interruption on January 7th.

That whole thing.
Yeah, that whole thing. And Kanye’s touring, working on G.O.O.D. Music – which I haven’t heard, but I heard it’s great.