In Friday's People magazine, President Obama said he would rather spend the day with the Duck Dynasty family than a day with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. Columnist Eli Lake at The Daily Beast advises differently, and in fact says the president needs Kanye. Why? Because even the greatest MC needs a good DJ.

Since its infancy there has been a division of labor in hip hop between the master of ceremonies (MC), or the rapper, and the DJ who would later become the producer. When hip hop music began as soundtracks to parties in the Bronx, the DJ was the more important than the MC. The MC hyped the party, but the DJ extended the dance breaks on those records to keep the party going. As rap music became a business, the rapper emerged as the star and the DJ who created the sonic landscape for the rapper was relegated, with a few exceptions, to the background.

According to Lake, "If Barack Obama was in the hip hop business, he’d be a rapper." Why? He explains:

His speeches inspire, his rhetoric soars and he exudes charisma. Obama however would not be a producer, a job that requires the skill to manage the egos of artists and pay attention to the details that can turn a rapper’s lyrical vision into a downloadable single. DJ Premier or Pete Rock would have never allowed the Obamacare website to be unveiled before the bugs were worked out. 

That is why Lake says Obama needs Kanye.

Maybe Obama and Kanye could benefit from a friendship. Obama could teach Kanye about how to appeal better to his public and keeping his cool. Kanye on the other hand could teach Obama how to better manage a project and seeing it through despite the opposition of those wishing him to fail…An evening with game hunters from Louisiana has its charms, but Obama would benefit more today from the head of a rap dynasty than the duck variety.