US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has spoken to MTV about his love of hip hop, especially the way in which the genre has got so adept at flogging shoes and its granny to make a dime.

"I enjoy it, but these days I don't have the time to listen to it all the time," Obama told MTV news. "I'm a little older than hip-hop culture. I was there at the beginning, but I was already getting older."

He went on to explain how he appreciated the way that rappers had become adept at the business side of music in recent times. "What I've appreciated, watching this hip-hop generation, is to see how entrepreneurial they've been. In the past, musicians oftentimes were commodities," the Democratic Presidential candidate explained. "They were just shuffled around. Obviously, they did well, but they didn't have the vision to say, 'I'm going to build a business. I'm going to build my own studio. I'm going to create my own production operations.' I think they're a lot more sophisticated than in the past, and that is a wonderful thing."

"What I'm starting to see is them stretching out more and thinking about social responsibility and how they can impact the culture in a positive way," he said. "And I hope that continues."