President Barack Obama isn’t the only person who will need to change careers next January. With Obama out of the news, his professional impersonator has been watching the leader of the free world’s mannerisms and movements for seven years, studying his speeches and press conferences, will have to switch his focus to impersonating Drake and doing skits.
Nobody can mimic the speaking style and the quirks of Obama’s personality quite like Iman Crosson, who goes by “Alphacat” on YouTube, where he makes his living with spoof videos. He’s a supporter of the President.
“I was a waiter in a restaurant. I had been acting for a while and someone said to me while I was walking in ‘here comes Barack Obama,'” Crosson said of his life before Alphacat and Obama. “That kind of gave me an epiphany. I can work on an impression and use that to get some stints in my acting career and it worked out.”
Alphacat’s work, which includes the “Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney Epic Rap Battles Of History,” and “Back to Back Obama,” a Donald Trump rap diss, based on Drake’s Grammy-nominated track dissing fellow rapper Meek Mill, has hundreds of millions of views.
In “Back to Back Obama” Alphcat as Obama taunts Trump and boasts “I had two terms they went back to back,” slamming “right-wingers turn to slur-slingers” and adding “shouts to Clinton, she’s about to trump you.”
By reworking popular songs like Beyonce’s “Single Ladies,” T.I.’s “Whatever You Like” and Snoop Dogg’s “Drop it Like its Hot,” into Obama speeches, Crosson, who is also popular for his Drake impressions, has managed to put politics on young people’s radar.
Along with other YouTube stars, Crosson was invited to meet with Obama at the White House in 2014, to discuss the importance of quality, affordable healthcare and rally young people to sign up for Obamacare.
“Doing the Obama spoofs I have found that I catch the ear of a lot of young people that aren’t interested in politics or know nothing about politics and it makes them look into it and learn,” Crosson said. “Some teachers have used my videos to get a discussion on politics started in class.”
Watch Alphacat’s Obama impressions and check out more from the series.
