Author Jeff Chang interviewed Maya Soetor-Ng, Barack Obama's sister, for his cover story on the Senator in our September 2007 issue.What follows is the first half of their conversation.

Jeff Chang is the author of Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation and the editor of Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop. In May 2007, he interviewed Barack Obama for our September 2007 cover story. In this exclusive podcast conducted by VIBE's Editor-at-Large Rob Kenner and Online Editor Julianne Shepherd, Chang discusses the experience and his impressions of the Senator and Democratic Presidential hopeful. Listen Here:

American Book Award-winning author Jeff Chang interviewed Senator Barack Obama for VIBE on May 23, 2007. What follows is the second half of the interview transcript from our September 2007 cover story.

American Book Award-winning author Jeff Chang interviewed Senator Barack Obama for VIBE on May 23, 2007. What follows is the first half of the interview transcript from our September 2007 cover story. Check back on Wednesday, August 8, for the second half.

Today's Washington Post contrasts Senator Obama's campaign methods, and political success, to those of other African American politicians - particularly Deval L. Patrick, who became the first black governor of Massachusetts, and Cory Booker, present mayor of troubled Newark.

From our September 2007 issue: Rev. Al Sharpton on Barack Obama, in his own words.