The group, the Hip Hop Caucus, has a nine-member Washington office — but its real reach comes from its ability to harness the power of hip-hop artists to put a famous face on issues and draw in their young, multicultural fans. In the next few weeks, the caucus will see a bill it fashioned with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) be introduced — calling for funding for a one-day voter registration drive and lessons on the Constitution in high schools across the country.
Hip Hop Caucus engages Capitol Hill
By NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON
Buoyed by Barack Obama’s election as president, a group of hip-hop artists and other activists is taking to Capitol Hill — trying to harness the wave of support for Obama among young voters into an ongoing political force.
The group, the Hip Hop Caucus, has a nine-member Washington office — but its real reach comes from its ability to harness the power of hip-hop artists to put a famous face on issues and draw in their young, multicultural fans.
In the next few weeks, the caucus will see a bill it fashioned with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) be introduced — calling for funding for a one-day voter registration drive and lessons on the Constitution in high schools across the country.
Organizers are working with Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) to gather support for legislation fighting climate change — and singers Solange Knowles and Keyshia Cole have both signed on to help, through the Green the Block campaign.
And the group also reached out to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to get support for prisoner re-entry legislation that would help former inmates transition back into society.
To the group’s executive director, Lennox Yearwood Jr., the link between politics and hip-hop is a natural one — as a way to make politics more accessible to young voters, more like sports than study hall.
“If you have a flier that says something about the economic stimulus package, versus one that has ‘Hip-Hop Town Hall, find out how you get yours’ on it, what’s going to get a bigger draw?” Yearwood said. “That’s the power of hip-hop.”
And the power of Obama.
Rappers have campaigned for candidates before, but the hip-hop community hasn’t been able to sustain the interest or the momentum when the election was over. Obama’s election has led some in the industry to say it’s time for the political side of hip-hop to get more serious.
And already there are signs that hip-hop artists seem to be sticking around this time. The HHC harnessed that creative interest into a get-out-the-vote campaign and used artists like Young Jeezy, T.I., Rick Ross, Busta Rhymes, Fantasia, Brandy and Big Boi to get voters to the polls.
Obama got 68 percent of the youth vote, to Sen. John McCain’s 30 percent — with 2.2 million more voters between 18 and 29 turning up at the polls this election cycle compared with 2004.
Some artists — including Jay-Z and Nas — also appeared on the stump for Obama, and there was a hip-hop inaugural ball, a first. The message that January night was clear: Hip-hop has to grow up or be marginalized again.
“I wanted to use my voice to make sure people were engaged,” said rapper David Banner, who testified in 2007 House hearings on media representation of African-Americans. Banner, a BET hip-hop award winner, pitched in with the Hip Hop Caucus’ Respect My Vote campaign and will continue to be engaged, he said.
“The decisions that we make now politically will affect the next generation and the generation after that. So we have to be involved. By speaking out, I end up speaking for poor people and a larger group all over the country,” Banner said.
First formed in 2004 as an offshoot of P. Diddy’s New York-based “Vote or Die” campaign and Russell Simmons’ Hip Hop Summit Action Network, the HHC sprung out of the disappointment from that election cycle.
“We voted, and we got die,” Yearwood said, referencing the “Vote or Die” campaign slogan.
Yet politics and hip-hop haven’t always been an easy mix. While the roots of the music and the culture have political undertones — Grand Master Flash’s 1982 hit “The Message” was a searing indictment of the decades-long neglect of urban areas — hip-hop has often been on the outside of politics, looking in.
“The decisions that we make now politically will affect the next generation and the generation after that. So we have to be involved. By speaking out, I end up speaking for poor people and a larger group all over the country,” Banner said.
First formed in 2004 as an offshoot of P. Diddy’s New York-based “Vote or Die” campaign and Russell Simmons’ Hip Hop Summit Action Network, the HHC sprung out of the disappointment from that election cycle.
“We voted, and we got die,” Yearwood said, referencing the “Vote or Die” campaign slogan.
Yet politics and hip-hop haven’t always been an easy mix. While the roots of the music and the culture have political undertones — Grand Master Flash’s 1982 hit “The Message” was a searing indictment of the decades-long neglect of urban areas — hip-hop has often been on the outside of politics, looking in.
Bill Clinton criticized rapper Sistah Souljah in 1992 in order to appear more centrist. Vice President Al Gore’s wife, Tipper, worked to get advisory stickers put on some rap records to warn parents of violent and misogynistic lyrics.
Enter Obama. Young Jeezy’s “My President’s Black” was in heavy rotation last summer, and many in the hip-hop generation take credit for Obama’s victory and count him as one of their own. One popular T-shirt has Obama sporting a Kangol cap, Gazelle glasses and a fat gold chain with the tag “Run DC.”
“You couldn’t go anywhere without seeing Obama. His face was the universal picture for change,” said Jeff Chang, author of “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation.” “But the thing about hip-hop is that it’s been a cultural force and great at mobilizing and messaging — but the political end isn’t unitary or stable, and it’s recent.”
These days, Yearwood, 39, who often sports a Green the Block baseball cap, Hip Hop Caucus pin and clergy collar, is up on the Hill three to four times a week, meeting with elected officials and sitting in on hearings.
Their agenda is a progressive one, centered on health care, education, climate change and livable cities. Yearwood submitted a memo to Obama’s transition team, has reached out to the EPA and the public liaison’s office and is looking to work with the White House Office of Urban Affairs to push its agenda.
“We are giving voice to those who are outside of institutions, folks who are not in college, who didn’t graduate high school; we are able to tap people at the barber shop, on the block and in the beauty salon,” Yearwood said. “We allow their perspective so that voice doesn’t get lost in the discourse.”
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus served as early mentors for the organization, back when the Hip Hop Caucus was still being confused with a rap group.
Now, 21 members of the CBC are on the advisory panel to the Caucus, which has field teams in 48 cities.
“The Hip Hop Caucus does an incredible job of connecting young people in urban communities with the political and legislative process,” said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who chairs both the CBC and the HHC’s advisory panel.
Rep. Andre Carson, who sits on the advisory board and is himself a former emcee, said hip-hop doesn’t get enough credit for creating the climate that allowed for Obama’s ascendance.
Hip-hop “opened doors to build friendships between African-Americans and Latinos and whites,” he said. “America became comfortable with the idea of a black executive because of all the hip-hop moguls.”
But the skepticism about political projects under the hip-hop label remains.
“The music harbors and celebrates a way of behaving that works against a progressive agenda. That’s the contradiction that nobody wants to talk about,” said Tricia Rose, author of “The Hip Hop Wars.”
Yet some counter that members of Hollywood’s elite rarely get the same critique when they take up political issues, although the movies they peddle are often violent and misogynistic.
Counters Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), who is a member of HHC’s advisory board:
“Hip Hop does have a ways to go in terms of its image, but the fact is that the artists and the music that they put out is born and bred from the districts we represent.”
Yearwood also is working with CBC members to bring hip-hop artists to the group’s annual legislative conference in the fall. “We need Andre 3000 and Andre Carson connecting,” Yearwood said, referring to the lead singer of OutKast. “We have to be able to move politics from the hood to the Hill and from the suites to the streets.”
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