Hip-hop has always been political. It was founded as a genre that detailed the socioeconomic problems New York City youths encountered in the 1970s. But four years ago hip-hop stepped into the arena of electoral politics.

Sean “Diddy” Combs launched the Vote or Die campaign to encourage people to vote. Russell Simmons’s Hip-Hop Summit Action Network took an active role in registering voters. A Hip Hop Convention in New Jersey sought to create an agenda of issues important to the community.

The political engagement was at least a numerical success. In 2004, 49 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds voted in the presidential election, a 9 percent increase over turnout among that age group in the 2000 race, according to a February report by Rock the Vote. But for some people, the end result of the activity proved disappointing.

“I was not happy with what I felt was a lack of an agenda,” Jamarhl Crawford, the 37-year-old founder of the Boston chapter of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, said of the 2004 Hip Hop Convention, which he attended.

Hip-hop is taking another stab at politics this year. Mariah Carey, Russell Simmons, and Jay-Z have endorsed Barack Obama. Simmons launched Hip Hop Team Vote just before the Pennsylvania Democratic primary to register voters. Another Hip Hop Convention is scheduled for Las Vegas beginning July 28.

But this time, the grass-roots organizations that previously provided support to the national programs are exploring ways to effect political change locally. These groups introduce people to issues affecting their communities - as Crawford has done by educating those in Roxbury and Dorchester about a Boston Police Department plan to search homes without warrants - or teach people how to change public policies they don’t like through their political representatives and grass-roots organizing.

During a recent panel discussion at Northeastern University about hip-hop and politics, Jeff Johnson, 37, a former vice president of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network who’s on the BET programs “Cousin Jeff Chronicles” and “Meet the Faith,” attributed the disconnect felt by some participating in the hip-hop political movement in 2004 to the organizers’ focus on the presidential campaign. “The problem with it,” Johnson said, “was there was very little substance underneath that movement. Vote or Die, but I’m not going to tell you how. Vote or Die, but I’m not going to help you organize.”

Roxbury’s National Black College Alliance plans to give community activists, corporate leaders, educators, and college students guidance on developing leadership skills and becoming politically active with its conference “Greatest Minds: A Gathering of Black Bostonians.” Some 200 people have already signed up for the networking event on June 6-7 at Roxbury’s Hibernian Hall.

“Because there are many people in Generation X and Y that are aspiring for leadership, they’re trying to figure out what leverage to pull here in town,” said George “Chip” Greenidge Jr., founder of the National Black College Alliance, who came up with the idea for the conference. “I said, ‘Come on. Let’s get everybody in a room together. Let’s organize.’ ”
Greenidge started the National Black College Alliance in 2000 to bring high school and college students and college alumni together as mentors and mentees. The goal is to help the older participants become better mentors and volunteers and prompt younger students to interact with living examples of success whether they’re college students or people working in the corporate world. Greenidge created the organization, he said, to serve as an alternative to negative media images that seem to imply that black culture is defined by violence, poverty, or drugs.

more stories like thisFour years ago Greenidge put together a get-out-the-vote rally of 1,200 people for Vote or Die at Hynes Convention Center after receiving a request from one of Combs’s representatives. “We built a lot of new relationships, engaged a lot of young people to look at voting,” Greenidge said. “For some people that was their first [time] being involved in some political campaign.”

Now he’s taking the political activity one step further, said Greenidge, by giving participants - the youngest of whom are more used to promoting issues via e-mail or Facebook - an opportunity to “kick it old school.” Greenidge expects attendees to range from age 16 to 85. For one session, participants will divide into groups to discuss how their particular generation defines leadership and organizes in their communities; this will lead to an intergenerational discussion about methods of leadership. “I think people want to have that conversation,” said Greenidge.

The event isn’t about telling people whom to vote for. One lesson from 2004, Johnson said during the Northeastern event, was that it was a mistake to link hip-hop’s political success with the presidential campaign of John Kerry. “If hip-hop feels like the only way it wins is if John Kerry wins, something is wrong,” Johnson said, “because John Kerry never expressed an interest about poor people politics, never had an interest in people of color, never had an interest in dealing with disenfranchised groups.”

Instead the grass-roots organizations focus on issues and convincing local politicians to support things that are important to a community. Part of Crawford’s job at the New Black Panther Party is to help people understand and learn how to address problems in their community. His organization - which brings attention to police shootings of people of color, racial profiling, and gang violence - has generated criticism because of perceived anti-police and anti-white stances. “We encourage people to get involved in the processes that have the most impact on their quality-of-life issues,” Crawford said.

Lately Crawford has brought attention to Boston Police Department’s Safe Homes initiative, a plan launched this year that allows police in the areas of Grove Hall, Egleston Square, Bowdoin Street, and Franklin Hill to ask parents to consent to a search of their homes without a warrant if the police think the parents’ child has a gun. Through several town hall meetings Crawford has sought to educate the public about the initiative. Representatives from the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Union of Minority Neighborhoods, and Suffolk Law School have participated in panels on the subject during the gatherings. A petition against the practice has been signed by six officials on a state or local level, including Senator Dianne Wilkerson, Representative Gloria Fox, and city councilors Charles Yancey and Chuck Turner.

“Our community has historically had grass-roots activism which included having meetings around issues,” Turner said. “I’m so glad to see young people using the model.”

Crawford is now finalizing plans for another town hall meeting on the subject. “If you’re right on an issue,” said Crawford, “and you have the people behind you, someone who’s up against the issue - that makes them look bad. We make ourselves be so clear on the issue, so truck tight. That has worked quite well.”

Source:
Boston Globe