Hip-Hop Politics

I’m posting yet another Obama hip-hop video in celebration of tonight’s debate - which should wrap this whole thing up. Make sure you watch, and make sure you vote! Song by MC Yogi.

The Hip Hop Caucus’ - Respect My Vote! Campaign, along with Radio One, Inc. and the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, registered more than 30,000 voters during its national “One Vote Day” voter registration drive on September 30th - according to news sources.

Thousands of citizens in sixteen cities across the country participated in events aimed at mass voter registration. Radio One stations broadcasted live from central locations in each of the participating cities urging unregistered voters to attend their local registration site to register onsite. Artists such as Nelly and Raheem DeVaughn helped draw large crowds to registration stations, allowing Hip Hop Caucus volunteers to register an average of 1,200 voters within each of the different markets. (more…)

Detroit, MI - According to news sources, Jay-Z will perform Saturday at Detroit’s Cobo Arena during a free rally and concert to promote voter registration. With just five days left to register voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is traveling to Michigan Thursday and sending in his wife and a top hip-hop artist to push the registration message.

The campaign also has created a video playing on the Obama Web site and YouTube that features Obama, running mate Joe Biden and a host of Michigan Democrats and popular entertainers who have hosted voter registration rallies and events in the state.”This is the biggest election of our lifetime,” Obama says in the video. “If you are already registered to vote, get your friends and family to register to vote. If you need more information about where to go, get on our Web site. … Remember, we need to do it by October 6th.” (more…)

The masses seem to be uniting for the most historical presidential election, ever, as the bi-partisan Hip-Hop Caucus is teaming with Radio One for the “Respect My Vote” Campaign, aimed at registering over 50,000 voters on September 30. According to news sources, the ambitious one day voter registration drive will be held in 15 big market cities throughout the country, including Atlanta, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Washington DC.

Radio One will utilize 52 stations across the nation to broadcast live from a central location in each city, allowing registrars to set up eligible voters. Radio One Corporate Director of Marketing Barry Macon explained his company is obligated to spearhead this movement due to their years of community activism. (more…)

The political campaign of Sen. Barack Obama has inspired young people to become involved in the American political process and many artists are using their voices, dollars and influence as effective instruments for political change, said hip hop experts, political activists and policy analysts at the Democratic National Convention.

The forum titled “Hip Hop: Be the Change,” sponsored by the College Democrats of America and moderated by author Bakari Kitwana, dealt with the increasingly visible role of hip hop, its place in the 2008 election news and beyond. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, of Georgetown University, said increased activism is a transformation of hip hop culture’s “radical political potential.” (more…)

Oakland, CA — Marcus Evans of East Oakland registered to vote Wednesday. But not at City Hall or through the mail. The 18-year-old stepped onto an AC Transit bus, transformed into a mobile voter-registration vehicle, and signed his name, pledging to vote for the first time.

AC Transit and Alameda County teamed up to create the bus — awash in black and strewn in red and blue stripes — to do just that, mobilize young people. The sides read “Your Voice, Your Power, Your Choice, Your Vote.” According to news sources, Wednesday’s voting event was the first time city officials actively recruited youths to turn out this election season. (more…)

It looks like hip-hop is not just for Obama. This new song and video is in support of Green Party candidates Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente. And it makes a great case for voting Green in 2008.

Will.I.Am and John Legend performed their now-famous Yes We Can live at last night’s Democratic National Convention.

Interesting CNN News story on voting, the hip-hop community, and conveying political messages through art and hip-hop. From BlackTubeChannel.