Hip-Hop Needs More Than a Good Beat to Be a Political Force
Music mogul Russell Simmons and the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network have been touring the U.S. registering voters, and they recently had their best rally, reportedly signing up more than 111,000 hip-hop fans in Missouri.
That sounds impressive. But activation without proper education won't bring the long-term effects needed for the hip-hop generation to become a political force. Young black voters don't watch the news or read newspapers; they spend more time watching BET than CNN. And that isn't a diss so much as a reality check. I worry that we are merely registering bodies to cast votes and not nurturing a fully functioning, well-informed electorate.
The Hip-Hop Summit Action Network's agenda is ambitious. Beyond the implied objective of dumping George W. Bush in November, the group, as it states on its website, is "dedicated to harnessing the cultural relevance of hip-hop music to serve as a catalyst for education advocacy and other societal concerns fundamental to the well-being of at-risk youth throughout the United States."
Hip-hop music is the voice of America's poor blacks and Latinos. These two minority groups face many of the same challenges, but they deserve separate political agendas.
When you throw in the other part of the hip-hop audience -- the white negrophiles from the suburbs -- you begin to realize that the hip-hop nation is a hodgepodge of people with conflicting values, politics and ideologies. Activating the hip-hop nation is a good idea, but it's got its problems.
First, there is the presumption that putting rappers at the podium will turn millions of black kids into a political force. But most of the millions of people who buy hip-hop music these days are white, and they have little or no comprehension of the deeper meaning of hip-hop culture or the social forces that begat it. They know only about rap music, break-dancing and baggy clothes. Young white kids can't truly relate to being black, but many can relate to being alienated. They grasp that message, along with the cartoonish violence, slanguistics and fantastical opulence of hip-hop life. They can't be rallied to adopt hip-hop's social agenda because they only listen to hip-hop, while we live it every day.
The second problem is trying to awaken and rally a subculture traditionally united against the establishment without a proper primer, relying instead on horse sense.
