Back in the day, in the
late 1980s and early 1990s, New York was the center of gravity of
hip-hop's political wing. Politically charged rap acts like Public
Enemy's lChuck D and Queen Latifah, along with hip-hop acolytes like
Sistah Souljah, toured college campuses and tutored young music fans
in the art of revolution.
And while the activism was mirrored by the violent tales of
street life coming out of Los Angeles and Brooklyn, both coasts soon
would lay claim to hip-hop's most gifted poet, Tupac Shakur. But the
glory days of hip-hop activism seemed to die with Tupac, who would
have been 31 on Monday.
After Tupac's death in 1995, rap music seemed to lose much of its
political edge. There were exceptions. But for the most part,
hip-hop turned its attention to more-temporal matters, like cash,
cars and designer wear. The bling-bling era hasn't left much room
for politics.
That may be changing, and it could be bad news for President
Bush. The new wave of hip-hop activism has been stirred by
opposition to the Iraq war, tax cuts that favor the rich and what
rapper Snoop Dogg has called the ''gangsta'' mentality of the Bush
White House.
This grass-roots movement is mobilizing people under 40 -- black,
white and Latino, including those who have voted rarely or never --
to stand up and be counted in the 2004 election. Its center of
gravity once again is New York City. And its unofficial leader is
rap's godfather, Russell Simmons.
Simmons, who runs a half-billion dollar media and fashion empire,
cofounded Def Jam Records. Now he is organizing kids who were in
preschool when his little brother Reverend Run, partner DMC and
their deejay, the late Jam Master Jay, were making records to fight
a new war ``against poverty and ignorance.''
Simmons' soldiers include the top names in hip-hop -- Jay Z, 50
Cent, Eminem, Busta Rhymes and P. Diddy -- plus hip-hop magazines
like The Source and XXL. The artists are key to the effort, he says,
because they ``represent the millions of kids who are lost and beat
down.''
True to the man who launched the first big-time white rap group,
The Beastie Boys, Simmons is clear that hip-hop activism is not
tethered to race. ''Poor people in trailers and poor people in the
projects have the same issues,'' he told me in a recent
interview.
In the battle, Simmons supports the Democratic Party's most
dynamic but controversial candidate, the Rev. Al Sharpton. For
Simmons, his fealty to Sharpton's mission isn't at all
controversial.
The youngest candidate in the race at 49, Sharpton has closely
identified himself with hip-hop, often participating in the work of
Simmons' nonprofit group, the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network. The
Network has had high-profile successes, winning a showdown with
PepsiCo over its sidelining of spokesman Ludacris after right-wing
pundit Bill O'Reilly threatened a boycott over the rapper's racy
lyrics.
More recently, the group helped organize a star-studded June 4
rally to protest New York's Rockefeller-era drug laws, which force
judges to sentence even first-time offenders to long prison terms.
This battle brought together the Hollywood left and hip-hop's MTV
generation. Simmons, who claims a place in both camps, has no doubts
about who had the bigger impact. ''The fact that we had 50,000
people show up because . . . Jay Z and Puffy said so . . . proves
that hip-hop activism is alive,'' Simmons said.
The New York Legislature is now considering amending the laws,
and Simmons is turning his attention to 2004. The Network has
mounted a parallel campaign to Sharpton's drive to register 1
million new voters by Jan. 1. Simmons' goal is slightly more
ambitious.
''We always aim high, so we say 20 million voters,'' he laughed.
``And we want every college-aged voter and every voter under 40
that's part of the hip-hop generation to register five voters
apiece.''
Those who smile at that notion might recall the ''Arrive With
Five'' campaign that swelled black voter rolls in Florida in advance
of a certain disputed election amid grass-roots outrage over the
policies of a politician named Bush. The Network is promoting its
campaign via its website -- www.hiphopsummitac
tionnetwork.org -- and Simmons isn't shy about which political
party he'd like to see benefit. 'When the Senate majority leader
says . . . that poor people don't get a tax cut, that's offensive.
To say `leave no child behind' and then leave them behind . . . the
American people have been lied to.''
While Simmons is critical of the Democratic Party for ''not
speaking up,'' he makes no bones about the fundamental interests of
disaffected people, the people that hip-hop speaks loudest to.
''I'll give you a story,'' he said, voice crackling over his car
phone. ``The day before the [2000] election, I was at the Rev.
Sharpton's office and we met with Ralph Nader. At that time I . . .
did get to spend a significant amount of time with [Nader], to talk
to him about dropping out. He kept insisting there was no
difference. . . .
``But there is a difference. And we must know that now, with the
tax cut and the things that have happened with the war and poverty.
. . . Instead of endearing ourselves after 9/11 in keeping with the
great opportunity we had, we made more tension. . . . And I believe
that there would have been a dramatic difference. So Ralph Nader was
wrong.''
joyannreid@hotmail.com
