Home > What’s the deal with Hip Hop at the Democratic Convention
What’s the deal with Hip Hop at the Democratic Convention
by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 3 August 2004by Davey D
The question on everyone’s mind is, How has Hip Hop impacted the 2004 Democratic National Convention here in Boston? Well, now that I’ve been here for almost five days, there’s no denying its presence.
Leading up to the DNC was the Boston Social Forum. Actor Danny Glover and Hip Hop activist Malia Lazau, who established the very successful Boston Vote, convened a huge panel discussion on Saturday during the Active Youth portion.
Hip Hop ambassador Toni Blackmon lead a workshop that focused on the spoken word and how its been moving the political agenda. The highlight was seeing the cyphers that took place afterwards. There were several other workshops that focused on the role of popular music and its impact on the political scene. Hip Hop music, culture and activism was definitely respected during the Boston Social Forum.
As for the Democratic Convention, that’s another story ...
P-Diddy has a big buzz about him as he has just launched his Citizen For Change initiative. He’ll be doing a couple of big parties here and will be on the convention floor this Thursday covering the happenings for MTV. There is no doubt that he will be challenging the platform that the Democrats plan to rally around, especially if it doesn’t address issues impacting the urban Hip Hop community.
The Black Eyed Peas are out here working the crowd. So is LL Cool J and Outkast, who threw a big party last night.
Today, Tuesday, a number of artists, including Jadakiss, Missy, LL, Babyface, Russell Simmons and a number of other folks, will be revealing a special "political" Get Out the Vote song. It’s supposed to be a Hip Hop twist to the classic joint, "Wake Up Everybody." We’ll let you know how the song sounds after we peep it.
Biz Markie seriously rocked the house at a Democratic Gain/Rock the Vote Party on Sunday night at the Avalon. He led the sold-out crowd in anti-Bush chants and continuously encouraged people to send homeboy back to his ranch.
The highlight was when he brought out Rev. Al Sharpton and led everyone in doing the "lean back" dance. After Sharpton spoke, he then played James Brown’s "Big Payback" and got the crowd in a frenzy. Sharpton sang along.
The X-cutioners DJ squad came through and rocked the house after Biz got done. The enthusiastic over-the-top response these turntablists got from this political crowd, which ranged from young folks to Democratic big wigs and shot callers, was a testament to just how far Hip Hop has come.
Lauryn Hill came through and unfortunately disappointed the crowd. After making folks wait for more than an hour, she came out and kicked an incredible song about politics - and then abruptly left the stage, never to return. Folks started booing when her band started packing up.
The other disappointment was President Clinton being a no-show after it was widely publicized that he would be attending the event. Lot of folks took it as another instance in which young folks are being taken for granted.
Folks like Jerry Springer came through and made their presence felt. As did Howard Dean and Boston native Free from 106 and Park, who proudly let folks know she is from "The Berry" (the Roxbury neighborhood in Boston).
Russell Simmons blew into town and drew more than 8,000 people to his Hip Hop Summit, which was held in Roxbury. The event included Wyclef, Free, Loon, Andre 3000, Bonecrusher, Cousin Jeff, Reverend Run, Kevin Liles and Lloyd Banks. Props to Lloyd, who really kept it real during our backstage interview. Him and Loon really put this whole Hip Hop meets politics thing into perspective and broke it down how ghetto conditions make it necessary for them to draw a line in the sand and get involved..
What was also refreshing was the fact that none of these folks have come out and said they were just falling in line to get down with Kerry. If anything, folks were a bit wary of his platform, but definitely not feeling Bush. They realize that some sort of change must come. They’re just not sure if Kerry is the true answer.
One noticeable thing at the Summit was the glaring presence of Ralph Nader. With all this talk at the Democratic Convention about reaching out to "non-traditional (Hip Hop) voters," it was Nader’s people who actually showed up to the Hip Hop Summit with a flatbed truck blasting the latest joints accompanied by some hippy-looking volunteers who had no shame in their game, who went around trying to explain their platform.
Congresswomen Barabara Lee and Maxine Waters rolled through and greeted the crowd. But there was no Kerry folks, and this was his hometown. While one could see Lloyd Banks poster and wrapped vans for Awesome 2 mixtapes, there was nothing visible from Kerry.
Nader, who is also featured in this month’s Source, sent a clear message to the folks leaving the summit, that these Democrats just might take them for granted. I was told that the Kerry folks have been supporting the Hip Hop Summits by attending. Perhaps they should step it up and let folks know the way Nader’s people did. They came through, stood outside and got busy.
Lastly, there’s been no real mention of the recently ratified Hip Hop Generation platforms. It’s great to have street teams, talk of John Kerry mixtapes and Hip Hop parties at the DNC, but will there be any serious consideration given to the issues that have been discussed and voted on and are of major concern to this generation of folks?
I’m seeing a lot of folks who are down with Hip Hop. And I’m seeing a lot of Hip Hop organizers. But I haven’t seen the real dialogue take place. But today is Day 2, so there’s still time for that to happen. We’ll see what happens today when the new Get Out the Vote Song is revealed.
Tune in to the world from a Hip Hop perspective at www.daveyd.com, and listen to Hard Knock Radio Monday-Friday at 4 p.m. on KPFA 94.1 FM. Davey will be reporting from the convention for KPFA and the Pacifica network all this week.