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Hip-Hop Politics, Forbes.com Takes Stock
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
By: Michael Ivey
 Barack Obama’s new campaign anthem, performed by Duck Down/Major League tandem Kidz In The Hall, talks about America having work to do, but it seems hip hop is going OT with politics in ’08.
“The self-titled Louis Vuitton Don [Kanye West] isn't supporting any specific candidates--perhaps he read the Pew Research Center's report on celebrity endorsements, published in September,” said Zack O'Malley Greenburg in a recent article on the complexions of hip hop in a pending presidential election. “That study found that, while 4% of respondents would be more likely to vote for a Kanye-supported candidate, 15% would be less likely.”
The piece highlights Barack Obama’s alignment with progressive artists Talib Kweil and Common, as well as the accessible Illinois senator’s prized Oprah endorsement. However, New York Senator Hillary Clinton’s off beat financial union with Timbaland, via a pro-Clinton fund-raiser at the Virginia producer’s Miami mansion, is treated harshly.
“Clinton was lambasted as a hypocrite for accepting donations raised by Timbaland, whose lyrics are often peppered with "bitch," "ho" and the like,” says Greenburg. According to him, only a Bill O’Reilly endorsement foils a candidates’ public image more than a rapper’s praise.
One member of P. Diddy’s make-shift millionaire boys trio ‘3 The Hard Way’ (Diddy, Jay-Z, 50 Cent) has weighed in on the race; hard boiled industry titan 50 Cent wants Senator Clinton.
"It would be nice to see a woman be the actual president. ... I think she'd be a good president," the multiple gun shot wound survivor recently told ‘Rap-Up’ magazine. Jay-Z has reportedly spoken with Barack Obama, though he claims it was not a political talk.
In 2004 P. Diddy and Citizen Change, in league with former democratic presidential hopeful Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, mobilized the ‘Vote Or Die!’ campaign to push younger voters to the polls; however, Greenburg says the movement “seems to have dissolved in the wake of the discovery that some of the campaign's most high-profile supporters, like Paris Hilton, weren't even registered to vote. The Web site is gone, and phoning the group's New York office yields a dial tone.”
Russell Simmons, who has publicly praised North Carolina Senator John Edwards, P. Diddy and Illinois native Kanye West are expected to choose a horse in this highly magnified race as November 4th nears.
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