With Obama, rap could give Prez a good rap

Hip-hop music has long cast a suspicious eye on politics. Rap music has expressed an open disdain for politicians, and a few rappers have even discouraged people from voting.

Rap, of course, includes a big trove of what's called "conscious" rap that has political overtones, but the message has been that the poor and minorities have been victims of politics, not welcome participants.

That has changed with the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama.

Rapper KRS-One, for example, was once an outspoken critic of voting. On the song "Higher Level," he said: "Whether you vote for the lesser of two evils, you vote for evil/Politics and God are not equal."

"Rap music comes from the results of what politicians have done," rapper Nas said at a voter registration drive in Hampton two weeks ago. He was referring to hip-hop's birth in the slums of New York. "If you'd seen what happened in my community, it's a shame. People in jail, guns, drugs. I always felt like there were things happening in my community that would have never been allowed to happen in other communities. There was no help. None."

At 35, Nas, one of the most influential artists of his generation, has never voted, and he said he's spoken out against voting, too.

He'll be voting on Nov. 4, for Obama.

One could argue that hip-hop's mood toward voting started to shift in 2004, when P. Diddy spearheaded his "Vote or Die" campaign. It endorsed no candidate, it failed to explain the importance of voting beyond T-shirts, and some of the celebrities representing the campaign did not, or could not, vote. Still, it was the beginning of a sea change.

This election, of course, hip-hop's luminaries are almost uniformly supporting Obama. (The lone possible exception is the troubled DMX, who didn't know who Obama was when asked earlier this year.)

Jay-Z, Diddy and Young Jeezy are just a few of the rappers vocal in their support for the Illinois senator.

For the first time, it is completely uncool to call yourself into hip-hop and not be voting. Obama appeals to the hip-hop generation because he's one of them. He has said he listens to Jay-Z and has told young people that they need an education because they won't all grow up to be Lil Wayne.

"One thing about the hip-hop community, we support our own," said Pusha T of Clipse, the Virginia Beach-based rap group. He and his brother/partner, Malice, did a voter registration event for BET in Norfolk in September.

"Even when there is dissent, we have a history of coming together when necessary," Pusha T said. "I think this shows that the hip-hop community is going to show a more active role in politics."

Local hip-hop disc jockey DJ Bee, who spins on 103 Jamz, said the effect has been profound, even here in Hampton Roads.

"I've never voted," he said, adding that the same was true of many in his peer group. "Now we're registered. We never talk politics in the streets, and now people are talking about the debates. We are motivated, and it's a very big deal."

And so the big question is, if Obama is elected, how will that affect hip-hop? How can a culture that has embraced themes of alienation, powerlessness and the idea that powerful people don't care about them hold on to those ideas when the black man they helped elect is the most powerful man in the world?

"People aren't going to give Barack a free ride," said Murray Foreman, an associate professor of communications at Northeastern University in Boston. He teaches music and media and has been studying hip-hop since the early 1990s. "If he falls short or is perceived at any point to make any kind of grand concessions or compromises, then he'll be held accountable, and we'll hear that through hip-hop."

Some rappers think otherwise.

"I think it's not going to have much effect," said Maseo of De La Soul, a landmark rap group. "He gives hope for young black youth.... We don't have to worry about youth thinking that all they can be is a rapper or ballplayer. In that perspective alone, that's where we have some hope for black youth. But change in rap? No. Tradition is tradition."

LL Cool J agreed.

"I don't think that it changes the game. A little bit. He's African American and it's predominately African Americans creating the music. But he has a job. When he becomes president, which he most likely will, he has a job, and people have to understand he has to lead all Americans, not just black Americans. So the most helpful thing artists can do is make sure the statements that they make and the songs and things they do regarding politics aren't harmful to his overall world image."

A good example of songs that could be deemed detrimental to Obama was the Ludacris song "Politics as Usual," which landed the rapper in trouble for vulgar descriptions of some of Obama's opponents.

Some artists agree that with Obama in office, the hip-hop community overall would feel more accountable for what they're saying, and what images they present to the world.

"I think it will influence a whole lot more intelligent rap," said rapper-singer Estelle, who is from Britain but lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. "People will see there's an articulate, intelligent black man representing the country, so we have to step our game up now. It'll bring pressure up.

"But that's what needs to happen. There will still be the rap and hip-hop you love in the club," but people will want to upgrade, she said.

One of the great contradictions in anti-political rap has been complaints about the effects of politics, but without much acknowledgment of a personal responsibility to change things through voting.

"That's a classic hip-hop dodge," said Foreman, the professor, "where you have more people complaining than taking a shot. But those are societal contradictions that you see much wider than hip-hop." He also said that, by definition, voicing concern about one's community is a political act.

For some, it should come as no surprise that hip-hop has thrown its weight behind Obama. He's black, right?

But then, Foreman said, it's improbable that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice or even Al Sharpton, with all his baggage, would have automatically won the hip-hop vote. "It's not just a race thing - (Obama) is energizing individuals, and millions are thinking the same way," he said.

"It's not just about Barack. At this point hip-hop is coming into the (political) arena, and part of that has to do with the aging of the hip-hop crowd."

Some artists aren't clear on what exactly will happen but sense something is definitely going to change.

"You're going to hear a million songs, all with a different message," Nas said. "I don't know what they'll be. I think there will be new ideas."

Though he's unclear on how rap music is going to evolve, there's one thing he's certain of. "The hip-hop generation has a lot of power."

Malcolm Venable, (757) 446-2662, malcolm.venable@pilotonline.com