Various Groups Work Towards Getting The Hip-Hop Vote To The Polls

With the presidential elections looming, various Hip-Hop related activist groups are hoping to get youth to the polls to vote, by using various artists’ celebrity muscle and grassroots marketing tactics. The Violator All Star DJ’s have teamed with Hip-Hop Summit Action Network and will produce a mixtape that will be given out until election day. […]

With the presidential

elections looming, various Hip-Hop related activist groups are hoping to get

youth to the polls to vote, by using various artists’ celebrity muscle

and grassroots marketing tactics.

The Violator All

Star DJ’s have teamed with Hip-Hop Summit Action Network and will produce a

mixtape that will be given out until election day.

Spearheaded by

Violator’s Scrap Dirty and Dr. Benjamin Chavis, the goal is to reach potential

voters in a way that is familiar to them.

"The DJ’s

are stepping up in the major markets, to utilize their vantage point of having

access to the airwaves, to give that additional level of encouragement to listeners,"

Dr. Chavis told AllHipHop.com. "Urban radio is the drumbeat of the Hip-Hop

community. We are grateful that they have stepped up to the plate in a historic

way, to help ensure millions of Hip-Hop lovers cast their votes."

The Violator mixtape

will be distributed nationwide on The Hip-Hop Summit Action Network’s GOTV Bus

Tour, along with the "Wake up Everybody" campaign, that was announced

in August.

The "Wake

Up" campaign also features an all-star cast that remade Harold Melvin &

The Blue Notes’ hit “Wake up Everybody.”

“This song

is the spirit of the country and all these artists have the will to change it,

empower the young voters and create a movement for people to vote and change

the current administration,” producer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds

said of the recording.

The CD features

songs from Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliott, Eve, Brandy, Jamie Foxx, Jadakiss,

Fabolous, Jaheim, Faith Evans, Ashanti, Claudette Ortiz (City High) Reverend

Run, and many more.

“We are going

to shock a lot of people, whether it’s the Democrats or the Republicans,”

Fabolous said. “It’s going to be a revolutionary turnout & it’s going

to shock the world. They are going to pick the president….the Hip-Hop community."

The goal is to

lure 18 to 24 year-olds to the polls, with hopes that the younger voters can

make a difference in deciding the President of the United States of America,

as Fabolous predicted.

Additionally, Sean

Combs’ Citizen Change kicked off a tour of the swing states today to help galvanize

potential voters.

Another Hip-Hop

themed get-out-and vote campaign launched in August, Slambush.

Late last month,

14 underground rappers and street poets from 9 swing states competed in the

Slam Bush National Championship. In addition to performances by The Roots, the

event was hosted by Chuck D.

Vanessa German,

28, won the first ever Slam Bush National Rhyme Competition. German’s poem thanked

Bush for making it easier to get a tech9 or an AR14 (automatic assault weapons)

than it was to get a pap smear or a good education.

Jamie Foxx, a participant

in the “Wake Up Everybody” campaign, said the politically charged

atmosphere in the United States should be used to young voters benefit.

"In a way,

I’m glad that we do have these troubles going on right now,” Foxx said.

“It’s really going to get us aware and get young people involved in this

country and not just be."