Beanie Sigel on Voting

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I appreciate you all for just setting up some time to kind of just even talking to us about this
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I appreciate it. And just let us know if it gets too loud
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We're also running a listening session right now. So AAPI Victory Fund, which is engaging with Asian American Pacific Islanders, the entire Asian immigrant community across the country
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We're here in Detroit. We're down, like here on the ground in Michigan, working alongside
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mobilize justice and our hope is that we can really engage with people, real people, artists
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influencers, community leaders, but really just getting a temperature check of where people are at
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And really specifically, like, how are people feeling about the election? Right
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There's just so much happening. This is one of the, I think, toughest years for us to even think about voting
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And so we're working with the crew here, as y'all can see
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to figure out, because we have to figure it out. And my colleague here, this is Nick
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He's our senior advisor for AAPI Victory Fund. And so I'm going to kick you back over
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Beanie, if you want to maybe get a rundown, how you were brought into Mobilized Justice
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and we can just kind of go around the screen and share
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Yes, Beanie Sieg, well, I was born to Mobilize Justice from a friend, family member
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family member of Marvin Bang and I was brought into this space
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as a credible messenger you know Marvin believes that
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and I also believe that too that when engaging especially within the youth
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and talking to the youth and trying to empower them and you know
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meet them where they're at that we have to have credible messages that can speak a language that they can understand in this work that we're doing
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So I came with this group to share my platform and to be able to talk and have dialogue with the youth and people who's been justice impacted and things like that on a level where as though they can understand the language
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you know, to speak to them in that matter. So that's how I came aboard
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Real quick question for you being, especially, you know, being out there in the trenches
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as much as you have as well. Why is this something that's very important to you
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in terms of your journey as an artist to be involved with something like this? Well, I believe, you know, as an artist
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that we have that responsibility to engage with the people that we
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engage with every day just within our music. I know, you know, as an entertainer, a lot of us, you know
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who put this music out in, whether it's music, whether it's film or anything, a lot of it isn't
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in a positive round. You know, we report, you know, things from the street
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that we have been through, that we've seen other people go through
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So I believe we have a responsibility to, you know, pro-income. And as me personally, you know, being on the other side, you know
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me living a colorful life, lack of better terms, I believe that closest to the problem
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closest to the solution. Love that. Love that. Wayne, I wanted to see if I could swing that same question over to yourself
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Why is this something you felt was important for you to be involved in? First of all, hello
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I think it was really important for me to be involved because I really care about, you know, people, you know what I mean
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And not just where I'm from, but people everywhere. And just getting an opportunity, I never view myself as a person that I will one day have a voice that people cared for
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And once I started doing, you know, media, I promised that every time I got in front of a camera on front of a microphone, that I would never make myself for my people look silly
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you know and um i i think i have a responsibility a social responsibility not only where i'm
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from but to my family to the people who um look towards me for guidance to the people who look
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towards me you know for for information and me being able to work with a a api and um
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you know i mean um sorry mobilized justice is giving me an opportunity where i can get
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information and knowledge and share it where i'm from and share it whatever people
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And for myself a person who dropped out of high school very young what I really learned is that the only way you going to move forward in life is by educating oneself So if I can do anything you know at any time to help a person educate themselves about things that they want to know that going to affect their lives
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I want to be able to be responsible and do that. Excellent, excellent
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Now, another question more so for the group, anybody can kind of jump in in terms of
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on this one. For those people, you know, within society, especially in the urban communities
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the people who are most vulnerable, most affected, who don't believe, that their vote counts
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Can you let them know why it's so important, especially in this particular election that we're in right now
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I mean, you know, we was just having some of this conversation
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earlier today. And, you know, you do have the power. Like, when election day comes, everybody is on even playing field
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Like, you know, it doesn't matter if you're to rock, Tyler Perry. Oprah Winfrey or you work in the corner store
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Bodega, your vote is just as powerful as theirs. Your voice is just as loud as theirs
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It's a chance to make really, really, really big changes. You know, like we've been telling people
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and Brother Yous have to definitely speak to this as well that, you know, of course you're going to look at
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who's running for the White House, but it's the other offices. too, the offices that's lower, the local, you know, you can actually speak directly to your
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councilman and, you know, you got to look at who's doing the board of elections, the senators
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the sheriff. So, you know, it's a way that you could really affect and immediately affect your
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immediate surroundings, your community. And a vote is, as Beanie put it so eloquently earlier
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vote is not just to vote people into office, but if somebody that's already in office is not
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holding up to their part of the bargain, so to speak, you could vote them out. And, you know
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brother, you self could build on that as well. Thank you, brother. I think it's important, man, because of the, we control the power within
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our community. We control the power within ourselves. And unfortunately, because of what we
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what we've experienced in this country, historic and present day, has deprived of us the opportunity to see that power
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the ability to advocate and to organize. And voting is part of a tool
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It's not putting all our ears in one basket because it's multiple things to it, but when we look at our communities
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we're intersects with mass incarceration, when it intersects with schools, all those things that have undermined our community
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voting is part of that process. Those are from the grassroots. sometimes we take a negative outlook on policy
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and those from the polity position take a negative look on the grassroots
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When we combine those two, we develop a powerful platform. You know, when we look at hip hop
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and when many folks who are running, who they call, they call on hip-hop artists
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because they see the power and the abilities and the people that they're trying to reach
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And so we see that in ourselves before folks start to come to our community. We can control and determine
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how elections can be won. Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, Bowden's very important. And there's a lot going on right now in the country and just overall. So this is a very important initiative. Now, what would you encourage other artists in the culture to do in terms of further encouraging, you know, people to be able to use the power that you guys were speaking about right there? What would you like to see other artists within the culture do about this
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I honestly say. I was speaking about this a little bit earlier
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As much as I love hip hop, and it's afforded me a great life and lifestyle. It is a very selfish lifestyle
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So I'd like to see, you know, a lot more artists become selfless in a sense
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because, you know, when we're talking about, you know, who's the best and everything
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that's always up for debate, right? It's always who got the most this
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or the most that, whether it's accolades, money, awards, et cetera. And during those conversations, we forget about the people who might never achieve certain
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levels of finance or certain levels of stardom or any of that stuff that in the grand
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scheme of things doesn't really matter. And I would just like to see, you know, I'm not looking for artists to become full on politicians
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or anything like that, but it would be good to see people be more aware, especially when
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they speak about these same neighborhoods in the sense of where they from and what they rep
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and all of that, how much do you rep it if you're not, you know, putting your foot forward on
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the political side at least to give up a vote where it may not change your outcome because
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you in a whole different tax bracket the zip code but it might change the outcome of the next young man and a lady so they don have to have the same circumstances you had growing up You know I would like to just see more artists become socially responsible in that sense
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I agree. Well said. Anybody else want to add to that? I mean, I would love, you know, more hip-hop artists to be more active
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Definitely not just using the platform to get people to go out there
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and educate themselves on who's running for office and, you know, registering the vote
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And, you know, we would love it to be more active in the community
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We grew up in the time where if there were, like, any atrocities happening to black people
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we would see a public enemy and tribe court quest and, you know, a lot of people that KRS won
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Queen Latif, a lot of people are that particular cloth, that elk of
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hip hop, you know, speak up and also be active in the community
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So, you know, that's always great to be out there active in the community
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and just helping. Because we are the new leaders, you know? Hip hop is definitely the new
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I could go deeper into that, but for time purposes, I just say hip hop, we are the new leaders
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and we have been there for a while. And building on that point, when we think about every artist who was successful, like
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if you're selling a million records or 10 million, well, now, that's 10 million people that you
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that you're influencing, that you had the opportunity to be able to shape and determine
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No, Tupac once said that in terms of, you know, use, how do we, no, challenge himself how to use
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that power. And he said, no, guarantee if I'm living, I'll be sitting next across the next president and blah, blah, blah
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I mean, for him to envision that. And we saw that in Nipsey, before his unfortunate killing
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the ability to be able to determine his community, putting himself in a position to challenge
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and critically accountable politicians and things in this. And we all come, unfortunately, from poverty circumstances
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Many of us are able to rise above it. But in reality, we lead many thousands of others back
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And this process is about being able to go back and help them and change those dynamics
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because that's that's what this is about. I just wanted to tap in beans
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Okay, there's no one else I can better speak to this than you. You know that
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Yeah, we got you. Go ahead, bro. Oh, you might have froze up a little bit
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Okay, go ahead. You're good now. Go ahead, sir. Yeah, you can hear me
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Yeah, we can hear. Can you hear me now? Yes, we can. Okay, now, say, because I didn't get no audio for like the last maybe minute and a half
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I didn't hear y'all. No worries. We were just basically asking, you know, what we feel other artists like yourself could be doing in terms of what their platforms in order to further move this initiative forward
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Well, I think a lot of artists should hold the accountability of, you know, just
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teaching or being involved. Some of the artists may not know, right
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So a lot of artists, when they acquire a certain amount of status
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they believe they made it. Because we've been conditioned for so long to believe that our voice don't count
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our vote don't count. It doesn't really matter or affect us. And when we, we do acquire a certain level of, quote, unquote, success is like I made it
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You know what I'm saying? So I believe that they should be able to use their platforms, especially before even that had been to your community and just think about what life was like before you became successful
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what it was like, what was some of the issues that you had within a community base
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and, you know, talk to the future leaders. You know, the youth that's on, you know
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a sure for of change. We got to educate them. You know, we got to educate them
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and let them know that it's not just about two people, you know, within this election
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They think about the presidency and they think about two people. You know, we've been conditions for so long to be to choose the lesser evil
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You know, and some people at this point with this election, I can say it's so important
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It's like, ah, like you damned if you do, damned if you don't
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But within these elections is more than just the presidency You know we can see our community first because there a lot of things that affect us
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on a ground level that we can change. On a ground level, like, we got issues in the community
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and issues that impact us. You know, I just came across the information
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that is that New Orleans? New Orleans, it was Louisiana. Louisiana, they just abolished parole
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There will be no parole in Louisiana. So what that being said
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you got your attorney general that you can vote in or vote out
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Even before you get to that level, you think about your councilman
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After a councilman, what's the next level, mayor, and then as governor
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You know, that scale goes up. So we teach this youth, we can vote in and vote out who we want
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You know, that's going to rightly champion the changes that we want in our communities
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And our voices do matter. It's people who died for us to have that opportunity to vote
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Like, what do we say to a Martin Luther King if he was present right now that my vote don't matter
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When we just everybody went out and voted for Barack Obama because we had a chance to have a black president in the seat
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But Barack Obama became president and nobody really paid attention. attention to the down ballot vote
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He was in president, but everything he wanted to usher forth got vetoed
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Because those people wasn't, we didn't pay attention to the people who passed these laws to us to bring forth these laws that we need for direct change
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Now, I'll say one other last thing here on this point. You know, as organizers in these organizations, we see the power of culture
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You know, we're at a point in time right now where there's not a lot of great messengers
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People don't trust the news. People don't are tuning out politicians. They're tuning out
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When they see these political ads on TV, they're just turning the channel. You know, so the ability to engage with the culture and engage with people who have built
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reputations and respect within the culture, these are now critical. voices politically to build political power
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And so we want to be able to tap into that. And that to me is the next iteration of power building for our communities
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It's, okay, we achieved a certain level here because we've tapped into the culture
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We have people's ears. We have this. But political power is where it's at
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And that's where really we want to try to bring in Beanie Siegel's and the Waynos and
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others to try to organize ourselves to reach. into these communities because, you know, we're sitting right here in Michigan. The Joe Biden won that
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state by 150,000 votes. Imagine the power if these, if these artists can reach 250,000 voters and turn
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them out. That's a voting block now that has incredible power to shift an election one way or the other
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and now they got to court you. And so that's the message we're trying to deliver. We're trying to
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organize and we're trying to tap into the culture in that way because right now, I think for a lot of
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us, that seemed to be the most credible way to reach, reach into some of these communities
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Yeah. I'll just stick quickly on that, Al. I mean, like, beans, you were just speaking to that
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but we know culture, it just moves way faster than policy change could ever, right? And, like
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you know, it's like with tapping into young people, the first thing that you do when they wake up, they pull up their phone and they're scrolling through TikTok, they're scrolling through
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Instagram. Like, they're getting their news and access to information so quickly. And
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ways that like elections we could never catch up to that. And so like again, like us partnering with
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with the crew here, it just allows us to get in front of different people. Otherwise, the people
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who just probably wouldn't want to talk about politics, period. I really understand. And that's a
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great segue right now in terms of that. And I appreciate everybody's time and talking about these
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important issues. Where can people find out more about this initiative and how they can help
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and how they can tap in further about this wonderful things that you guys are doing
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I can make that plug. I don't know if beans is trying to you
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Best, but y'all know this best place is just to reach us on IG. It's at Mobilized Justice is our handle
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Same thing with AAPI Victory Fund. It's at AAPI Victory Fund. But if y'all just drop in a DM, I mean, we are very online
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but that's the best way to tap in with us

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Beanie Sigel on Voting

allhiphop.com