Bennett College senior Sierra Morton stops to chat with Hip Hop Caucus President and CEO Lennox Yearwood (left) and Rep. Mel Watt.The official launch date of the Hip Hop Caucus’ “One Planet One Voice” campaign is March 4 in Charlotte, but students at NC A&T University got a sneak preview today around noon and an invitation to help shape its formation.
Led by the Rev. Lennox Yearwood, the national grassroots organization’s purpose is twofold: To hold hip hop artists accountable for using their immense public reach to speak to the needs of their constituency, and to hold elected officials accountable at a policy level to that constituency.
“Hip hop has so much power that Rev. Yearwood understands that our hip hop artists have a duty and obligation to be responsible to our communities,” said Terance Muhammad, a Greensboro resident who serves as the historically black colleges and universities coordinator for the Hip Hop Caucus.
The organization has corralled the celebrity of hip-hop artists such as Kanye West and Common to raise the consciousness of fans and engage them in social change politics. And fitting for an outfit that bills itself as a “national grassroots organization for the 21st century,” the Hip Hop Caucus makes ample use of social media.
The Greensboro event was tweeted, with the feed projected onto a large, onstage screen. YES! Weekly intern Christian Bryant was also working his Twitter account.
In 2008, the Hip Hop Caucus claims to have registered 32,000 new voters in 16 cities. Over the past three years the organization has been working to build a bridge between the green movement and its constituency.
Yearwood told the roughly 40 students in the room that that they were “the most important generation we have ever seen,” and contrasted their challenge with those of the civil rights generation, who struggled against segregated water fountains.
“The different is our movement is not about equality; it’s about existence,” Yearwood said. “If we don’t transition from fossil fuels, future generations will face catastrophic consequences.
Later, Rep. Mel Watt, a Democrat from Charlotte, riffed on the water fountain concept, chiding Yearwood that the water fountains during Jim Crow times were unequal, with black water more likely to be unfiltered, but ultimately concurred on the point.
“This is about whether we can drink any water,” Watt said. “It’s terribly important.”
The Hip Hop Caucus holds ambitious goals for the next two years. Yearwood said the organization would like to organize chapters on every HBCU campus across the nation, and hold a national convention in June 2012. And while the Hip Hop Caucus is a nonpartisan organization, it’s not hard to see that the mobilization arc and dovetailing of agendas could result in a windfall of votes in President Obama’s reelection campaign.
Incidentally, both the Hip Hop Caucus’ “One Planet One Voice” campaign launch next month and the Democratic National Convention next year are planned to take place in Charlotte.
“Charlotte is pushing to become the energy capital of this country,” Yearwood said. “Lots of energy companies are pushing an moving into Charlotte. It’s the banking hub. Now, it’s becoming the energy hub.”
During the program, Oakland, Calif. spoken word artist Ise Lyfe made a brief, two-minute appearance. He’ll be giving a talk at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Bryan Auditorium on the campus of Guilford College entitled, “Is Everybody Stupid?”
After the A&T event, Ise Lyfe said he’s been courted by the Hip Hop Caucus since its inception and admires the way the organization challenges politicians to be cognizant of the issues affecting the hip-hop community, which he defines as “a disenfranchised community.”
He said he sees the connection between hip hop and the green movement as a natural one.
“Hip hop in its essence is a reaction to poverty,” Ise Lyfe said. “People break-danced on cardboard because they didn’t have anything else…. Talking about green — how do you make an issue that’s unseen, seen? What better than hip hop? Hip hop has taken to a global level. All over the world everybody knows about crack in the hood.”
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