Lisa Sullivan. 1999.
As this nation nears its first election of the new millennium,
journalists of the hip-hop generation and their entrepreneurial
counterparts, like Sean "Puffy" Combs, have begun announcing
the arrival of 21st-century hip-hop political power. Hip-hop
industry leaders, artists, and activists are "spinning" a new
message: Translating celebrity status, market influence, and
cultural power into political might is hip-hop’s future.
But that message raises some serious questions. Can hip-hop
culture significantly influence electoral politics by pushing voter
registration and participation among post-civil rights urban
youth? Can it sell politics as well as it does Nike, Hilfiger,
FUBU, and Sprite? Do hip-hop leaders have what it takes to
build a national campaign to increase the civic and political
activity of their 18- to 24-year-old constituents?
The world of hip-hop, like America in general, is suffering from
a crisis in leadership at both the industry and creative levels. As
leadership guru John Gardner has observed, leaders play a
significant role in creating a society’s state of mind. Effective
leaders conceive and break down goals that lift people out of
petty preoccupations, carry them above the conflicts that tear
communities apart, and unite them toward objectives worthy of
their best efforts. Yet, even as hip-hop culture matures, moving
into its third decade of existence, no significant leader with
national influence has emerged as a credible political voice.
The truth is, hip-hop hasn’t had a unifying purpose since the
global profit motive took over the culture in the 1980s. And
Sean "Puffy" Combs is quite possibly the hip-hop
artist/entrepreneur most responsible for the excessive
promotion of the "ghetto-fabulous" state of mind that currently
consumes too many poor urban youth of color. In the world of
"Benjamins," playa haters, Cristal, limousines, and designer
gear, civic engagement and political participation don’t seem to
stand a chance.
But in every crisis, darkness and despair inevitably lead to light.
Hip-hop has great potential to once again serve as the vehicle
for the dissemination of political messages among poor urban
youth in particular, and all youth in general. For this to occur,
however, hip-hop culture must:
identify political leaders worthy of hip-hop’s support
provide political education for the hip-hop community
— its artists, entrepreneurs, and consumers
mobilize hip-hop artists, journalists, entrepreneurs and
political activists
supply the resources for the hip-hop community to
demonstrate its leadership ability and potential for
political influence
In trying to become hip-hop’s first entertainment mogul, Sean
Combs has been inspired by multimillionaire music producer
David Geffen. To date, Combs and his comrades have focused
on amassing power and wealth within the entertainment
industry. It is, however, Geffen’s influence beyond New York
and Hollywood that provides hip-hop entrepreneurs with the
most important clues about what they really need to lead the
political transformation of hip-hop culture in the 21st century.
Geffen’s role as a philanthropist and fundraiser for AIDS
research and other important political issues offers the most
relevance for hip-hop’s political aspirations. Serving on the
boards of numerous nonprofits, giving strategically to state and
national political campaigns, and identifying issues that he cares
about passionately, Geffen’s power extends well beyond the
arts-and-entertainment sphere into substantive politics. This is
precisely the lesson that hip-hop culture has yet to learn, model
or cultivate.
Most hip-hop entrepreneurs give to charities, and many have
formed some type of foundation or community-based
nonprofit. But they have yet to figure out the social impact they
could have on their generation if they were to consciously target
their philanthropy. Into the next century, the central question
facing hip-hop will involve its legacy: Will hip-hop
entrepreneurs help finance a social movement – as Harry
Belafonte helped finance the civil rights movement? Will they
endow Historically Black Institutions? Will they finance political
campaigns or speak out on critical political issues like
Muhammad Ali?
As Franz Fanon wrote, "Each generation must discover its
mission, fulfill it, or betray it." Nearly half a century ago, a
generation of young African Americans determined that their
mission was to tear down the walls of legally sanctioned racial
segregation in the American South. They decided to do so with
full force, initiating nonviolent, direct-action protests and
voter-registration and education campaigns.
Moving into the 21st century, hip-hop must look inside its soul
and determine whether it’s capable of transcending the
bottom-line driving force of profit and sales to come up with a
message and set of values conducive to building civic
engagement and political participation. Once the soul-searching
is over, the hip-hop community should get to work on an urgent
political agenda that reflects hip-hop’s constituency and
addresses four critical issues:
the criminalization of poor urban youth, including police
brutality and misconduct, and the incarceration epidemic
the absolute failure of public education in urban
communities
the loss of voting rights by poor, young urban males due
to their status as felons
the need for living-wage employment opportunities
Thinking about rising above the seductive power of global
capital and its consumer-driven values leaves me daunted.
While I am sobered by the complexity and enormity of the
cross the hip-hop generation must bear, I am hopeful – and
optimistic that our political organizing efforts will be as
successful as previous generations’. But we’re not there yet. At
the moment, the lack of an organizational vehicle dedicated to
the marriage of hip-hop culture and politics will continue to
undermine hip-hop's quest for political power and a conscious
political agenda.