by Vanessa E. Jones for the Bostin Globe
Hip-hop has always been political. It was founded as a genre that detailed the socioeconomic problems New York City youths encountered in the 1970s. But four years ago hip-hop stepped into the arena of electoral politics. Sean “Diddy” Combs launched the Vote or Die campaign to encourage people to vote. Russell Simmons’s Hip-Hop Summit Action Network took an active role in registering voters. A Hip Hop Convention in New Jersey sought to create an agenda of issues important to the community.
more stories like thisThe political engagement was at least a numerical success. In 2004, 49 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds 
voted in the presidential election, a 9 percent increase over turnout among that age group in the 2000 race, according to a February report by Rock the Vote. But for some people, the end result of the activity proved disappointing.
“I was not happy with what I felt was a lack of an agenda,” Jamarhl Crawford, the 37-year-old founder of the Boston chapter of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, said of the 2004 Hip Hop Convention, which he attended.
Hip-hop is taking another stab at politics this year. Mariah Carey, Russell Simmons, and Jay-Z have endorsed Barack Obama. Simmons launched Hip Hop Team Vote just before the Pennsylvania Democratic primary to register voters. Another Hip Hop Convention is scheduled for Las Vegas beginning July 28.
But this time, the grass-roots organizations that previously provided support to the national programs are exploring ways to effect political change locally. These groups introduce people to issues affecting their communities – as Crawford has done by educating those in Roxbury and Dorchester about a Boston Police Department plan to search homes without warrants – or teach people how to change public policies they don’t like through their political representatives and grass-roots organizing.
During a recent panel discussion at Northeastern University about hip-hop and politics, Jeff Johnson, 37, a former vice president of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network who’s on the BET programs “Cousin Jeff Chronicles” and “Meet the Faith,” attributed the disconnect felt by some participating in the hip-hop political movement in 2004 to the organizers’ focus on the presidential campaign. “The problem with it,” Johnson said, “was there was very little substance underneath that movement. Vote or Die, but I’m not going to tell you how. Vote or Die, but I’m not going to help you organize.”
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