Ellington

A few weeks ago, Americans flocked to their polling locations in a concerted effort to pick a president. Leading up to the election, more attention was placed on re-enfranchising the disenfranchised than it has been since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We had cats I never thought would ever think about voting running around with "Vote Or Die" T-shirts, giving 6 a.m. polling location reminders.

Hip-hop has started a new trend. The Committee for the Study of the American Electorate reports that 120 million people in the U.S. voted. Hip-hop played no small role in this as Sean "Puffy" Combs ("Vote Or Die"; he will always be Puffy to me), Russell Simmons, (Hip Hop Summit Action Network), Jay Z, (Roc-The-Vote) Nas, Outkast and a slew of other high-profile artists all came out to support Kerry or, at the least, to try to raise awareness of the importance of voting.

Where do we go from here? The youth vote, in actual numbers, was higher this election, although it made up the same percentage of the electorate as it did in the 2000 election because numbers in other age groups were up as well. And in Mississippi, voters age 18-29 turned out to vote for Kerry over Bush, 63 percent to 37 percent, according to exit polls. So, what's next?

Honestly, I have no freaking idea. Hip-hop, along with the rest of the nation , stands at a crossroads not unlike the times of the Civil War, Cold War, Mexican War, or any other war fought with a gun and a bullet on a battlefield in some not-so-distant foreign land. However, like any renaissance, this war is being waged on the collective consciousness of our minds for the collective direction of this nation.

The beautiful part about it is that hip-hop is not so firmly entrenched in the decision-making process. At first I found it slightly disturbing that artists with diatribes like "Money, Cash, Hoes" and "Money is my Bitch" had the opportunity to affect those who affected the direction of this nation. Then I realized that nothing more encapsulated the capitalist ideology than these individuals. It's like Amiri Baraka said, and my mentor often repeats, "You can always tell what's going on in the minds of blacks by their music." This becomes even more spellbinding when you realize that through hip-hop you can now tell what's going on in the greater consciousness of all, regardless of race.

Hip-hop has to better articulate the agenda of those they represent. I asked several artists their opinion with mixed results. "You gotta start somewhere, brugh," said Donnie Cross. "We really have come too far to turn back now. Rappers need to understand the responsibility that comes with their influence. Yeah, It's important to tell people to vote. It's more important to tell them why it's important they vote and what their votes mean."

Others believe this emphasis must start earlier to have greater impact. "Maybe we could do something for the kids," said Smoke D. "Youth groups or something that could really motivate them."

However, some artists who have seen the political process first-hand believe we have a long way to go. "Man, I have worked on political campaigns," Exit Only said. "The real impact is organizing on a grass-roots level. Shouting 'Vote Or Die' is cool, but raising awareness is key because most of us don't vote because we honestly believe that it doesn't matter, so we automatically believe that we are already beaten."

Naysayers claim the next election, be it an off year or the next presidential offering, will prove that the youth vote is a non-factor. Whether this is a trend or a long-lasting cultural change has a lot to do with whether the re-energized political voice of hip-hop will continue to consistently articulate the messages of the masses—or go corporate and, like rock music, be silenced.