Thug Life Army

Hip Hop historian, activist, journalist and Radio personality Davey D has made some very interesting points in a recent article. The upcoming presidential election in 2008 needs to be taken seriously and we need to start acting now; and Davey D addresses this in his current article.

First we want to post an article that Davey D posted in Oct. of 2006, so you have some background on how the fear of Hip Hop and youth votes effected the last presidential election. It is followed by Davey D’s new article. If you have comments, you can get at Davey D on his myspace, (the link is below).

Fear of Hip Hop and Youth Votes by Davey D (10/5/2006)

Oct 3 2006 film producer Tracey Edmonds spoke at the FCC Hearings and relayed a disturbing story that took place during the 2004 elections.

She and her ex-husband-Kenny Babyface Edmonds along with Russell Simmons gathered up an all-star line up of urban and hip hop artists to do a Get Out and Vote song called ‘Wake Up Everybody’. It featured everyone from Mary J Blige to Wyclef Jean to Missy Elliot.

The song came at a time when other efforts including P-Diddy’s ‘Vote or Die’ campaign Russell Simmon’s Hip Hop Summit Action Network campaign and the National Hip Hop Political Convention were in full swing trying to engage the Hip Hop/urban audience to be more politically involved.

Wake Up Everybody was an ambitious project which caused quite a buzz as the video and the making of the video/song went on to be the number one on MTV. However, when it came to getting the non partisan song on radio all kinds of trickery came into play.

Edmonds testified that a certain radio chain which ‘owns more than 1000 stations’ (Clear Channel) refused to play the record. This happened in spite of large numbers of requests from listeners.

Edmonds was later informed that the owners of the station chain (Lowry Mays who is good friends of the Bush family) did not want this song on his airwaves because it might’ve led to massive voter turn out amongst the youth vote for John Kerry.

I know that I played the record while working as an urban programmer for AOL Radio and got great feedback. I also recall hearing industry grumblings that the only way that song would see the light of day was if a million dollars was dropped in their coiffeurs.

Listen to the interview from Davey D with Tracey Edmonds on Breakdown FM Radio at the link below.

http://www.thuglifearmy.com/news/?id=3050

Here is Davey D’s current article:

So far it seems like everyone who is running for the highest office in the land is beholden to huge corporations or other special interests. That includes good ole Hillary Clinton, Mr Barack Obama, Senator John Edwards, Senator John McCain and definitely that dipsh*t former NY Mayor Rudolph Guliani.

Some of these candidates have even gone on to support the immoral war with Iraq. Can you say ''I ride shotgun for George Bush'', Ms Hillary Clinton?

Hardly any of these candidates have addressed all the issues around Katrina. Its damn near two years and you still have folks who haven''t been able to return home. Which one of these candidates has shown outrage or genuine concern? I think Senator Edwards was the only one who brought up the issue when he announced his candidacy from New Orleans. None of these folks have stood up and called for an investigation and demanded people be held accountable for the government's negligence.

None of them are talking about Police Brutality-Did you notice the deafening silence after the Sean Bell indictments came down? Did any of those candidates say anything about the elementary school kids that got beat by police in Chicago? Or the seven year old that had a gun shoved in her face by a police officer in Pittsburgh? Or the father in Seattle who got beat up in front of his young daughter when he questioned the police about them yelling at her?

Very few of these candidates are talking about gentrification and affordable housing. I haven''t heard too many talk about the immigration issue. Do you know all sorts of people are being unfairly deported because of the new immigration laws? Does anyone recall the drama that fell upon Slick Rick? Well remember what happened to him is happening everyday to ordinary citizens who aren''t famous. Has anyone heard any these candidates address the huge growth in the prison population and how we should best deal with overcrowding? Has anyone said they will force companies to stop using prison labor for 10 cent a day and come back to the community and use people who need a job and make sure they are paid what they are worth?

What issues impacting the hood or the barrios are these candidates addressing? Are any of them speaking to any of your concerns?

I say with a year and half left before the November 2008 elections we draft our own candidate, cause none of these clowns are making it happen. I say we do like Tupac (2Pac) suggested and use our large numbers to flip the script. If you recall just before Pac died he sat at a press conference with Snoop Dogg and MC Hammer and said he would organize all their fans to be a formidable voting block that would chin check politicians and even run our own.

The man below is who I nominate. I say we draft him into action. Make him force those candidates to debate the issues for real? Lets make things interesting. Hell if Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Franken, Jerry Springer and Warren Beatty can run for office, why can''t one of ours do the same?

What are your thoughts? Is there anyone else we should consider? Get at me.

One Luv

Davey D

http://www.daveyd.com

http://www.myspace.com/mrdaveyd