Rappers Get Out the Vote

November 4th is our elections date and if you can vote early it is definitely recommended. The more I listened to Sarah Palin, heard the robocalls and the constant changing of who Barack Obama really is according to the Republicans forced me to be one of those standing in line to cast my vote early.

Their fearmongering sent me running in the other direction. My view is if he's so dangerous to people like McCain and Joe the Plumbers, then Obama has to be just what America needs at this point in its history. As a fan of rap music especially socially conscious hip hop or what is sometimes referred to as "positive rap", I am well aware of what's done to advance a negative stereotype. When all the smoke clears, we're left with our own pathetic stories of foreclosures, no food, no health care, no education and no jobs.

After watching a CNN report of a poor 81-year old man who had a faulty voter machine try to steal his vote for Obama, I went to the polling station armed with my pencil. Why you ask? In this CNN report the elections officials claimed that the machines sometimes will switch a vote for Obama to McCain and this old man had to press the touch screen again. This time with the elections official help it registered his choice correctly.

As I paid special attention this report, I noticed that the official that said the voter machines were calibrated was using a pencil in the demonstration and not his index finger. This was my Barack Obama moment - I have to use a pencil or a ball point pen - not my index finger and then the machines cannot register my Obama vote for McCain.

Like rappers, rap music fans are from the street, we have street cred and we know how to watch our backs so word-up to all my rap and hip hop fans - go down to that polling place armed with your pencil and use it as your pointer to pick the candidate you want to hold the President's office.

Hip Hop Culture - Health Care Crisis in America

The current economic crisis must be more frightening to the 47 million Americans that have no health insurance than anyone amongst us. For sometime now, employers have been increasingly moving health care costs back to employees and workers are struggling to pay higher premiums, deductibles and in some cases have no coverage at all.

The most neglectful part of these statistics lie in the fact that 8.7 million children are amongst the silent sufferers. To work hard is part of the American dream but working families are faced with double-digit increases in health insurance, forced to pay out-of-pocket for doctors visits, fast-rising prescriptions costs and many are being forced to decline coverage for their families and delay getting much needed medical care.

If you are single parent, teenage mother or low to moderate-income family, you should know that Congress passed the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 1997 to work with Medicaid to expand health coverage to the 8.7 million children in America that lack health insurance.

Don't be a victim, arm yourself with knowledge by visiting this outreach organization. This is an example of the importance of "community organizers" like Obama in the hood and under-privileged communities.

If you are a young "community organizer", you can use your interest in rap music to show your peeps how the vanguard rap music community can be used to motivate young people to be organizers by sharing rap music and vital information to hip hop groups.