Rap power to vote

JUST AS THE MTV generation helped rock the vote two decades ago, organizers of yesterday's "National Hip-Hop Team Vote Campaign" hope the rap generation has the same impact on the current political landscape.

The Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, which has led youth voter drives in the city before, hopes to pull at least 10,000 new voters into this year's election by way of an event yesterday in North Philadelphia's Liacouras Center as well as others like it throughout the country.

"Two days before the Pennsylvania primary, there is no better place to be," said Dr. Benjamin Chavis, co-chairman of HSAN. "Philadelphia's young people are into hip-hop, and they feel the media hasn't paid too much attention to them."

"Young people want to get out of poverty, and they want more access to getting a good education," Chavis said. "Hip-hop has brought back that entrepreneurial spirit, with the Jay-Z's and Diddy's of the world, and the way for these young people to get money is through their vote."

But it's one thing to have a mission; it's an entirely different matter to get young people to come out to hear it. So to that end, HSAN invited many of today's best-known celebrities - rappers T.I. and Flo-Rida, BET host Terrance J and newcomer O'Neal Alexander, to name a few - to perform and offer comments, hoping that their presence and words will leave an impression on the minds of young voters.

"I want to encourage the youth to take advantage of the opportunity to vote," T.I. said. "We already know where not voting gets us, and a lot of people don't take the time to vote."

"If you give up your right to vote, you also give up your right to complain," T.I. continued. "This is the most important election in hip-hop's lifetime."

T.I., a rapper who has dug himself out of a recent arrest on gun charges, said he is hoping to rehabilitate his image.

Chavis thought it a good idea that T.I. is on board with this effort.

"T.I. has gone through a lot of trials and tribulations, and he's someone the streets look up to," Chavis said. "Street cred in hip-hop is real, and T.I. has that. He's willing to say, 'I made those mistakes, and God has given me another opportunity to go on the right path.' " *