Hip Hop and Civic Engagement
We at the PA League have always believed that hip hop culture can be an excellent way to introduce people who are not deeply engaged to political thinking. When I was a kid we listened to Public Enemy, in this past year even Young Jeezy, not known for his political outspokenness, brought us a track about politics and hosted an inauguration party.
Starting last year our sister org, the PA League’s Education Fund,has been the fiscal sponsor for the MC competition Rhyme Calisthenics to help advance the connection between rap music and civic engagement, visited hip hop shows all over, including of rapper and activist Immortal Technique, and participated in the Hip Hop Caucus. Nothing we did with hip-hop, however, reached the heights of Pittsburgh’s Mayor after the Super Bowl.
Tags: Civic engagement, civil rights, freestyle, hip-hop, pa league of young voters education fund, Pennsylvania, pittsburgh, politics, Voting, Youth