Last May, I attended the Tennessee Green Party’s state nominating convention in Nashville. At that time, the primary race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was still in full swing and there was much talk about the “woman’s vote,” the “Black vote,” and the historic nature of these two Democratic candidates. The Green Party, however, was on the verge of nominating an African-American and a woman all in the same person. Former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was the presumptive nominee at the time and has since gone on to win the nomination outright. Tennessee Greens seemed exasperated that they were about to nominate their own historic candidate, but still could get no interest from the media. Well, the Greens upped the historical ante when they chose Rosa Clemente as her vice presidential running mate. Clemente is a Puerto Rican woman, which means this is the first all-female, all-minority ticket in history. It’s also the first ticket with a bona-fide hip-hop activist from the South Bronx running (the South Bronx is considering by many to be the historical home of hip-hop music). So, no, the title of this piece doesn’t refer to Barack Obama’s Jay-Z references or his interest in hip-hop music as a whole. Rosa Clemente is more than just a hip-hop fan, she is a woman who has involved herself in the music and culture working to build and sustain political movements within it. Given the trouble that she and McKinney have had in getting the media’s attention, perhaps she should look to the early struggles of hip-hop itself for a model of how to persevere and flourish without mainstream support.
Rosa Clemente reporting after Hurricane Katrina
In the early days of hip-hop, the music managed to grow in strength and popularity despite the fact that it had little to no exposure on television (including MTV’s earliest days), no radio play, and no corporate backing. Artists had to start their own labels, develop underground marketing techniques, and rely on word-of-mouth promotion. Hip-hop was invented in the early to mid 1970’s (depending on your definition), however it did not have a Grammy category until 1989. Yo! MTV Raps did not premiere until 1988, and BET’s Rap City premiered the following year. Despite this slow acknowledgement by the mainstream media, the music and the culture prospered and have now grown to global prominence. Whether Cynthia McKinney, Rosa Clemente, and the Green Party will do the same in the future is anybody’s guess.
They do have some of the raw materials in place. The Green Party is one of America’s largest political parties beyond the dominating Republican and Democratic parties. Greens have over two hundred people in state and local office throughout the nation. The fact that that a legitimate political party is being led by an all-female, all-minority ticket is truly groundbreaking. That one of them, Ms. Clemente, is at the forefront of progressive hip-hop political movements says a lot for the cultural power of the music.
Green Party Presidential nominee, Cynthia McKinney
Ms. Clemente describes herself as a community organizer, journalist, and hip-hop activist. Born in the South Bronx, she studied at SUNY Albany before heading to Cornell for a master’s degree, which means she and Barack Obama share at least one interesting trait. They are both Ivy League graduates who opted for the unglamorous but important work of community organizing after their studies. While Obama shifted away from community organizing and opted for electoral politics as a way to spur change, Clemente stayed in the trenches removed from public office (though she hopes to change that now).
In 1995, Clemente founded Know Thy Self Productions (KTSP), which organized college speaking tours and offered media consulting. KTSP was started due to Clemente “seeing a need for young people of color to be heard and taken seriously.” It has grown to include a speaking tour with such hip-hop luminaries as M1 of Dead Prez, Mystic, and comedian Dave Chapelle. In 2003, Clemente helped form and organize the first National Hip Hop Political Convention. The event drew 3000 activists from all over the country “to create and implement a national political agenda for the Hip-Hop generation.”
"Hip-hop headz won’t be able to look forward to Mos Def as poet laureate or Chuck D running the National Endowment for the Arts."
As a journalist, Clemente has appeared on CNN, NPR, C-SPAN, and Pacifica Radio. She has been written about in the New York Times and the Village Voice. Even with “big media” credentials, Clemente seems to prefer more street-savvy publications like the Source, the Ave., and other hip-hop-centric publications. Days after Hurricane Katrina struck, Clemente traveled to the Gulf Coast as a reporter where she contributed to Air America radio, NPR, Pacifica, Democracy Now!, and other outlets ranging from scrappy independents to established mainstream organizations.
I am only detailing Clemente’s biography to illustrate that she is not your mainstream politician. She is the manifestation of hip-hop culture’s best attributes – community empowerment, pride in identity, and outspoken advocacy. Hip-hop music and culture, like jazz, blues, and bluegrass, are art forms invented in this country and spread throughout the world. Clemente has used this uniquely American creation to build and better herself, and, in return, has worked to build and better the culture surrounding this music.
Personally, I can attest to the power of hip-hop as a political force, though only as a modest anecdote. As a white kid growing up in the suburbs of Nashville, TN, hip-hop was one of only a few outlets offering exposure to a world outside of southern suburbia. The first concert I ever attended was Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys when I was 15 years old. Hearing Run-DMC rhyme about their experiences as young people growing up in Jamaica, Queens gave me a whole new perspective on life. I remember listening to the lyrics from “Proud to Be Black” and digging through the encyclopedia (those are the books people had to use before Google) to read about Malcolm X. Later, I discovered more socially conscious hip-hop like KRS-1 and Boogie Down Productions, before hitting the political gold mine when I bought Public Enemy’s “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” (on cassette tape, no less). Wow. I remember just being dumbfounded when I first listened to PE as a 16 yr. old kid. It was 1988 and nothing sounded remotely like them at the time. It took a few listens to get my head around those blaring sirens and Chuck D’s rhyming style - more militant street preacher than b-boy emcee. Even after the shock of the new wore off, nothing ever sounded as powerful as Public Enemy. In a sense, I probably have Chuck D to thank for this job covering politics (along with Ian MacKaye of the neo-punk band Fugazi). That music made the world of political ideas cool, exciting, sometimes dangerous, and always interesting – a feeling that has stuck with me to this day. That’s why I find it fascinating that the hip-hop community has produced a vice presidential candidate for a legitimate political party. This is not simply a woman who grew up listening to hip-hop – a generic member of “the hip-hop generation.” Rosa Clemente built her career around this music and its culture. It is a testament to the power and potential of this music, not to mention the power of youth culture in general.
None of this is to say that hip-hop has no flaws. The degradation of women and the glorification of thug life in corporate-controlled rap are apparent to anyone with a television. Clemente’s response is that these are just “commercial rappers” who do not represent the spirit and history of hip-hop culture in all of its complexity and various forms. Of course, she has worked tirelessly to rid the music of negative impulses so as to use it as a grassroots forum for positive advancement.
Bottom line, though… will McKinney and Clemente win in 2008? Simply put, no. Hip-hop headz won’t be able to look forward to Mos Def as poet laureate or Chuck D running the National Endowment for the Arts. Even they concede they can’t win. Frankly, it’s impossible for any third party to gain traction in our current two party system, especially at the presidential level. The candidates say that their goal is to gain 5% of the vote, which would result in substantial public funding for the national Green Party. Even that is a tall order. Ralph Nader, the Green nominee in 2000, received 2.7% of the vote and had a much higher profile at the time than do McKinney and Clemente at this point in the race. They blame this on a national media that they see as unwilling to include them or give them any coverage.
As a student of hip-hop, Ms. Clemente should know better than anyone that sometimes underground movements cannot be stopped. Sometimes independent voices, no matter how neglected by the status quo, reverberate at a subterranean level, gaining momentum before busting through the surface. If it wasn’t for Grandmaster Flash or Afrika Bambaataa keeping the rhythms flowing at basement parties back in the day, Kanye West and Common wouldn’t be filling stadiums today. Sometimes dogged perseverance is victory in and of itself.