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Clark, Kucinich turn to rap for youth vote
The Post and Courier ^ | Saturday, November 8, 2003 | Associated Press

Posted on 11/08/2003 12:43:43 PM PST by yonif

LITTLE ROCK, ARK. -- Do Wesley Clark and Dennis Kucinich have street cred?

While nobody is surprised that the Rev. Al Sharpton can hang out with rap moguls Russell Simmons and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, satirists skewered white candidates for their pop-culture reach at a this week's youth-oriented debate.

But young aides for Clark, a silver-haired retired general, and Kucinich, a middle-aged congressman, claim their candidates can have real cache with young voters -- in other words, street cred.

Clark spokeswoman Kym Spell said Clark particularly likes OutKast, Atlanta rappers with anti-war lyrics that parallel Clark's opposition to President Bush's Iraq policy.

Long before his tongue-in-cheek comment at the "Rock the Vote" debate Tuesday about OutKast members cutting solo albums, Clark was listening to their CDs on his campaign plane flights, Spell said.

Could the older, white politician who raps his message -- like the "Ghetto Superstar" portrayed by Warren Beatty in the 1998 film "Bulworth" -- be far behind?

"Not if we have anything to say about it," said Spell, who favors Frank Sinatra and calls herself "the oldest 31-year-old on the planet."

She said Clark has been known to bust a rhyme or two in private, but a group of young advisers he calls "my Mod Squad" usually tries to rein him in.

Kucinich spokesman David Swanson said his candidate is not about to start rapping, but respects the political reach of the genre, holding hip-hop summits and enlisting volunteers from the rap game.

James Eiseman, who teaches a course on politics and popular culture at Loyola University in New Orleans, said pop-culture references won't be taken as a pander if they're well-conceived by the campaigns.

"It's the same as when President Clinton played the saxophone" in the 1992 campaign, Eiseman said. "He appeared on the Arsenio Hall Show and related to what people who watched the show knew. You just have to be careful to use the references correctly."

Clinton broke the barrier between mainstream politics and rock music.

The former president, however, had an uneasy relationship with the fathers of political rap, Public Enemy, after criticizing racially divisive lyrics by Sista Soulja.

The Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, Kucinich's director of outreach to new voters, said identifying with hip-hop could still replicate the impact of Clinton's Arsenio appearance.

"But what is that impact?" he said. "Does it translate into public policy? Young people don't want anybody trying to look cool. They want someone who will respond to their concerns."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2004; clarck; kucinich; rap; rapper; youth; youthvote

1 posted on 11/08/2003 12:43:43 PM PST by yonif
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To: yonif
pitiful....
2 posted on 11/08/2003 12:44:48 PM PST by teldon30
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To: yonif
I can just them now doing a rap duo with Lieberman scratching the album.
3 posted on 11/08/2003 12:46:04 PM PST by Semper Paratus
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To: teldon30
Rap? Give me Bach anyday.
4 posted on 11/08/2003 12:46:40 PM PST by republicanwizard
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To: yonif
Metrosexuals, street cred, apologizing for not smoking weed...what next?
5 posted on 11/08/2003 12:52:28 PM PST by Guillermo (Proud Infidel)
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To: teldon30
Did you see them on the CNN Rock the Vote debate? They were dressed exactly the same. Black turtlenecks, dark jackets. Not very presidential.
6 posted on 11/08/2003 12:52:30 PM PST by USNBandit
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To: Semper Paratus
2 Live Jews?
7 posted on 11/08/2003 12:52:57 PM PST by Guillermo (Proud Infidel)
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To: Guillermo
2 Live Jews?

LOL- Stop that!

8 posted on 11/08/2003 12:55:05 PM PST by Semper Paratus
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To: yonif
So now Dennis Kucinich, the Bud Bundy of the Democratic Party, is morphing himself into street rapper "Grandmaster D" in a desperate attempt to capture the youth vote.
9 posted on 11/08/2003 1:08:13 PM PST by GreenHornet
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Comment #10 Removed by Moderator

To: Semper Paratus
Lieberman is quite a performer -- CLICK.
11 posted on 11/08/2003 1:53:47 PM PST by doug from upland (Why aren't the Clintons living out their remaining years on Alcatraz?)
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To: yonif
Oh yes,signs of true leadership are popping out all over and the youth vote will bond our country!(sarcasm)These dumb little s--ts can't even find their socks.
12 posted on 11/08/2003 2:06:10 PM PST by INSENSITIVE GUY
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To: yonif
Jokes...all of them. What next?

"I am metrosexual man...I get down with P. Diddy...but I need the south vote, so's I get down with Conway Twitty....Word man, I do both, up north and south...am I lyin'?...well just watch my mouth..."

FMCDH

13 posted on 11/08/2003 2:40:04 PM PST by nothingnew (The pendulum is swinging and the Rats are in the pit!)
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To: yonif
He's not doing much to get the young vote. Rap is going out of style.
14 posted on 11/08/2003 5:54:34 PM PST by TheCookMan (Communism thrives when good people do nothing.)
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To: yonif
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
15 posted on 11/08/2003 6:06:32 PM PST by rickmichaels (God bless America, land that I love.)
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To: yonif
She said Clark has been known to bust a rhyme or two in private, but a group of young advisers he calls "my Mod Squad" usually tries to rein him in.

OMG, this could potentially be worse than gore's try at being human during the last campaign. Please, by all means, bust a rhyme or two in PUBLIC, wes. Let all America see that sight!

16 posted on 11/08/2003 6:13:39 PM PST by small voice in the wilderness
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To: yonif
These guys are such shameless panderers.
17 posted on 11/08/2003 6:59:57 PM PST by Conservative til I die
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To: yonif
Clark spokeswoman Kym Spell said Clark particularly likes OutKast, Atlanta rappers with anti-war lyrics that parallel Clark's opposition to President Bush's Iraq policy.

This is a new low, even for a Democrat.

18 posted on 11/08/2003 11:35:00 PM PST by Holden Magroin
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