Combs to Put Rap on Election Trail

Last year, Sean “Puffy” Combs told The Times that he would make a better president than George W. Bush. Now he’ll be telling rap fans to think of themselves as a political force as well.

A public-service announcement featuring Combs exhorting rap fans to get involved in the campaign season will be unveiled Tuesday at a New York press conference launching Rap the Vote’s 2002 effort. As its name would suggest, Rap the Vote is an initiative that takes as its blueprint the Rock the Vote effort, which memorably braced youth support for Bill Clinton’s 1992 run to the White House.

On hand for the press conference will be Russell Simmons, the politically active rap mogul of Def Jam fame, along with officials from the NAACP, several record companies and sister group Rock the Vote. Rap the Vote will set up outreach efforts at hip-hop shows, college campuses and town hall meetings in urban areas and also use celebrity faces--such as Combs and actress Rosie Perez in the first round of commercials--to get rap fans active. Instead of a presidential race, the focus will often be on elections that will affect urban areas.

The effort is music to the ears of Minister Benjamin F. Muhammad, the Nation of Islam leader who became widely known (then as Benjamin Chavis) for his brief and controversial stint as NAACP national director in the 1990s. He now works closely with Simmons guiding the politically minded Hip-Hop Action Summit Network. The former Motown fan hears a rallying cry for youth in the beats of hip-hop.

“This will get young people to register and vote. It’s going to affect the turnout of young people voting in the 2002 elections,” Muhammad said, adding that more big-name rap artists will join the call. “Hip-hop artists have an enormous influence over the consciousness of young Americans. This is a methodology that will work.”