Lend an Ear to Q-Tip: Hip-Hopper Works Crowds for Rock the Vote

Who better to reach the ears of young people with a message of civic engagement than ... Q-Tip?

The former frontman of the hip-hop trio A Tribe Called Quest is the latest celebrity to team up with the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Rock the Vote to urge young people to go to the polls in November.

“The momentum is really building for young voters to be the deciding factor in the election,” said Jehmu Greene, Rock the Vote’s president, at a press conference in Hollywood Wednesday that featured a performance by rockers Maroon 5 and appearances by Q-Tip and pop songstress Michelle Branch.

Rock the Vote kicked off its 2004 election agenda last week, capped by the Rock the Vote Awards Saturday night at the Hollywood Palladium honoring the Dixie Chicks and P. Diddy for their political activism.

The group unveiled plans for a nationwide bus tour to register thousands of voters in 30 “hotly contested” cities and at both parties’ conventions; partnerships with MTV, Time Warner Inc. and Ben & Jerry’s; and developing cellphone technology to deliver information to young people.

Rock the Vote, which has registered more than 3 million young voters and launched an online voter registration form, was founded in 1990 by recording company executive Jeff Ayeroff.

Surprise Supporter

LEBANON, Tenn. -- Retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark received a welcome respite from the usual campaign grind during a Thursday stop at the military academy he attended as a sophomore.

The surprise’s name: Fitim Zeqiri.

The 16-year-old ethnic Kosovar Albanian had met the former NATO supreme commander in 1999, and reacquainted himself with the Democratic candidate here. Clark appeared touched and delighted when introduced to Zeqiri and his family, now settled in Gallatin, Tenn.

Zeqiri said his family was living in a refugee camp in the Balkans when he first shook Clark’s hand. Clark commanded the 78-day NATO bombing campaign that led to the end of the conflict in Kosovo and the downfall of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. Clark invited the boy to the front of the room, where he hugged him and grinned, then handed him the microphone.

“He’s the one who really brought peace over there,” a nervous Zeqiri told the audience. “Now 3 million people are living free over there, and having some rights that they never had and never even dreamed about.

“I want to thank you so much for all the hard work you’ve done for Kosovo, Bosnia and all the countries over there that Milosevic” attacked, he added. “I want to let every American know this: that the only person who ... could be successful [as president] -- it’s Wesley Clark who can do it. He can make everything and every dream come true to all Americans.”

Duly Quoted

“I had my chance. We got some things right, we messed up some things.... I just sit there and do what I vowed I would never do -- talk back to the television.” -- former President George H.W. Bush, on life after the presidency, in a speech to students at the University of Texas-Pan American on Thursday.

Compiled from staff, wire and Web reports by Times staff researcher Susannah Rosenblatt.