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Against Prop 21 by Davey D-2/4/00
Hotel Motel --And The Hilton The youth then entered the hotel lobby while still holding up raised fists and began chanting a customized version of the chorus to DMX's 'Ruff Ryder's Anthem'.
Stop! Drop! People Gonna Rise To the Top!The end result was the Hilton coming out and clarifying their position on the Prop 21. They made it known that it was the president or chairman of the Hilton who was backing Prop 21 and not the chain itself. It was great to get that sort of response and un-blurring of the lines. That wasn't bad for a bunch a Hip Hop headz who are just getting into politics. The other noteworthy event involved several other Bay Area Hip Hop and youth organization who co-ordinated efforts and held three simultaneous protests against PG &E [Pacific Gas and Electric]. This included San Jose's UKAH, Concord's C-Beyond and Third Eye. Again more then 300 folks showed up at each PG &E office demanding that they back down on their support of Prop 21. The result was a sit down meeting with PG &E management in which they came and stated that they would be neutral on the position. Because PG & E had given money to the initiative, there was a push to have them donate equal money to fight the initiative. That hasn't happened yet. The other victory Third Eye had was with Chevron where they got this big corporation to come out and publicly state they were neutral on Prop 21. All this is encouraging at a time when so many insist on holding a negative image of Hip Hop.The other thing that should be emphasized is that while Third Eye and these others Hip Hop organizations were out there bringing the heat noticeable absent were some of the more traditional organizations who haven't been aggressively breaking bread with Hip Hop. In addition to organizing these large scale protests, Third Eye has been hard at work passing out literature and literally going door to door explaining to people the provisions in Prop 21. At first the education was taking place within the High schools and various college campuses but with a month left before the March 7th election, you will no doubt see their activities and visibility increased. There is some sort of big hip Hop rally/concert activity scheduled for February 21st.
 Other Hip Hoppers stirring up noise on this on the political front include Keith Knight of the social conscious Hip Hop band Marginal Prophets http://www.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Marginal_Prophets. In addition to throwing down on the mic..Knight has made a name for himself as a cartoonist whose work can be seen in all sorts of publications ranging from  The SF Examiner Newspaper to Salt Lake City Weekly to http://www.salon1999.com. Recently he penned a powerful cartoon bringing attention to Prop 21. All sorts of organizations have made copies and have been passing them out. By the way folks may want to peep the group's album 'Twist the Knob'.
 The Bay Area's hottest act The Delinquents from East Oakland are also getting into the act. They're in the process of making post cards that shows their picture on the front with a big Vote No on Prop 21 on the back. They have also included some facts about the proposition as well as their position on other electoral issues. In addition to their popularity, the group has a huge truck that is shrink wrapped with their picture and album cover. They'll be using this truck promotional tool to get the word out to their folks in the hood to get out and vote as bring them up to speed on some of the politics getting ready to effect 'The town'.
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