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Election 2020
Hip-Hop Is a Viable Voting Bloc
Don’t sleep on Cardi B, Ice Cube, and others. Rappers can harness a vote.
Contrary to mainstream eyerolls, twerking isn’t a political disqualifier for Cardi B, City Girls, or anybody else who embraces their “WAP” or being “flewed out.” If we believe in democracy, we have to believe in the right of us all to participate in it. Keep ignoring hip-hop as a political block if you want, but it won’t stop “the culture” from politically engaging.
That truth was certainly on display during the BET Hip Hop Awards. At the end of the City Girls barely-safe-for-TV leopard catsuit performance of “Kitty Talk” and “Jobs,” the word VOTE appeared behind them. On top of that, popular website The Shade Room is running their “When We All Vote” PSA message letting “everyone who’s been incarcerated,” like JT, one-half of the City Girls racy duo, has, know “your voice does matter.”
Back in August, Cardi B sat down with Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden via a Zoom call captured by Elle magazine to cover a myriad of topics of special concern to women of color, including police brutality, health care, and childcare. In April, Cardi, who supported Bernie Sanders throughout the Democratic primaries, gave the Vermont senator a spotlight via her Instagram Live to…
