Opinion
Democrats, led by Representative Jamaal Bowman (NY), unveiled the Congressional Hip Hop Power and Justice Task Force outside the Capitol last week.
A report by The Hill indicates that the task force “will use hip hop’s messaging of building a more equitable society to help spearhead initiatives to address economic equality, affordable housing, and racial justice imperatives.”
“Hip hop has always been about ending poverty in America, about fully funding our public schools. It’s always been about justice reform and police reform,” Bowman told the outlet.
“It’s always been about affordable housing and dealing with the issue of threats of violence,” he added.
With few other pressing issues, Democrats led by Squad member Jamaal Bowman have established the “Congressional Hip Hop Task Force” to use hip hop to deal with racial inequality. pic.twitter.com/Y5WcFU5Wwm
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 14, 2024
RELATED: Democrat Senate Celebrates 50 Years Of Hip Hop While America Burns
With All Other Problems Solved, Democrats Pivot To A Hip Hop Task Force
Democrats pivoting to a Hip Hop task force strikes one as a move that has all the vibes of a Steve Buschemi “How do you do fellow kids” moment.
America really isn’t sending their best people to represent them in Congress.
Aside from Bowman, who recently hip-hopped his way to intentionally set off a fire alarm to stall a congressional vote, the task force will be led by Democratic Reps. Hank Johnson (GA), Delia Ramirez (IL), and Andre Carson (IN).
Johnson, of course, was the man whose intellectual background involved telling a House Armed Services Committee witness that he was concerned the island of Guam might capsize if too many people were on it.
This is the video that Trump Jr. is referencing where Democrat Rep. Hank Johnson believed that the island of Guam would “tip over and capsize” if too many people were on the island. pic.twitter.com/69tUluRKF1 https://t.co/Lx9I37KPWB
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 13, 2019
As part of the task force, Bowman says that Congress will be “conducting Hip Hop on the Hill once a month” as opposed to once a year.
“We just want to take that up a notch and make it more consistent, make us more intentional, and use the power of the genre as a multibillion-dollar global economy to move lawmakers in terms of helping them to understand what’s happening in our most marginalized communities,” Bowman stated.
RELATED: Barack Obama Slams Hip-Hop Community, Explains What It Means to Be a Real Man
Just this past summer, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) took a moment to celebrate the passage of a resolution marking the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop music.
Schumer joined Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) in passing a resolution that celebrates the anniversary of the day DJ Kool Herc discovered that he could make scratching noises with records on a turntable.
In a preview of what you might see in these “Hip Hop on the Hill” gatherings, Schumer took center stage in 2021 when he was asked by then-Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. if he “got some bars.”
Schumer responded with this effort: “I got the bars, I got the plaque, I got the music, we got it all!”
Chuck Schumer and Ruben Diaz Jr rapping. pic.twitter.com/qsrPwiog3p
— Bill “worst comms guy in history” Neidhardt (@BNeidhardt) August 16, 2021
Word.
Aside from the silliness behind the task force, using a musical genre that has spent decades celebrating inequality between artists and their fans as a means to combat inequality is downright absurd.
Former President Barack Obama has been very critical of the Hip Hop community and their portrayal of men in the past.
“We live in a culture where our worth is measured by how much money we have and how famous we are,” Obama once explained.
Barack Obama: ‘If you’re confident about your sexuality, you don’t need eight women around your twerking https://t.co/ViK8wLGZOH pic.twitter.com/cRcERxZKTd
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) February 20, 2019
“If you are really confident about your financial situation, you’re probably not going to be wearing an 8-pound chain around your neck,” Obama continued. “If you’re very confident about your sexuality, you don’t have to have eight women around you twerking.”
The hip-hop community has long glorified excesses in their music videos, whether it be money or women. They tend to place a high value on the former, while perpetually devaluing the latter.
Bowman was formally censured in the United States House of Representatives in December for his fire alarm stunt, with some Democrats even joining in the vote.
The New York lawmaker pulled a clearly marked fire alarm beside an emergency door at the Cannon House Office Building in late September as House members were preparing to vote on a spending bill.
He initially claimed that he was “urgently” trying to get to the vote and had pulled the alarm thinking it would open the door, but a video released after Bowman struck a plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for causing a false fire alarm clearly showed that he lied.
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