A Politician Who Runs on Hip-Hop

Kwame M. Kilpatrick, the elected leader of Detroit and, according to his introduction at a recent rally, is “America’s hip-hop mayor.” Watching the crowd’s embrace of Kilpatrick, visiting U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) wondered when hip-hop would find its way into other corners of U.S. politics. “I think that this mayor has an opportunity to help forge a new political agenda, and he has an opportunity to bring a lot of young people into politics,” Waters told Geoff Boucher of the Los Angeles Times. “Much of hip-hop culture is born out of rap about conditions of the cities, the problems, the police abuse and all of that. The rappers have helped to describe what’s wrong in our society and the need to address it. That’s a natural lead to politics and public policy. Now with people like the mayor becoming part of the political process, it should all come together, to converge.” Read more.