Who Will Rappers Endorse For Oakland's Next Mayor

Currently there are 13 people trying to win the seat for Mayor in what is shaping up to be Oakland, California's most controversial and volatile election in more then a decade..What makes this race interesting is that Oakland which has a majority African American population and has had a African American Mayor for the past 12-14 years may find itself electing a white Mayor due to the fact that 10 African American candidates will be splitting their votes..Former California Governor Jerry Brown has tossed his hat into the ring.. and has thus far garnered 43% of the polled votes...All sorts of African American leaders are running around asking how can a city which gave birth to the Black Panther Party and fought vigorously to elect it's first Black Mayor in a city that was notorious for it's racism, miss the boat on this Mayoral election..

I'm looking at this election and I'm seeing a huge void to be filled.. I'm seeing a city that had less than 30% of it's population voting during the last election.. I'm seeing the overwhelming majority of these non-voters living in the Oakland flatlands..[commonly referred to as the hood].. And I see hardly anyone aggressively courting that potential vote..
I see all these candidates running around talking about how they got endorsed by this prestigious organization or that prestigious newspaper.. And I'm asking myself which one of these candidates is gonna be smart enough and bold enough to go out and seek the endorsement of Hip Hop's biggest icons? Which Mayoral candidate will be savvy enough to go out and get a huge poster of E-40, Too Short or Ice Cube and place it alongside all those billboards along East 14th that are begging us to buy St Ides Malt liquor..and have this billboard sport a huge caption that reads.. 'Yo Oakland, this is Too Short reminding you don't forget to pull the lever for candidate so-so during the next election.. He's down with us'....

This strategy doesn't have to be limited to Oakland or Bay Area rappers.. If I was running for Mayor.. I would definitely be seeking out an endorsement from a man like Ice Cube..Far fetched you say? I think not...The other week when he came to town he brought out thousands of people who waited for hours just to get an autograph.. Not all these folks were kids.. Most were grown adults who are able to vote.. If some one like Ice Cube can influence folks to go out and buy a million or two albums, check out his new movie, throw up the 'W' and yell 'Westside' or go out and down a couple of 40 ounces of malt liquor.. He certainly can go out an influence folks to vote for Oakland's next Mayor.. I'm thinking Cube could go out and change the words to his song 'We Be Clubbing' and rewrite as 'We Be Voting' and do a short little rap about one of Oakland's 13 Mayoral candidates...There's no doubt that kid got influence. I saw him the other nite on Bill Maher's show 'Politically Incorrect'..Maybe he's starting to realize that and move in that direction..

Once upon a time I would've said this suggestion was off track, because Cube back in days was only 18 or 19.. He still had a lot to learn.. Now he's a married man with kids who is almost 30... Like it or not he's a major icon in the community. I wanna know who he would he endorse for Mayor and why.. or for that matter Governor?. For those who don't know Cali elects a new Governor this year..If Cube shares similar views with me, I certainly would want him to go out and represent.. There's a lot at stake here.. Here in Cali there are all sorts of crazy bills being passed.. Many of them have and will continue to have an adverse effect on our community..It sure would've been nice to have had an Cube campaigning against Prop 209 which ended affirmative action or the Three Strikes Law.. or anti-immigration bill Prop 187..Maybe his endorsement would've flipped the script and help defeat those oppressive measures..