Hip-hop's influence expected at polls
BY EVELYN McDONNELL
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Lucianne Florveus turned 18 -- voting age -- earlier this year. On Saturday, the only thing perhaps more precious to the Miami native than her newfound suffrage was her cellphone and its photo of her with Russell Simmons.

Florveus ran into the founder of Def Jam Records, Phat Farm clothing and the nonpartisan Hip-Hop Summit Action Network at the USA Flea Market in Miami. Simmons and his brother, the Rev. Run of the seminal rap group Run-DMC, and members of the HSAN and America Coming Together were cruising the air-brush and jewelry stalls, encouraging marketgoers to vote.

"What he's doing is very great,'' said Florveus, who says she is a registered voter. "He inspires us to vote.''

Simmons was in town for the launch of wife Kimora Lee Simmons' Baby Phat line at the Funkshion fashion show in Miami's Design District. But during the day, he was wearing the political hat that has become an increasingly integral part of the mogul's being.

Simmons founded the HSAN to pressure politicians on issues such as education, drug-sentencing laws and poverty. On Oct. 1, the HSAN sponsored two bus tours through 10 Southern and Midwestern states to encourage 18- to 35-year-olds to vote. Miami was the second city in which Simmons climbed on board (the first was Cleveland).

"We want to go places where the candidates are not going,'' Simmons said as he and Run sat down to plates of Cuban food from the market's cafe. "These freedom rides do make a difference.

"It's a cultural shift, a shift of consciousness. People are more sophisticated today than they were yesterday, they're more interested. There's a change in enthusiasm; we'll see at the polls.''

In 1992, MTV's Rock the Vote campaign was widely credited with helping Bill Clinton win the presidency by tapping the power of Generation X. The HSAN, along with the ongoing Rock the Vote drive and P. Diddy's Citizen Change, say they will have a similar effect this year by tapping the growing social consciousness of the hip-hop generation.