2008 Hip Hop Caucus Photo Gallery

So yesterday was pretty intense. We were one of the few chosen to cover the 2008 Hip Hop Caucus for the whole day. Things kicked off around 10:30 am at the 9:30 Club here in DC. Similar to how Diddy conducted his "Vote or Die" campaign...T.I. is the face of this new campaign for 2008. There was an amazing turnout, especially since this event took place on a Monday morning! That just goes to show how dedicated young DC people are to getting their voices heard and voting for change. Best believe ObamaMania was in full effect. Respect my vote! pics after the teleport:

Upon my arrival, it was nice to see a line of people registering to vote. If you've ever been to the 9:30 Club in DC you know the how things are setup...and the line stretched for two blocks! About 600-700 people

DJ Green Lantern held us down and even requested to have some ObamaMania shirts sent his way...
Washington Wizard Etan Thomas came through to support the movement.

DCBG & Young Berg...surprisingly dude is real laid back, that Autobots chain is pretty sick...

OBAMAMANIA!

Excellent shot, DC and ATL...here we have DC artist Wale being interviewed by BET and the right behind T.I. This must be a sign of a potential collaboration?!

Dawn from Danity Kane...she wants her ObamaMania shirt in Pink...don't worry EF got you covered!

DCBG x TIP ...shorty hopped in and kinda ruined tha shot...but that's show business
The honorable Reverend Yearwood and T.I.. Special thanks to Rev. Yearwood for putting this entire campaign together.

Inside the 9:30 Club was just as packed, people were eager to see Mambo Sauce perform.

WELCOME TO DC! The performance was killer, and of course near the end they cised us with a lil gogo beat to get the crowd amped.

The demographic was 18-29 but I'm sure some of the people were a bit younger. Either way, the support from the DC demographic was strong, as you see here fliers were held and "Respect My Vote" t-shirts were worn proudly.

When T.I. came on the stage to speak after Rev. Yearwood the crowd went crazy! It took a little while for all the screaming girls to calm down, but TIP definitely helped with that by getting a little angry. It was a serious matter at hand but people just wanted to party and hear his music...once there was silence he spoke some real sh*t.

DC smiling back at you

Panel line up
I don't even know who this fool is...but whoever he may be, YOU ARE A FOOL. Check it, so this dude gets up to respond to a question asked by the crowd. The question was "how can we get more young people interesting in the voting process". He got up, said hello, a few girls were screaming but after they calmed down in anticipation of his answer HE forgot the damn question. He had to run to T.I. for help and even at that point he was fumbling over his words saying "my bad this is my first time doing this" "but the reason you should vote is...damn" he basically got up there, and stood longer than any other panelist, all to say NOTHING...you made a fool out of yourself mystery man, better luck next time.
DC knows Wale well, EF does too. The crowd was yelling and amping Wale to represent DC and answer some questions...and finally he did. His response was pretty well though out, wish we could have heard more from him...can you guess the kicks?

This new artist goes by the name of Young Steff, an R&B act. Personally I've never heard of him, but he said he's been in the music business for 15 years...so I guess that's why he was chosen to be a Hip Hop Caucus panelist? He spoke his mind though, unfortunately repeating what everybody else was saying.

Dawn from Danity Kane had the most heart felt story. She spoke about how Katrina was a real life experience for her. Most of us experienced the tragedy through news stories and the Internet, but she actually lost her home and loved ones in Katrina. She stressed that by voting, and having your voice heard you are able to prevent "levy" situations from happening. Props to Dawn, and condolences to the family.
Of course guys will be guys...what is this Danity Kandy? Berg is probably thinking hhhmm Dawn is sexy, can I?
T.I. wrapped things up with a slogan that's as real as it gets. "by not voting you lose your right to complain" that's probably the best line I heard that entire day. Check back for full video coverage.

ALL PICTURES TAKEN AND PROVIDED BY MEDIA BREAK LLC.