Hip Hop Caucus 2004. In 2003 and 2004 he was the Political and Grassroots Director for Russell Simmons' Hip Hop Summit Action Network, as well as a Senior Consultant to Jay-Z's Citizen Change "Voice Your Choice" campaign. Respect My Vote! is a voter mobilization campaign that aims to educate, register and mobilize young people of color between the ages of 18-39 who live in urban communities, do not attend college, people with felony records who are unaware of their voting rights, and students at historically black colleges and universities. In 2008, the Hip Hop Caucus and the hip hop artist T.I. launched the
Japanese hip hop hip hop. If listeners first discover Hip Hop through a Japanese artist, there is the fear that they will never bother learning about hip hop's origins and simply continue to listen to strictly Japanese versions of the genre. Dancing is an important aspect of the hip-hop culture. Before hip-hop was popular in Japan, there was soul dancing, which provided a foundation for Japanese acceptance of street dance culture. A big break through time for the dance scene in Japan was after the movies "Flashdance," "Wild Style", and "Beat Street". This was only the beginning of the dance explosion in Japan.