While Congress Plans MySpace Shutdown, Joe Ford Jr Encourages Youth To ‘Hustle 2 Vote’

U.S. Congressional seat candidate Joe Ford, Jr is on his stride to get young adults and their peers registered to vote with the Hustle 2 Vote campaign

U.S. Congressional seat candidate Joe Ford, Jr is on his stride to get young adults and their peers registered to vote with the Hustle 2 Vote campaign (as seen on MySpace) by getting the Rap/Hip-Hop community involved to encourage registering and voting. Overseen by campaign manager Justin Ford, who is Ford’s younger brother, the campaign is making it’s mark now before the August 3, 2006 elections, which the first benefit concert was held in Memphis, TN with performances and appearances of Memphis rappers Eightball & MJG, Kingpin Skinny Pimp, Nasty Nardo and candidate Joe Ford, Jr along with Hustle 2 Vote campaign crew and family including political figure Joe Ford, Sr.

Every year we all hear talk and gossip near voting time about how those of us who do not not vote take it for granted. Well it may be true that many in the past suffered because they wanted their voices to be heard and couldn’t but now that it’s possible, are we doing nothing? As a person and a potential voter you have to remember that voting isn’t always just based on the person who is running, in most cases, however we do have people running for their own benefit when they should be running to represent their community or the country based on facts, research and the people. Well according to Joe Fod, Jr, this is exactly what he represents. “A very low percent of people age 18-25 vote but at the age 55 the voting is heavy. To get stuff done, we got to get those 18-25 to participate,” Ford stated in an interview with MemphisRap.com.

On May 5th in Memphis, TN, Joe Ford, Jr. kicked off his Hustle 2 Vote at The Complex located at 704 Madison Ave. with an evening long event to get those that were not registered to vote to register. According to campaign leaders, the goal was to register 500 new voters aged 18-25 but a very mixed age crowd attended the event, and all were encouraged to register to vote if they were not already registered. The free event included a night of entertainment from some of the South’s finest artists such as Kingpin Skinny Pimp, Nasty Nardo, P. Moses and aspiring artists who proudly ‘sported’ the Joe Ford, Jr. Hustle 2 Vote tees. When asked was he familiar with the rappers, Ford replied “Yes, Gotti, Skinny and a few others we’re on a first name basis.”

During the interview with MemphisRap.com, Ford also spoke briefly on the Hustle 2 Vote campaign and it’s goals. “My brother Justin (Hustle 2 Vote campaign manager) and myself came up with the idea. It’s been hard work but we’re taking it seriously because united we stand and divided we fall.” Ford also spoke of the past Ford lost in ’99 to Memphis Mayor Herenton and how he believes that the Hustle 2 Vote campaign will get people who wouldn’t have reached out before to vote to reach out to vote now. “I want to give people the choice, educate our youth to know their responsibilities and I want to be the people’s representative in Congress,” Ford continued.

A prime example of this message would be while Congress wants to shutdown the use of social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster due to an arguement that people put too much personal information on these websites and could be victimized (bill HR5319), candidate Joe Ford, Jr. who is an entertainment attorney running for a U.S. Congressional seat in Tennessee’s 9th District utilizes the services of MySpace to get the word out about voting. Does this inturn show that MySpace is a valuable asset to not only the government, but for our youth and those who represent tommorrow? Only time will tell, but one thing’s for sure; the goal of campaigns such as Hustle 2 Vote, Vote or Die and others like Rock the Vote definitely have the right idea because if there were more votes from younger adults then bills like bill HR5319 and future bills will be less one-sided considering more young adult’s participation along with all others. Meanwhile, maybe one day there will be a call to sites like MySpace and even other site giants like Yahoo! to back efforts like Hustle 2 Vote and encourage all young adults to register to vote. What do you think?

For more on the Hustle 2 Vote campaign, visit Joe Ford, Jr. on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/joefordjr and for photos of the first Hustle 2 Vote benefit and concert, logon to http://photos.memphisrap.com.