Last week Davey D, the Bay Area deejay and journalist, released his Hip Hop Awards for 2007, including the best and worst moments in hip hop for the past year. At number four on his best Hip Hop moments from 2007 DaveyD discusses the community's involvement in the fight for a better media. He points out the important presence of hip hop artists at two of the FCC hearings this fall.

Here is the except from his list:

"KRS-One, Lord Cashus D and the Chicago Hip Hop community that came out in full force and lit things up at the FCC hearings around the issue of media consolidation in Chicago. There were attempts to stifle voices but folks in the The Chi weren't having it.. Hip hop was in the building. You can peep KRS speaking at those hearings here:
http://odeo.com/audio/16884193/view

Big shout outs are in order to the Seattle Hip Hop community who followed suit and came out in force at the FCC hearing there in November. 206 Zulu Nation members came through and let the FCC Commissioners know that hip pop folks were alive and active and very much against the type of dribble being offered up daily on commercial stations."

I was psyched to witness the Chicago hearing, and stayed up until 2 am listening to the Seattle hearing online. At both events the hip hop community brought energy, passion, and perspective to these hearings. They spoke out as independent musicians trying to get their songs on the air, frustrated with a media system that pushes junk music over positive and innovative tracks.

Hip hop at its core is about social change, and is playing a key role in the media reform movement. Check out Davey D's speech at the last National Conference for Media Reform : (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j1nX4h9XqA). No doubt hip hop will continue to be a vital voice in this fight moving forward.