Citizen Change

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Vote or Die!

Citizen Change is a political service group, founded by music mogul P. Diddy, and backed by Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey and 50 Cent. The group aims to "hip young people to the hustle of the politics by educating them about the power of their vote." Created in 2004, the stated aim was to get young people to vote, but critics alleged that the ultimate aim was to get out the vote of a demographic viewed as likely to vote against President George W. Bush.

The campaign's message, promoted on t-shirts and other things, is "Vote or Die!". Many American television shows (most notably South Park and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) have parodied this campaign as laughably hyperbolic, unnecessarily violent, and an obvious presentation of a false choice. In a South Park episode entitled "Douche and Turd", P.Diddy and his associates chase Stan Marsh around with weapons and literally threaten to kill him if he doesn't vote.

Two of the proponents of the "Vote or Die" campaign did not even bother to vote in the 2004 election. Paris Hilton and Ludacris didn't register to vote[1], while 50 Cent was not allowed to do so because of his status as a convicted felon.[2]

As of 2006, the Citizen Change organization has not been disbanded, though it is inactive.[3]

[edit] Opposition

Citizen Change has received much flak within the hip hop community as it supports the government that hip hop often fights with. Rapper and friend of Diddy, Nas, says :

“

Hip-Hop is not "Vote or Die." That's not Hip-Hop. No disrespect to Diddy and Russell and them – those are my heroes – but Hip-Hop is not "Vote or Die"... Hip-Hop is anti-establishment. Ice Cube and them were always that way. In order for Hip-Hop to change our point of view, it means for us to have a candidate that understands Hip-Hop. If you say "Vote or Die" then you [Diddy] are saying it's all good that Anheuser Busch supports "Vote of Die", a Republican beer association. [They have] Black laborers that are making nothing [and are] poisoning the whole f***in’ hood. Lets be real – vote or die, but let’s vote for who?...

I don’t believe in vote or die, because we are talking about the same people that tried to dismantle Rap just 10 years ago. Who were trying to influence on stockholders to pull out of Warner, who made Ice-T not have a job…they cut him and shut him down. They shut Hip-Hop down. C. Delores Tucker, Al Gore…all these people were trying to shut Hip-Hop down. Now you want us to sponsor you to get these Black votes? F**k you.^[1]

”