*They may have served some time, but 2 Chainz is saying felons have the right to vote too.
Clad in all his gold and long hair, the rapper just dropped a new track, “Don’t Sleep,” to make former criminals aware that it’s possible to make their voice be heard by casting a vote this election season.
“I’m a felon, I’ve been one since I was 15 years old. My story is not different from another kid’s story,” he says in an interview with Sister 2 Sister, stating that he thought he’d never cast a ballot in his life. “Basically felt like I didn’t have a voice anymore.”
His life was changed, though, during a visit to the mall in 2008, when President Barack Obama was a White House hopeful. A volunteer approached him and gave him the whole rundown of becoming reinstated as a voter.
“She just introduced this idea and gave me a pamphlet and research on how I can be reinstated,” the rapper said of the volunteer, “how I can be counted again.”
He was in his 30′s the first time he vote.
“It was educational. I feel like when we get new information-for me-it just empowers me,” he says. “I just felt like when someone introduced this idea that a mistake that I made couldn’t be held against me, after I did the research, I felt like, ‘Wow! Maybe I could go tell other dudes!’”
Yes! Pass the word!
Great PSA. I read an article this morning on MSN how felons are a potentially powerful voting bloc despite the absence of outreach by both campaigns. They could account for an estimated 10% of the 130 million expected to vote on Nov. 6.