All Mos Def wants is a little revolution.

The rapper called for high school and college students to walk out of class October 1 in support of the Jena Six, six black students who were initially charged with the attempted murder of a white classmate (see [article id="1570075"]"Jena Six: What Sparked Protesters To Descend On Small Town In Louisiana?"[/article]). And a few weeks ago, he wanted September 20 to be "Black Thursday," a time when all his peers from the hip-hop arena — big dogs, reformed D-boys, moneymakers, hustlers, ringtone rappers, trap stars, dons (Louis Vuitton, mob bosses or otherwise) — would join him in Jena, Louisiana, and march in protest of the justice system's treatment of the Jena Six.

He thought it would make a statement. It probably would have. Unfortunately, the only known hip-hoppers to show up were Mos himself, Bun B and R&B artist Lyfe Jennings (see [article id="1570241"]"Thousands March On Louisiana Town To Support 'Jena Six' "[/article]).

Mos said he reached out to "everybody at once."

Twista commended the New York MC for taking a stand against the Jena Six situation as well as admonishing his fellow artists.

"I would have been upset," Twista said. "I think everybody should have come out. I think, too, sometimes people really need to hear the story and know exactly what went down. Because when I usually explain it a little bit to people, it tends to hit them a little bit more in their chest and they kind of want to say a little something or do a little more. I think everybody don't fully know the story. They hearing, 'Jena Six, Jena Six,' but I think they really need to know what went down."

Although Twista didn't participate in the march, he performed at Saturday's Jena Six Empowerment Concert in Birmingham, Alabama. Bobby Brown and Nick Cannon also took to the stage.

"It's definitely time for a lot of rappers to be more conscious about what's going on in today's society and speak their minds," Twista added. "Just really having a conscience, man. Like this is stuff that I always paid attention to in the early days of hip-hop when you had raps like 'Self Destruction' [by KRS-One's Stop the Violence All-Stars] coming out. We had artists like KRS-One and a lot of artists that were conscious and speaking on things on a very conscious level. And I always paid attention to those things because I was raised in that culture of hip-hop. So to see it coming about again, you just want to be a part of it. Like Mos Def called out a lot of rappers to take a stand, and I felt him on that, exactly what he was saying. So it's like I'm going to stand up and I'm going to represent. Because I'm a proud, black brother, and it ticks me off to see anything come our way negatively, especially today with what we want through [in the past]. So I'm going to play my part."

Nelly said that like everybody else, sometimes artists need that extra nudge to be more vocal.

"Yeah, you're right, we do need to take another step forward," Nelly agreed. "We probably need to take a couple of more steps and a few steps faster. I think [the protest rally] was an instance of not being aware of our presence not being felt. If that was brought to us like, 'Our presence is needed in this situation,' we would have stepped up. There's never been a situation to where we've been called upon and we didn't step up. ... Maybe we shouldn't have to be called upon, but even a sergeant wakes the Army up in the morning. That don't mean you ain't ready to fight, you just need to be put on the spit a little bit."

LOX rapper Styles P said it will take more than a protest to move him.

"You know what it is with me, sometimes I ain't always with marching," he said "Sometimes you gotta make a pure stand, because they ain't always respecting the march. Not to say wild out, but some day somebody has to say, 'On this day, nobody go to work.' Do something like go in front of the jailhouse and say, 'We ain't leaving till you let him out.' When they start those, that's what I want to be a part of. I don't wanna be a part of holding the picket. That's good, that's flavor, but when are you gonna say, 'We ain't leaving'?"

UTP's Skip and Wacko, who are from Louisiana, have more radical thoughts.

"He's criticizing," Skip huffed last week. "I like Mos Def, but I ain't like what he said. He don't know. We go through that sh-- every day down here. Y'all went down there marching and [Mychal Bell] still didn't get free [that day]. Y'all should have broke him out then. If they felt that strongly about the situation, they should have broke him out. If I would have went down there, I'm bringing a sledge hammer and I'm not leaving until he's leaving. Now you talking sh-- about nobody else ain't come? If we down there and 20,000 people would have hit the prison with a sledge hammer, we would have broken it down. They ain't really about no revolution."

Maybe Talib Kweli had the best answer. He feels that participation from the entertainers would be excellent, but the actual black community is where we should look to make charge.

"I agree with Mos Def as far as being critical with these artists," Kweli explained. "I think as artists who can say something, we have to. In my career, I have been critical of artists as well. But I will say that the hip-hop generation has mobilized around the Jena Six thing. I feel like there was a lot of hip-hop activism that got the 10,000 people who were there down there. And I'm more inclined to look at what those people are doing, 'cause those are the real heroes and the real activists. These artists, man, are followers. Mos Def happens to be a leader. So he happens to be above and beyond your average artist. But your average artist is a follower. And we have to create leaders, and leaders are not going to come from young rappers."

Although Mychal Bell, the only Jena Six member to go to jail, was [article id="1570743"]released on bail last week[/article], his and his classmates' turmoil is far from over. Bell faces a new trial on assault charges, and the other five members still have to go to trial for the first time.