Hip hop heavyweights known as much for
their fiery political lyrics as for their bass-pounding beats have
been among the thousands marching, tweeting and sharing dinner with
protestors in the Occupy Oakland protests in recent weeks.

   MC Hammer, Raymond "Boots" Riley of hip hop group The Coup,
and local rapper Mistah FAB have become a regular presence at the
encampments, taking up bullhorns and staying until dawn even amid
clashes with police.
 
 Now, as the far-flung movement challenging the world's economic
systems and distribution of wealth gains momentum, the artists say
despite their fame, they, too, stand for the 99 percent.
 
  "I'm trying to make a soundtrack out there that rallies people
around certain ideas about living in this system into motivation,"
Riley said. "This movement is only a couple of months old, and if
you compare anyone's favorite social change movement they haven't
accomplished as much as what's happened already."
 
 Rappers Talib Kweli, Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco also have
visited protesters in New York City's Zuccotti Park, and other
major cities. But Oakland became a rallying point for Occupy Wall
Street demonstrators nationwide after an Iraq War veteran was
injured two weeks ago in a tear gas-filled confrontation with riot
police.

   The working class city's music has long been fused with
movements for social change.
 
 The Black Panthers had their own house soul group named the
Lumpens, which performed tunes like "Revolution is the Only
Solution". Tupac Shakur, who spent time in Oakland, rapped about
police brutality after being beaten in a confrontation with local
officers, and won his suit against the city.
 
  "There is always a big element of politics that unfolds in
Oakland's hip hop scene even if on its surface it seems playful,"
said Ali Colleen Neff, a former San Francisco Bay area music critic
who studies underground music movements at the University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill. "Boots and the others know there is power
to be gained from this kind of coalition building across ethnic and
cultural lines."

   Riley was born into a family of radical organizers, and came up
in East Oakland. At 14, he joined a communist party and worked as
an organizer in housing projects and farmworker communities, but
decided to start his musical career after seeing the impact of
Public Enemy's anthem "Fight the Power".

   As the leader of The Coup, a left-leaning rap group that's been
politically active for about two decades, he is accustomed to
critiques. Riley's award-winning album "Party Music", was set to
be released right after Sept. 11, 2001, with original cover art
that depicted him and band mate Pam the Funkstress destroying the
Twin Towers, coincidentally shot months before the attacks. The
release was delayed while his label prepared new cover art, but not
before it was pilloried on conservative talk shows.

   Since then, Riley has been named one of the most influential
people of the year by Vibe Magazine, written a soundtrack for The
Simpsons and formed a new band called the Street Sweeper Social
Club with Tom Morello, Rage Against the Machine's guitarist who
performed before the Manhattan encampment.

   Riley said he sees hope in the Occupy Oakland's autonomous
structure, and will take his cues from the movement's decentralized
decision-making bodies.

   "No movement has had total unity of thought and action," he
said. "There are people who have a romanticized notion of how
things are supposed to work but it's gotta be rough around the
edges because that's why we're able to grow."

   After thousands of peaceful protestors rallied and danced in the
streets on Wednesday, MC Hammer found himself in the middle of a
police standoff before a splinter group clashed with authorities,
setting fires, spraying graffiti and shattering windows.

   "It's tense down here .. I'm lost for words ... I'm
@occupyoakland," Hammer tweeted, posting pictures of officers
forming a barricade. "The people are peaceful .. I'm in the camp
and now in the streets."

   Mistah FAB, a star in the West Coast hyphy scene, a local hip
hop strain, has been bringing his three-year-old daughter to the
protests. He said he was sorry to see that the peaceful shutdown of
the Port of Oakland ended in broken shop windows.

   "I don't agree with tearing down your own stuff, in your own
city," said FAB. "Those small business owners work super hard to
maintain these things they've built. They're not the one percent."

   Those in the movement's trenches say they're glad to see their
message has attracted celebrity support, but some financial
reinforcements would be nice, too.

   "I'm proud that they are participating in the movement, because
it's people who all have a vested interest in the image of
Oakland," said D'Aunta Lewis, a college student who grew up in
East Oakland and has been sleeping at the encampment. "But I say,
don't just tweet about it from a distance, buy some tents and show
your support."