Hegemony and influence

Heres a video i found interesting. Even though Ron Paul is part of the higher intellectual and influential class, we didnt listen. His predictions are accurate but since there are people above him his influence didnt go very far with these words.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGDisyWkIBM

So to go off of that, Rap artists in their videos have more of an influence in our culture even though it is the politicians that run this country. Rap artists will tell us what to think, how to dress, and like Common's video, tell us that bad areas in Chicago arent exactly bad because that is where he was from. Kanyes rap videos depict the rich and powerful as the bad influence, although Kanye himself is part of the "rich and powerful". This was a reason why they asked Mike Myers and Kanye West to speak on behalf of relief parties for Katrina. This was where Kanye took the opportunity to make a fool of himself and President Bush. He used his power to influence the people regarding an issue that was clearly irrelevant to the matter at hand.