Is Your Favourite Rapper A Foreign Asset?

Hip-Hop, Rap, & Regime Change

Dear Reader,

What was Hillary Clinton's answer when asked if hip-hop could be a geopolitical chess piece? “Absolutely!”

In fact, Pentagon proposed to deploy Taylor Swift as an asset during a NATO meeting.

What started as a voice for the marginalized, has today evolved into a tool of statecraft for the US... a weapon of propaganda actually.

From funding anti-government rap in Bangladesh to secretly infiltrating Cuba’s underground hip-hop scene, the US has deployed it to fuel protests, shape narratives, and effect regime change.

All of it under the guise of cultural exchange. The US State Department calls it "people-to-people diplomacy" but leaked documents reveal a more calculative picture.

Rhymes, beats, and regime change are more connected than you think.

"Can art retain its integrity when deployed as statecraft? Does the strategic use of hip-hop undermine its authenticity? And where does cultural exchange end and propaganda begin?" asks Adithi Gurkar in her latest piece.