{"id":7085,"date":"2012-12-10T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T17:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Centives.net\/S\/?p=7085"},"modified":"2012-12-29T01:24:25","modified_gmt":"2012-12-29T06:24:25","slug":"rap-as-a-diplomatic-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Centives.net\/S\/2012\/rap-as-a-diplomatic-tool\/","title":{"rendered":"Rap As A Diplomatic Tool"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.Centives.net\/S\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/120912_0848_RapAsADiplo1.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"511\" \/><\/p>\n<p>During the time of The Cold War, The United States used Jazz tours to build up good-will. These days it&#8217;s trying to use hip-hop to win over the Muslim world writes Hishaam Aidi. Highlights include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>After the Abu Gharib scandals, the American state department launched an initiative called Rhythm Road \u2013 an attempt to use hip-hop to revitalize pro-American sentiment.<\/li>\n<li>Hip-hop was seen as the ideal tool to connect with the Muslim world because it has Islamic roots, and talks about the struggles of those who are unaccepted and disempowered.<\/li>\n<li>Moreover American enemies such as Al-Qaida had started to recruit youths by presenting themselves as cool and hip. Rap was an ideal response to this tactic.<\/li>\n<li>European countries appear to have taken to the idea and have deployed Muslim rappers as their emissaries across the world.<\/li>\n<li>However the strategy&#8217;s effectiveness is questionable. Morocco and Algeria, the two countries where hip hop has had a deep influence, were both mostly untouched as the rest of the region was caught up in the Arab Spring.<\/li>\n<li>Hip-hop artists themselves worry about the development. The music genre focuses on attacking the establishment and standing up to power. With the establishment \u2013 in the form of the US government \u2013 now using it as a tool, some fear that hip-hop has lost its soul.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The full article is over <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/indepth\/opinion\/2011\/10\/2011103091018299924.html\">here<\/a> and is a fascinating read. Aidi talks about how America&#8217;s current music strategy compares to the one used in The Cold War, how hip-hop exhibits America&#8217;s diversity, and the American hip-hop artists who&#8217;ve done an excellent job of connecting with the Muslim world\u2026while alienating the Western one.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/indepth\/opinion\/2011\/10\/2011103091018299924.html\">Al Jazeera<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Via: <a href=\"http:\/\/walt.foreignpolicy.com\/posts\/2012\/12\/06\/music_hath_charmsbut_we_dont_use_it\">Foreign Policy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During the time of The Cold War, The United States used Jazz tours to build up good-will. These days it&#8217;s trying to use hip-hop to win over the Muslim world writes Hishaam Aidi. Highlights include: After the Abu Gharib scandals, the American state department launched an initiative called Rhythm Road \u2013 an attempt to use [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-bulletin","category-signature"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.Centives.net\/S\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/120912_0848_RapAsADiplo1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Centives.net\/S\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Centives.net\/S\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Centives.net\/S\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Centives.net\/S\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Centives.net\/S\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7085"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.Centives.net\/S\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7117,"href":"http:\/\/www.Centives.net\/S\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7085\/revisions\/7117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Centives.net\/S\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Centives.net\/S\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Centives.net\/S\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Centives.net\/S\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}