Build

Abstract

Abstract Hip hop and diplomacy are unlikely partners. And yet, since 2001 the US Department of State has been sending hip hop artists to perform and teach around the world. The government has good reason to be interested in hip hop: it is known and loved across the globe, readily acknowledged as a product of American culture. Moreover, hip hop has long been a means of fostering community through creative collaboration—what hip hop artists call building—and can thus facilitate mutual respect and cooperation among people of different nations, a key objective of diplomacy. At heart, Build is about the intersection of art and power. It reveals the power of art to bridge cultural divides, facilitate understanding, and express and heal trauma. Yet power is always double-edged, and the story of hip hop diplomacy is deeply fraught. Build explores the inescapable tensions and ambiguities in the relationship between art and the state, revealing the ethical complexities that lurk behind what might seem mere goodwill tours. In the end, however, Build makes the case that hip hop can be a valuable, positive, and effective means to promote meaningful and productive relations between people and nations. Hip hop, a US-born art form that has become a voice of struggle and celebration worldwide, has the power to build global community at time when it is so desperately needed.

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