Hip-Hop – praag.org

US agency infiltrated Cuban music scene for ‘social change’

For more than two years, a US agency secretly infiltrated Cuba’s music scene, recruiting unwitting rappers to spark a youth movement against the government, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The idea was to use Cuban musicians to build a network of young people seeking “social change,” documents show. But the operation was amateurish and profoundly unsuccessful.

On at least six occasions, Cuban authorities detained or interrogated people involved in the program; they also confiscated computer hardware, and in some cases it contained information that jeopardized Cubans who likely had no idea they were caught up in a clandestine U.S. operation. Still, contractors working for the U.S. Agency for International Development kept putting themselves and their targets at risk, the AP investigation found.

They also ended up compromising Cuba’s music culture.

Artists that USAID contractors tried to promote left the country or stopped performing after pressure from the Cuban government, and one of the island’s most popular independent music festivals was taken over after officials linked it to USAID.

The program is laid out in documents involving Creative Associates International, a Washington, D.C., contractor paid millions of dollars to undermine Cuba’s government. The thousands of pages include contracts, emails, preserved chats, budgets, expense reports, power points, photographs and passports.

The work included the creation of a “Cuban Twitter” social network and the dispatch of inexperienced Latin American youth to recruit activists, operations that were the focus of previous AP stories.

“Any assertions that our work is secret or covert are simply false,” USAID said in a statement Wednesday. Its programs were aimed at strengthening civil society “often in places where civic engagement is suppressed and where people are harassed, arrested, subjected to physical harm or worse.”

Creative Associates did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The operation was initially run by a Serbian contractor Rajko Bozic. His project was inspired by the protest concerts of the student movement that helped undermine former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.

Contractors would recruit scores of Cuban musicians for projects disguised as cultural initiatives but really aimed at boosting their visibility and stoking a movement of fans to challenge the government.

The Serb homed in swiftly on Los Aldeanos, a popular hip-hop group.

“People marching blind, you have no credibility,” the group rapped in “Long Live Free Cuba!” ”Go and tell the captain — this ship’s sinking rapidly.”

Creative used a Panama front company and a bank in Lichtenstein to hide the money trail from Cuba, where thousands of dollars went to fund a TV program starring Los Aldeanos.

But Cuban officials had figured out what was going on. Within months, a USAID contractor told his handlers that the Cubans said USAID had infiltrated the festival, and soon enough, the Cubans took it over.

In the end, Los Aldeanos moved to South Florida.

Black rappers embrace twerking Miley Cyrus

by Mesfin Fekadu

While Miley Cyrus has a batch of critics, there is a group rallying behind her and praising her as a vital talent: rappers.

Pharrell produced several songs on Cyrus’ new album. She has been featured on the latest albums from Snoop Lion and will.i.am. Big Sean requested her as the star of his “Fire” music video. And to top it off, Kanye West invited her to appear on the remix to “Black Skinhead,” his anti-racism rant from his eerie and dark “Yeezus” album.

Cyrus’ album “Bangerz,” out Tuesday, features guest spots from Big Sean, Nelly, Future and French Montana. In an interview, Juicy J called the 20-year-old “a genius.” 50 Cent, who hasn’t yet worked with her, added that Cyrus “can be on anything hip-hop orientated because (she’s) rebellious.”

The idea of the former “Hannah Montana” star becoming a muse for rap stars seems odd to some, but Mike WiLL Made-It, who executive produced “Bangerz,” said the singer has struck a chord with rappers because she isn’t following in the footsteps of pop stars like Katy Perry but creating her own bold path.

“People like Kanye are fans of music, people like Pharrell are fans of all types of music. … It all boils down to her being very talented and not scared to do new things,” said the producer, whose new single, “23,” features Cyrus, Wiz Khalifa and Juicy J.

“Her voice is incredible. It’s one of a kind … no limitations,” added Mike WiLL Made-It, who is behind hits like Juicy J’s “Bandz a Make Her Dance” and Rihanna’s “Pour It Up.”

Others aren’t sure if talent is the reason behind it.

“Whether you’re a Miley fan or not, she is the girl of the moment,” said Cori Murray, entertainment director at Essence magazine. “Business is business. They’re in the music business; she’s the girl of the moment, so why not get on record with the girl of the moment? That’s as basic as it’s going to get.”

Cyrus, who will host and perform on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” this week, has been the girl of the moment for months now. It started with her transformation from teen queen to twerk queen, rising with her edgy “We Can’t Stop” party-style music video. Of course, she hit new heights (or to some, new depths) with her eye-popping, sexually charged MTV Video Music Awards performance in August. It featured the scantily dressed singer twerking, gyrating on Robin Thicke and what’s become her signature move – sticking out her tongue.

The wild child antics – from being nude in the music video for her first No. 1 hit, “Wrecking Ball,” to her embrace of drug culture in a recent Rolling Stone interview – have made headlines. But her VMA performance and twerking with black female dancers caused another stir, with many questioning if Cyrus is wrongfully appropriating black culture as a path to success.

“That’s a very ignorant statement to say like, ‘Oh, she’s misrepresenting the black culture ’cause she’s twerking.’ If that’s the only thing that represents the black culture, that’s sad,” Mike WiLL Made-It said. “We got a whole bunch of (stuff) that represents the black culture.”

Murray, who said she and other editors at Essence discussed Cyrus after her VMA performance, echoed the producer’s thoughts.

“I think the black culture that she is influenced by, I think it’s black culture that has become popular culture. There is so much to (black culture) and we’re so complicated and she is just what mainstream America thinks about black culture,” she said.

But while the star is a product of hip-hop culture, “Bangerz” is far from a hip-hop album. The 13-track set has moments that are downbeat, others are up-tempo dance numbers and electronic. It also features Britney Spears and production and songwriting work from pop master Dr. Luke.

“Once they get over all the twerking … once they get past all of that and listen to the music, the music is actually great,” said Mike WiLL Made-It.

While Cyrus has her rap cheerleaders, not everyone has embraced her. When asked about Cyrus’ high profile rap collaborations, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson jumped in with: “Or the idea of Miley using us as accessories? I don’t know.”

“I kind of felt same sort of way when Gwen Stefani went through her Asian phase as accessories. At the end of the day, it’s like, is that objectifying us? Hip-hop is already a one-dimensional view as far as us looking like caricatures,” the Roots leader said.

“Yeah, I’m all for collaborating, my life is based on collaborations, but I’m more concerned about what it’s based in. Is it genuine interest or is it like a benign curiosity about a culture? I don’t want her to just take that we’re just good for twerking and having big (butts).”

A national shouting match on racism

by J.D. Longstreet

As a Southerner, I am used to—well, allow me to rephrase that: as far as it is possible, I am used to being called a racist, a bigot, a redneck, and several other epithets that I refuse to print here. That is not to say that I am comfortable with them, I am not. Nevertheless, again, as a southerner, hardly a day goes by that such disparaging words are not used, in reference to yours truly, singularly, as an individual, or collectively, as a member of the politically conservative right, or regionally, as a Southerner.

I suppose the thing about all this infantile name calling that troubles me most is the utter hypocrisy of those using such hurtful language. I have learned as an adult that many, if not most, of those tossing about such colorful, yet hollow charges, are soaked in ignorance of the origins of such words and the history of the my region of America, and indeed, the history of America itself.

For instance—before the American Civil War, (you know—the war we Southerners refer to, and think of, as “The War for Southern Independence,”) it was the Democratic Party, that had a death grip on the Southern States, which our young scholars have been erroneously, taught were the only slave holding states in the country.

That is far from the truth, very far. The Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic States, including Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, had legally sanctioned slavery in the 17th, 18th and even part of the 19th centuries.

This may come as a shock to you but… not only were black people enslaved in the North for over two hundred years, but the vast majority of all slave trading in America was done by northerners. Yes, we did just say: “The VAST Majority….” Remarkably, half of all North American voyages involved in the slave trade originated in Rhode Island, and all the northern states benefited. This is a fact much hidden from the youthful eyes of America’s young scholars for many, many, decades. In fact, many of those folks who so piously refer to Southerners as racists (because of our ancestors participation in the detestable trade) themselves hail from regions (and, yes, even families) that made fortunes on the trade of African blacks into slavery.

Shocked? You needn’t be. It has been SOP in America’s public (Government) school system for many years. It is the foundation of the ignorance from which springs the scurrilous charges made against so many of my ancestors and yes, even this scribe today.

I tell you this so you will be less shocked when we say that much of the name calling of southerners and politically right conservatives is coming from Representatives and Senators, of those Northern States who desperately want to paint all members of the political right as racists, and bigots.

There is also a statement made, time and again, which goes something like this: Blacks, or, if you prefer, African-Americans, cannot be racists because they lack power or clout. That is absolutely pure, unadulterated nonsense, clap-trap, BS, horse hockey, and a few other things we dare not print for general consumption. If one human hates another because of the color of his skin, regardless of the color of his own, that is bigotry. We see it everyday, as well, or hear it referenced every day in the music popularly known as “Rap” Music and “Hip-Hop” music.

The left claims to want a national “conversation” about racism in America. They don’t, of course. If they did they’d stop using the first sentences out of the mouths of members of the right to label them racists , which simply shuts off all conversation instantly.

No. The left does not want a national confab on racism in America. It is a ploy, that’s all.

White America has grown tired of pretending not to see the overt racism of the left. We’ve grown exceedingly resentful of being used as a punching bag and we’re beginning to punch back.

The national conversation on racism in America, the left claims to want, may yet materialize – in the streets of the nation’s cities as black and white mobs clash. It will be a conversation of the fist and club and, eventually, the gun.

Nobody in their right mind wants this to happen. But that is exactly where America is headed once the last straw is applied to the camel’s back.

I DO realize the weight of the words above. I DO realize, as well, that until we are ready, as a people, as a nation, to face up, honestly, to the racism of the left—and the black community in particular – then it is a non-starter. Until that time a civil conversation will not be had for it cannot be had.

The best we can hope for is the continued stand-off and the barely concealed hatred boiling just beneath the surface. The plain truth is, I believe, the very best we can hope for is that the black community will continue to pretend they’re not racists and the white community will continue to pretend that it doesn’t notice black racism.

No, there will be no national conversation on racism. There WILL be more shouting matches, bruised egos, and hurt feelings, which will do nothing to salve the wounds of the vicious national argument on racism.

WE Americans have tried for 237 years to hold the people of the country together in some sort of union—even with the numerous cracks and fault lines running between us. Today those cracks and fault lines have become chasms. And some are un-crossable. This is one of them.