It’s a nation of billions, but China’s rappers hold back
Stephen ArmstrongClick here to watch Dragon Tongue Squad
The rapper Kirby Lee is trying to define his flow, his style, what makes his music stand out from hip-hop’s global shout of ghetto ambition. “Lyrically, we ain’t no gangstas,” he explains. “We don’t talk about violence or guns. […]

DJ Rekha’s grooves are multicultural mix
By Siddhartha MitterGlobe Correspondent / January 30, 2008NEW YORK - She’s as conversant in the arcana of classic, early-’90s hip-hop as she is in the folk music of her family’s native Punjab, India. Spinning on her turntables today, you might find Bollywood anthems, baile funk from Brazil, or neo-Balkan brass-band […]

By ANITA POWELL – 15 hours agoADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — In a former life, Emmanuel Jal turned a gun against his government as a conscripted rebel soldier in his native Sudan.These days, the 28-year-old is a hip-hop artist who gave up his machine gun for a microphone, but keeps his aim on the Sudanese […]

BEIRUT: In the 1980s, hip hop exploded onto the world music scene like a heat-seeking missile. Groups like Public Enemy spat poetic political activism into the formerly apolitical "party music" of their predecessors. In doing so, they gave America’s black, poverty-stricken and racially oppressed underclass much more than entertainment.
"Fight the Power," "Don’t Believe the Hype," […]

VietNamNet Bridge – Impassioned with hip-hop, young ‘break boys’ are willing to pay for overseas trips just for the chance to meet international hip-hop stars. Spreading the love The pioneer for “Hip-hop exchange” at the regional and world levels is the “Big Toe” hip-hop troupe. As one of the first hip-hop groups in Vietnam, Big Toe currently […]

 
Skeptics always suspected that big-mouthed German rappers, keen to imitate their edgy American role models, were talking the talk without walking the walk. But now the German version of gangsta rap is starting to look a whole lot realer after a rapper is shot in Berlin. 

German rappers are fond of bragging about how hard life […]

By Margareta Astaman
VIENTIANE (Reuters Life!) - Usher’s "Can U Handle It" fills the hall where the teenagers in baggy pants, chains jingling from their necks, greet each other with "Yo" and "Whazz-up". Lao youth have embraced hip-hop with a passion, turning the gritty urban music associated with African-Americans into their own.
Radio stations playing hip-hop and […]

GAZA CITY, Dec. 11, 2007 (MENASSAT.COM) - It’s not often that you get to see musical performances in Gaza these days. Although Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, its security policies have otherwise choked off any hope of cultural normalcy for the 1,5 million plus Palestinians living here. Israel completely controls the […]

By Daniel Flynn
DAKAR (Reuters) - African reggae star Tiken Jah Fakoly, famed for his bitter criticism of the continent’s corrupt leaders, has turned his attention to Senegalese leader Abdoulaye Wade, calling on him bluntly to "leave power".
Fakoly, one of Africa’s best-loved muscians and a campaigner for peace in his native Ivory Coast, added his voice […]