¡Hip Hop, Revolución! Nationalizing Rap in Cuba

http://www.jstor.org/stable/20174403

Opening paragraph:

In August 2004, shortly

before the opening date of the 10th Havana Hip

Hop Festival, I spoke to Alpidio Alonso Grau, president of the Asociaci?n

Hermanos Sa?z, the cultural wing of the Union ofYoung Communists and the

primary force behind the organization of the festival. Alonso told me with

pride about the association's efforts to promote rap, and he enthused about

the dialogue between rappers and their audiences and the "authenticity of

their discourse." He emphasized the importance of the debates stimulated

by rappers on a national and international level, portraying Cuba not simply

as a country which offers a space for such debates, but as a global leader.

Rap originated in the United States, Alonso said, as a form of resistance to

the dominant culture, in other words, as a revolutionary social message.

Here he echoed his own words at an earlier press conference when he had

described the aim of the festival: "to project a revolutionary message from

Cuba, a commitment to the cause of the downtrodden in the world." Rap in

Cuba, he told me, embodied a struggle to change the world through ideas

and music, and so "it's very symbolic that this event takes place in Cuba,

with rappers who come mainly from Latin America, from countries that are

subject to this imperialist pseudo-cultural invasion."