Hip-Propaganda

I can't rop with. Is the opposite of dope. But they dropped some bliminals not within my scope. Your mind is just the road like the dropped into commode. But I run in garb my tilfoil hat want no positive game because they've been spoiled. That that's stupid. Hey what up? My name's Dope Knife and we are waiting on reparations. Please hurry the funk up. How are you doing tonight? I'm good. I'm excited. Uh, I mean I've had a long day. But the House passed the pro act get

that ship. Yeah, I don't know if you hear about that. So the explain that to us. So yeah, so the pro act to Protect the Right to Organize Act of the pro Act passed today in the House with five Republicans joining Democrats in favor of it. It provides protections for workers trying to organize UM and the labor movement.

You know, anybody from D s A to a bunch of the big labor unions across the country have all been lobbying and trying to hit their constituencies and their memberships to contact their representatives and to support the pro act because it's you know, it would finally level the playing field that's tilted towards big business UM, making UH union organizing drives and elections more accessible and power workers

to you know, organize and bargain UM. And so I mean as as the socialist myself that believes that the workers uh create all value and that they should, you know, keep all value that they create. Very excited by this. I think it's a good step forward. It'd be interesting to see what happens with it in the Senate. UM. I don't know where our senators, uh Raphael, we're knock

in John Assa stand on it. I know that uh Lucy Makebath, she's the congresswoman for the sixth district defeated Karen Handel in two thousand and eighteen, which is like relevant to this current discussion because John Assa failed to beat Karen Handel and what was at the time the most expensive congressional race and history UM back in like I think it was a special action back to Sun seventeen. Anyway, Lucy Madebeth. She was on the fence. D s A hit her up and like you know, labor unions were

all putting pressure on her. She came through and supported Woo woo. So we'll see what happens to the Senate now. So for those who don't know, is this would you describe this as like a bold move that's going through? Is this something that should have been should have been

done a long time ago? Well, what's sad about our current political moment is that bold like bold moves and things that should have happened a long time ago, like that ven diagram is often a circle, but we think about things like raising the minimum wage or providing universal healthcare UM, and so I'd say it's a bold move

given like my personal low expectations of the Biden administration. UM, it's I feel like it's a long time coming that we restore collective bargaining rights to UM workers in places like Georgia, which is a right to work state, and across the nation. UM and so yeah, to mix sure both. It's exciting. Nonetheless, even if it's like long overdoom, at least something's getting done. At least something sounds getting done. Yeah, well,

what's come across my radar? I'm not sure if you heard about this, but I was actually really interested in your thoughts about this. So have you heard about what went down with the Nevada Democratic Party? Yeah? Yeah, so, okay, things are happening. There were some votes that took place. I think it was over the weekend or both the last week, but um, I guess five positions of leadership UM in the Nevada Democratic Party were won by the members of the d s A, the Democratic Socialists so UM.

As a result of this, the entire staff of the Nevada Democratic Party quit and they pretty much rated the accounts of the financial accounts before they left and took like their severance pay pay, took all the money in their bank accounts and like gave it to like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and like pretty much just shifted all their funds out of reach of the new leadership.

This is something that they're gonna be able to recover, we're from I think so, I mean, I think that like if there is well organized, as they seem to be, having swept the elections, um they have, and like you know, are capitalizing on the political uh enthusiasm and orientations of an increasingly left leaning stain you know, as a result of those organizing victories you know, into that sixteen around the Bernie campaign as well and outside of that, um

I didn't know, I mean, and and in in addition to just across the state, the popularity that there um position seems to hold nationally, people like left leaning, like you know, Verry left not Verry left leaning. Why should I say this? Uh, socialist sympathizers and other left folks UM are super stoked on this. I've known a couple of folks that probably never even been in Nevada that are chipping into the Nevada Democratic Party now so are like, oh, hell yeah, I see you. How do I see you

about here? Grinded? So I think they'll be able to bounce back from this national though, like, how do you how does it get repeated. I mean it gets it gets repeated in that um, people get like uh left orgs wrather established ones or loose affiliations of people who desire this kind of takeover get involved in Democratic party politics. I mean like here in Athens, our are the chair of our local Democratic party is is uh like a It's like it's a low key socialist like whisperings don't know,

he doesn't He's like an Elizabeth Warren type. Let's say yeah, um, and so like it could be done, and it could be done in places particularly where um, I feel like, um, there's not a lot there's like a strong establishment hold, like where the Democratic Party is only weak A bunch of energetic, well organized and like thoughtful anybody's can come in and clean house and just turn it into whatever they want if they show up to the meetings and

bring a bunch of their friends that then become voting members, Like it can be done. And so yeah, taking over your taking over your city party, taking over your state party. Um, but just like showing up and like getting and bringing people at the risk of at the risk of putting heads on blast, like or would you even know what

cities or what states are kind of vulnerable. I mean I imagine that um um well in terms of place, well to start off, places that actually have strong democratic parties with strong left insurgencies, well organized left insurgencies lately, Like I could see I could see this having to the New York State Democratic Party easily, given given the organizing that like Queen's d s A and uh, you know the Working Families Party have put in there and

electing slates of like very progressive legislators to like the State Assembly, etcetera. Ye, I bet they duplicate this in two years. And yeah, like I can you name other states per se? Uh? I like having followed just like probably have been aware of like Bernie's success in Nevada as someone that was like highly involved in that campaign and Eates didn't not anything this year, and like watch the caucuses. Bernie like got an outrighting majority and the

caucuses there last year. He killed that ship last year, And so I was like, oh, yeah, duff, you just take that same infrastructure, all the people that was out knocking on doors and all the people that was involved, and you just like keep a pushing and then you know, a year later, you take that ship over or whatever, you know, like I mean if the trajectories, if the trajectory keeps going the way that it is, yeah, I mean that's exactly what we're heading because I mean I

don't even think we would be here if not for Bernie do it hadn't having on the things that he did. So yeah, yeah, and so like um, I was gonna say, um,

it's all progress. There's been so much talk on like like with you know, the defeat of the Bernie campaign and like watching the rollout of the Biden administration somewhat skeptically, people being like third party politics are the way, and like, you know, seeing the defeat of people like Charles Booker and Kentucky or the Democratic establishment back Amy McGrath, a centrist like pro Trump or pro Trump Democrat, like all that kind of ship, you know, seeing the like people

are like, oh, third party, you gotta do it. But now to have like like a like like a successful insurgency, successful insurgency where it's like, no, this party can be taken over and uh and we can do rad shit. Yeah, like people hope that it can be done. This is gonna be one of those funny episodes. I'm not even sure if we've done something like this before, not necessarily in terms of content, but just in terms of structure.

Our political discussion and our music discussion are going to be one today, So we are going to be the It's what we're talking about today is so connected to the musical aspect of things that this whole thing is just gonna be one big discussion about both. And what that is is we're talking about hip hop's use as

being a tool for propaganda. Yeah, I feel like we often discussed hip hop as like the megaphone of the people, both journalistically sort of uh, you know, telegraphing what's happening on the ground in various communities, but as a as a sizeable cultural force over the last forty fifty years, Like governments see that government's wanna want a piece of it, of its magic to do their bidding. And so we're gonna talk a little bit about that today. It doesn't

necessarily just have to be governments either. I mean, at this at this point in the game, I think it's I think it's a totally fair assessment to say that mainstream American hip hop does serve as propaganda for other things. Like there's certain certain corporate interests, certain commercial interests, propaganda exactly. Yeah, even if it's not sanctioned exactly, it's all just a matter of where the arrows pointed in what you're trying

to achieve with it. Um. So we're going to discuss that the examples of hip hop being used either a state sanctioned propaganda or just agenda driven propaganda, which will discuss. But first of all, what is propaganda. Let's go ahead and find our term. Okay, well, you know how I

like my wiki definition. So for propaganda right now, we have Propaganda is the is communication that is primarily used to influence an audience and further in agenda which may not be objective and maybe since selectively presenting facts in order to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language in order to produce an emotional rather than

rational response to the information that is being presented. Propaganda is often associated with material which is prepared by governments, but activist groups, companies, religious organizations, the media, and individuals are also produced propaganda. That is the first paragraph of the wiki definition. How do you feel about that definition? I feel well, I mean, I'm cool with the definition.

It's interesting to me reflecting upon the connotation of propaganda, like when you hear the word propaganda, like is it negative or positive? I think, uh, as a you know, half Cold War kid and and war on terror kid, I think that, uh, propaganda has always had a negative connotation to me. It wasn't until you want to you

wanna know some funny ship. The first person him that I heard actually use propaganda like positively to When I heard them say it, I was like, Ah, that's the way of looking at it is when we actually interviewed propaganda like second, second or or third episode, I think, but I remember it was probably it was off air, and he said something about, yeah, you know, I'm just you know, I'm out here trying to make this positive propaganda or like you know, and I was like, oh,

that that is true, because like if you're if you're if you're advocating like a message or an agenda, then that is your propaganda. And that's not necessarily a negative thing coming from you. Propaganda as negative because because of it, you can be emotionally as pocative because of the selected presentation of information. But propaganda is also it's like water.

Now we are fish just swimming through it all the time, be it you know, watching Jin Saks, press briefings, Achelian Agadenes, and it's like the way that information is fun to gain public appeal and trust. Uh, it's it's everywhere, it's all that's all the time. No one, no, no one's immune to it. So we might as well, like, if we want to get shipped done, if we have an agenda, if we have an ideology that we think will help lots of people, we might as well be producing propaganda.

I think it's I think it's like the manipulative quality of it that I guess kind of makes it have a negative connotation to it because I mean, if you're if if you're out and you're speaking on behalf of what you believe in and somebody's like a boom, that's propaganda. Like you know what I'm saying, It just can't help.

But it just seems it just seems like a pejorative just you wouldn't much rather just to present all the facts and have someone come to the same conclusion as you about what they mean exactly the yeah city or their perception. But I mean that's the nature of hot persuasion, you know, to persuade. Your persuasion isn't a logical, like isn't a holy logical like combat terrain. It it is

emotionally evocative. You do appeal to people's lizard brains through the colors who use and the language, you know, being colorful as well, or like I just you know, like it doesn't have to be all about what the facts are as much as like, how do you appeal to folks? So I mean, I would love to live in the world in which like facts convinced people of like the right things to do on their own alone. And then and and and in the world in which everyone played

by those rules. The fact of the matter is, we do not live in a world where everyone playing by those rules. Even if we committed to those rules, we would get our asses handed to us because everybody else has used it. But everybody who's snaky or dirty or slimier just like spinning whatever they've gotta do to get and we would get our asks into us. We would all be in the gulag. You can't be unarmed, and you have to you know, you have to come in with your got to come in with your righteous spine.

So great to a gunfight yeah, get the propaganda going. Like I think all the raps I've written for the show or just generally lately have been propaganda for various causes. I would I would prefer to describe them as illustrations of policy physicians that are appealing aesthetically. That is what's propaganda about them, is that it doesn't necessarily just appeal to you on the level of fact. Also fun to

listen to. You just reminded me of a rap line that had a good propaganda line, a Mortal Technique line from back in the day. There was a back after nine eleven, there was a song that was made right. It was a cover of Marvin Gay's What's going On? But it had like every pop star in existence at the time, like Brady Spears, Sea Aguilary, justin Timber like they were all the fucking nigga from Creators and that ship.

It was just it was like a big you know, we are the world type of joy, right is the worst? Like I just that phrase. It was it. It was little TRL lineup. But I remember years later, a couple of years later, there was a Mortal Technique line and he was like, um, Marvin Gaye told me what's going on that Nick has made propaganda and your song, Um, yeah, we are going to get into this whole propaganda thing.

Give you guys some pretty cool stories right after the jump. Alright, So in Cuba, there is a new rap track boldly denouncing the communist government, and it's gone viral. It's provoked anger in its response from the Cuban government, who fired back with their own patriotic state sanctioned salsa. Single musical battle between ideologies like it's like the it's like the most like ideologically laden raft beef I've ever heard of. Anyway.

The anti government track, penned Pinte de Zona Bueno El Funky and make Losorbo, dubbed Fatherland and Life are Patriavida, is a flip on the hallowed patriot slogan fatherland or death slogan popularized by Fidel Castro during the nineteen Huban Revolution. Guinea Commas video opens with the image of nineteenth century Cuban hero Jose Marti, and it burns away to reveal George Washington, another quote unquote revolutionary, as well as images

of poverty and protesters in the streets of Cuba. It's over your nineteen fifty nine I'm twenty single chorus implying the communist regime is held the Cuban people in the past. No more lies, My people demand freedom, no more doctrines. Those are also some lyrics from the track. Further lyrics in the song decry food and security on the island and some of the sometimes violent government repression of critique. Most of the artists on the track, including Um, are

Cuban exiles. The only two living on the island still are El Funky and Michael, who are members of the artist collective San Citro. Um, who had one of his members actually imprisoned by the Cuban government and whose supporters a small group of supporters gathered outside of the culture industry in UH road tests. Uh. I think last year, UM,

what are your thoughts on this? So, I mean, I think it's I mean, I'm interested into the degree to which and perhaps doing a little digging this would become you know, unearthed, Like this ideology flows from their decision to leave the country or whether they're living outside or or being ex pats exiles has has like given rise

to this like burning hatred of communism. It was like we left Cuba because of communism, which many people did, or it's like living outside of Cuba and like being exposed to more capitalist ideology through the propaganda that circulates freely in other Western countries. It is like, you know what, actually fuck it back home, Like those motherfucker's don't know

how to live? Yeah, well, I mean um. The article from the Financial Times which brought this story to our radar, it kind of mentions that, you know, there's a generational shift where there is a you know, a particularly strong anti government bent to the younger generation of Cubans. Um. The article did mention that that anti Cuban government bent also comes with a pro Trump leaning. So I'd be curious.

I'd be curious as to whether what's the name youth, I'd be interested in what his his views are are of you know, the Trump administration or even America, just America, the American empire in general. Right, because in this song, they're kind of like wrapping about what they're against. They're against people waiting in breadlines, they're against government repression and censorship, um, but not really like articulate a vision of what they're for.

So if it's like, yeah, uh, I don't wanna eth no state and like kill sex workers in life, you know, trans people, like send them to a lecture, shock therapy. I don't know, I don't know what they're for exactly. It's like it's hard to if you want to get on board because it's something revolutionary, but not all revolutions

are in your favorite type of thing. Right if it weren't for the context in which the song would produced, like if you just picked it up and dropped it in the middle of Detroit or something like, the message still stands that, like, suck the government, suck the way your censorship and your repression. We've got people standing in breadlines in Texas, you know what I mean, Like, oh,

you know, the poverty and all that stuff. So really it's like I get like, okay, we're you know, your in your experiences informed by like the system you've lived under, and so if you live under a communist regime, like you become a critical critical communism as much as living in a capitalist one. UM. We're like we've see everything going on and we're critiquing in we're like you know, hating in our songs, um. But it's all like it's all anti governments. Like I feel like this the generational

divide that you're talking about. It is like young people don't are like anti authoritarians exactly exactly, and that's it. That's like what we all have in common, regardless of whether we're critiquing you know, communism, capitalism. Now, the song, which I'm going to call by its English title Father of Life because I don't want to put your any Spanish right now. Um, but the the song has received

the predictable backlash from the official Cuban media. They've branded the rappers US loving traders and mercenaries tools of the Empire, and they've called the song an attempt at gross political interference. And the funny part about all this that like that's what I find hilarious and like, so what's the word

for it? Just like so ham fisted, it's it's pretty much like a fucking propaganda off, you know, rap battle, well, I don't even know if you could call it rap battle or song song versus where the government has launched their own, like you said, salsa inspired rappi pop jingle that's entitled you want to Say that pat or Fatherland or death or Life, which it's play on both of the titles of like the slogan Fatherland or Death at the title of the other song, Fatherland and Life, So

it's like fatherland or death for life. It really feels like we're gonna call our father later. Yeah, let's check out this track. Let's check out this track. The track featured the upper the Financial Times. The track features five officially sanctioned performers led by singer songwriter Raoul Torres, singing a robust salsa rebuttal to the rappers against the backdrop of the Cuban flag. You can his lyrics read you can cash in by licking the arrogance of the empire.

And you can cash in by singing that you're against poverty from a satin sofa. I'm not even on a trip. And this is not because I'm a socialist, um Like this is purely on like lyrical grounds. I honestly think the salsa song is. But those lyrics you can cash in by licking the arrogance of the empire. That fucking bangs,

are you kidding? That's can dope, Like I'm not even this also like that and that's like pretty ill as opposed to like, ohn't know the lyrics of the other song like a little week and like generic to everything. Everything has to be taken in context, right, because it's like if you don't if you just look at the video to the Rebuttal on its own, but you know the story, it really does seem like, you know what I mean, they're like in front of the Cuban flag

and it's not as well produced. Their video has like an obviously lower budget than the Rappers video, so it just comes across looking and then everybody in the ship is like older. It just comes across looking like some hookey after school special stuff, especially when you know it's in Rebuttal to the rap song where everybody's got the shirt off look at all cool. You know, I'm saying it like looks like an actual like rap video and

compared to comparison to this one. So I just seem to me is that in both videos, the Cuban flag is featured prominently in Patoo Patoo Vita, like one guy's got it like draped over his shoulders and so like it's interesting to me that there's this patriotism brought, this patriot patriotic current running it underneath both of them. The Patria Vita video is like I want freedom for by people like I love the people of my country. I got my flag like I want freedom for Cuba, um.

Whereas like I feel like another like anti authoritarian like movement context. You wouldn't see somebody in like ah, like you down with the government. I guess actually that's wrong. I would love about that. You wouldn't see somebody like down with the government and like waving in American flag in the States. But then I'd forgot about Danny way six. Yeah, I'm wrong. I'd say all of that Antifa. You know, you wouldn't see like Antifa out with like American fat

like yo the government like you would like. It didn't occur to me at first, and like, I don't know why it was patriot to them. I don't know if refreshing is the word, but there's something to be said about, you know, a sort of anti government sentiment that still is nationalistic at the same time, you know what I mean. Almost it's kind of like we love the place where we're from, but we hate the people in charge. I

feel like people, Yeah, I don't know. Most of the anti authoritarian people I can think of in my life were like in my Twitter sphere are like no, man, like we need to start over and like from scratch, like America, we need to get rid of America kind of people, which is just just like, well, you know, there's the question of whether or not this is resonating. These

two songs are resonating so far. The anti government track has three times the YouTube views as it's a government sanctioned rebuttal Um in interviews that the Financial Time Financial Times conducted with everyday Cubans, you know, the SENTI seems to be the people are aware of the issue, and they're aware of the government response. But you know, everyone's worried about putting food on the table and you know, avoiding Corona, and it's not necessarily something that people are

talking about in the food cues. Yeah, people aren't worried about the ship. They're like, oh, there's like this rappive happening between my government some rappers. I would also say that the anti government track having three times as many views on YouTube might also speak to anti communist sentiment of general Cubans living outside of the US, which you know, people living in Florida, other expats, people within the communist views around the world be like oh hell yeah, that's

dope versus like, you know, this is one explanation. Yeah, people are worried about this. I I don't blame them. I would let me laughing my ass office when she was going down to the United States. Do you mean to tell me, well, we'll see. That's the thing. It's like, what's just like when we were talking about Pablo a couple of weeks ago, It's like you can't even really imagine this sort of ship happening in the US. I mean, when when we're talking about American rat and in that context,

it's like motherfucker's are getting arrested for other stuff. You know, like like rappers in the US aren't getting arrested because they said something that made the government mad. I'm not saying that it couldn't happen. I'm just saying, you know, rappers with the big enough platform aren't doing that. So and they haven't really done that for like thirty years.

So it's like even imagining the situate, the scenario playing out in the US is is difficult to the closest thing I can imagine is the like rock the Vote, which isn't official. Yeah, but you know, it's kind of like corny and like people are like, do you want to know what an example of it would be. It would be if one of these maga's, what are these

like maga insurrectionists? If they were a rapper, you know what I'm saying, Like, like if there was a Q and on rapper talking about like, hey, you gotta storm the capitol, you gotta kidnap the governor, Like yeah, that would get the FBI at your door. That that would that would probably bring the government down on you, at

least the Biden administration. It's only a matter of time to the comfort no name that set god ship all episode on her political evolution and she's working on and the fact that she's definitely gonna get black back, but the government at some point, well, let's please knock on wood and yeah, please let her drop that album first. At least, god damn, she's got to be five. So we're gonna we're gonna teleport across the sea and we're

gonna go to the People's Republic of China. Talk about the hip hop group c D Rev in their two thousand sixteen track This is China. Now, let's take a listen to this, because I really do believe that this is incredible and none of goods he made this song. According to them, this is too correct some misconceptions about

contemporary China. So his his point that he was making about the pollution as he was saying, yeah, we have pollution, but so did l A. I mean, you know, as far as as far as um maliciousness goes, it's not very malicious or anything like that, but it's just it's like walking that fine line where it definitely does seem

like it's state run. There was a article in the Communications and Critical Cultural Studies shan Zu, and the point was made that while CD revs hip hop may not look like conventional propaganda, it functions as ideo attainment, which fuses state interests in citizens nationalism. And I think that's that's kind of the fine line that they draw, because I mean, if you told me that that had the backing of like the Chinese government, I would believe it.

But if you told me that that was just some kids, you know, some contemporary kids in China just making you know, pro China hip hop, it could kind of sound like

that too. It hasn't very yeah, exactly, it has a repping where they're from sort of vibe to it that you know can and and because they wrap in English too, I guess that's another aspect of it, that there might be a little bit of trans a little bit of meaning that that's being distorted in translation because because they're wrapping in English, it really makes the propaganda end of it shine because it's not really rhyming that much. You know,

it's just like question like who's it for exactly? It's not in their native tongue. It's like if you're you're producing in English so that English speakers will hear it, You're what, like why are you like? That awareness of audience makes you feel like it's propaganda in that they're trying to convince you of something about that we're a country as opposed to like just reporting on it to other people who have that same like cultural like foundation

of like shared a shared language. Well, how do you feel? Um? You know? A few months ago, when the protests in Hong Kong were really revving up, they dropped the track that was essentially a diss song to the protesters, like why are you protesting? Get off the streets, like the Chinese government wants to help you, you're ruining everything like, those are the sentiments that were expressed in that song democracy, Why yea are we somewhere so hard to seek again?

It's like if you didn't think that they were of government funded propaganda group in that Hong Kong one definitely kind of makes it feel like they might be hip hopping. The powerful cultural tool that it can be. It's capabilities UM have been used for propaganda across respection possible. In Europe, counter terrorists, experts and authorities have been monitoring what they

called jihad rap for Salon. American and European terrorism experts have been increasingly and concerned over anti American hip hop UM, accending the radicalizing influence of the genre, noting that Al Shabab, a Somali based Islamist group, uses jihad wrap and its

recruitment videos. Avand scholar disca stern and foretant affairs first and second generation Muslim children I interviewed for study of the sources of radicalization and the Netherlands seemed to think that talking about g hop was cool in the same way that listening to gangster wrap and is cool in

some use circles. Others have advocated mobilizing certain substyles of hip hop against this jihad cool and you're a hip hop is used, is being used to enlist is hip hop is being enlisted in a broad ideological offensive to counter domestic extremism. On the one side, you have these counter cold the way that hip hop is, you know, it's like foundationally countercultural. Like it's cool because it's gritty

and it's from the streets. Some people you know that I guess have created a matter where stre you know, no matter where your streets are. Yeah, and so it's like, yo, I you know, gihad is cool because it's it's it's anti establishment, it's anti it's uh, it's like this a way to organize ourselves outside of the main stream and pushed back against it, which is just like kind of horrifying to me, but like it makes sense in a way, like oh of course, like yeah, I see how that's

that slope would be slippery, and I do. I do like that gangster rap comparison too, because it's like something can start from one place, you know what I'm saying, but in the wrong hands it can be used to cause harm, you know what I'm saying, Like like all the way around. Um, like the Cuban government. The Western

Powers have pondered countering this with moderate Muslim hip hop voices. However, they've been much more hesitant to just outright do so like the Cuban government has, and it's mainly because they don't necessarily know who they should really be fucking without. In the music video, are these guys cool? No? I don't like that. There's an example of them getting burned.

So in the Netherlands, there's a Dutch Moroccan rapper by the name of Salah a Dean and he dropped a song and video called Van or This Country of Uh. In the song he criticizes the government, which in the Netherlands is becoming increasingly more conservative. He criticizes the red light district with lines like this land that sells women from behind window panes um And in the video he's got like some terrorist imagery. There's like a scene of a grandfather of who's got a suicide vest on. He's

being detained by the police. And even uh A Dean himself appears at the beginning of the video where he's clean shaven and he's in a house and he you know, he's in like a regular domesticated house and he's rapping, and as the video goes on, his face becomes more scruffy, until by the time you get to the end of the song, he's got a full beard. He's wearing a Guantanamo jumpsuit and he's about to get water boarded and stuff like that. So yeah, I mean, and in my opinion,

it's done artfully. But this is the only song in video that I've seen of the guy before I go ahead and co signed from from my opinion and also not understanding the words, but it seems like, you know, it's an artful take on controversial subject matter. But in any event, the video was paid for by a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Culture that a dean had received for the video's production. So this caused the ship storm. You know, we're voting it's um let's listen to that

song real from the Best Muslim hatless slum out Father. Still, you know it's like this. I can see what they I see what they mean because you know, we experienced this on our end too. It's like hip hop makes ship cool. I'm sorry, it just does. It makes stuff cool. It there's a there's a sleekness and there's a mystique to it that it provides to whatever you're talking about.

Like I'm old enough to remember when you know, people weren't really fucking with pimps like that, you know what I'm saying, And like pimps became cool at some point because rappers started talking about them favorably and ship like that. Now I'm not I'm not, you know, saying that a dean is necessarily promoting terrorism or anything through this song,

but there is a there's a chic to it, you know. Yeah, it raises the conversation again of like like documentation versus promotion, like to like the the accusal hip hop oftentimes faces of like promoting violence, promoting drug dealing, promoting these things. When it's like or are people just describing it like they're just like they're just telling you what's happening, rather than like, oh I think it's cool. I mean, sometimes

yeah it is, Oh yeah, I think that's cool. But I'm notimes just like yo, shot a guy what and they're like just you know, documenting their experiences. I think it, um, it's like a case by case basis. With me, I don't think that it can be like broadly painted that way. I think that, Um, you know, it's like when you when you see it, you when you hear it, you

know it. You know what I'm saying, Like if when you hear somebody who's documenting things that they've seen and they're presenting, even if it has a little bit of that glamorizing you know, vibe to it, there's a way to go about something like you're documenting it. Then there's a way to go about it like you know, you're

just promoting some ship. I don't necessarily think that any depiction of something is the equivalent of a of advocacy, you know, like just he could just be documenting present presenting like a like a uh, it's like a a portrait of radicalization. Well, the people in the Netherlands should chill and we're talking about this dude, because Aden has nothing on the next guy who we're going to talk about. So there is a Well was an extremely popular German

rapper by the name of Deso dog Um. He had a hit song called and I'm going to butcher this German Welcome in in minor world or welcome to my world. Let's check that out real quick now, he um he he was extremely popular for a long time after he converted to Islam and started being a lot more open with it in his music and his image. Things just

kind of started spiraling from there. In eleven, he was alleged to have inspired a twenty one year old uh Kosovar to fire at a busload of American serviceman in Frankfurt, and he would eventually just leave Europe altogether and actually go to Syria to fight with ISIS. And now he's actually like a wanted propaganda minister, like official propaganda minister

for ISIS. But yeah, his stuff, if you look at some of his things, which you know, it's it's hard to find them on YouTube for obvious reasons, but it's like it's it's the difference between that and a Dean is completely stark. You know what I'm saying. It makes it makes the video and the song that we just heard seem like a Martin Scorsese piece of art as opposed to like something that just looks like a terrorist video with a beat. Yeah, you know what I'm saying,

Like like this this guy like hardcore. I don't even know if you could call that self radicalization, but it's almost like he had a self fulfilling prophecy. The more radicalized that he got to the point where it's like, oh, I guess there's nothing to do now but go join islis So I mean like what what do what? Do you? What? Do you? What? Do you think that was the cause of that? Do you think that he was do you

think he radicalized himself? Or do you think opening his his music and his his id to that sort of philosophy kind of influenced where his dijectory went. I mean,

I think I think radicalization comes into directions. It comes from the the ambient, like, uh, social problems that we experienced, like telling us that something is not right about the way things are, and then the media we could consume, uh, then providing an answer to those questions right, and so Like I can't speak to the German context of like what particular things he may have been experiencing in his life that drove him in this direction, but I mean

I imagine something environmental was like hey, yo, fuck this, and not only funck this, but like how do I fuck this? Ah? Yes? Isis this is the way? Uh? And so like the internet then providing this uh, this wormhole which we all get stucked down to various directions thanks YouTube. We would consider this to be right wing radicalization though correct, Like if you go from being a German gangster rapper to being like a full fledged member of ISIS. Yeah, Like that's that is the equivalent of

in two years of seeing storm the Capital wrap nigga. Yeah, we storm in the Capitol, we hit in cops with flags, Yeah, wyoming. Wh Let's bring it back to Cuba. Okay, let's let's let's circle. Let's bring it back full circle. Let's come

back to Cuba. Yeah. So we started off talking about you know, anti government versus pro government propaganda being produced, but I think that we need to understand a bit about the context of how hip hop has been used in Cuba, like in recent years as well as just like historically, to kind of cast some light on some implications of this anti government song. So it came out where what you're where is the link to this article?

Um So. In two thousand and thirteen, two thousand fourteen, it emerged that, uh, the US was attempting to unseek Cuba's communist government through infiltration of the Cuban rap scene. The American Development Aid Organization us AID I've been secularly

trying to infiltrate Cuba's underground hip hop movement. According to records obtained about the Associate Press and the idea was to use Cuba's rappers to break the information blockade and build a network of young people seeking social change to spark a youth movement against the the government of President Royal Castra. Now to understand this, we got to talk a little bit about the Cuban ap group Lost Lost,

as they are anti government underground rap group. Let's check out the song of their's with Richard's translates to wrap his Wars instrumental. Is that's a jay Z instrumental that they did that over that? That is the jay Z song Moment of Clarity produced by Eminem. I believe. Yeah, they're adored by the people over there for with lyrics that are like, um, I'm tired of following their plans. Socialism or death is not a slogan. They also wrapped

people marching blind. You have no credibility. Go tell the captain the ship's sinking rapidly. Um, they're there, Like I said, their beloved for their outspokenness. Um, they've been banned from performing in Havana because you know they're they're because their anti government raps. So that's putting them in context, so Daryn Kavanaugh of the blog wars Boring. He explains, the Cuban government initially treated hip hop and rap much the same way dealt with other important music. The Ministry of

Culture didn't ban it, but didn't support it either. That changed in two thousand and two when the ministry created the Cuban Rap Agency. The agencies reported hip hop on the island and promoted Cuba's hip hop stars abroad. The government endorsed the Jammer provided that performers um towed the Communist Party's line cop Caster government banned outspoken critics, such as the rap group Los Orleanos from performing publicly in Havannah.

On the other hand, um that since the ship forth the group to join hip hop the Cuban hip hop underground despite the group's popularity, U s aid gave the Creative Associates International, which was a development company based in Washington, d C. Gave them a con track to coordinate a multimillion dollar plan in Cuba that involved promoting hip hop

performers and throwing festivals and things like that. And admittedly it was soft, you know, soft financial support and in terms of lost how do you say that again, in the case of loss Altianos, uh, this aid was provided without their explicit knowledge. But you know, if you're if you're getting money from U. S. A. D. And they're helping you out and sending you abroad to go to leadership UH seminars and stuff like that, I guess you can kind of put two and two together if you're them.

But that's a negative though picture that the years twenty Associated Press dropped a bombshell that little Yadi is a part of co Intel Pro two. I'm not I'm not just spread capitalist propaga and I'm not smiling because that's not out of the realm of possibility. If we met a part in other countries. God knows what's happening in ours. I mean, there's a good chance that fucking like Anderson Cooper is, there's a good chance that news anchors, in

in in social media influencers are all fucking fans. So yeah, I would not doubt it that if it came out that some some of these rat cats out there working with them people, I don't know that I would necessarily be surprised, y'all motherfucker's might be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised. The most unrealistic thing about the scenario is described. It

is the part where we find out it's going on. Yeah, well, I mean if if there was okay, so if if we were if we had that in our myths right like, like, okay, let's let's do a little irresponsible speculation right now. If we had that in our myths, Let's say we had the we we did the mission impossible breaking into Langley,

and we got out only half the information. The information confirmed, Yes, made there are cabal of mainstream rappers that are working with the FEDS that our secret propaganda you know, minister like secret propagandasts for the United States federal government. Who would it be? We? We? I mean you came out with little YADDI. First, I was gonna go, I don't, I don't want to him today, I was gonna say Pump, so like they're kind of in the same vein, So

I'd say pump. If if it came out that Pump was a fed those recruited when he was sixteen, Jez's held up as like, oh, black capitalism at its pinnacle, like why we gotta hustle and drive and like yeah yeah, like oh, how do you get billion dollars Nigga Rick Cross that federal grant money? Um? Yeah, you know, I don't want to speculate about this anymore. I'm hearing beeps of my ship. Well, um yeah, So that's that's what

we've got today. You guys go check out some of those songs and videos because some of them are actually quite quite stirring and interesting to listen to. And I would always like to promote international rap, even if some of it I don't believe, you know, necessarily line up with politically. It is cool if you're a hip hop fan too, soap that in into just to see what's going on in different scenes across the world, because this hip hop thing of ours can be used for a lot.

Some of it's a lot of it's good, but some of it can be bad, and some of it so not even necessarily for of the people, you know, So it's you gotta keep your eyes open and your ears open for that. But all right, I'm like, Frank, huh, I'm dope knife And we're not getting off that easy. Because Joel dropped a motherfucking beat waiting a reparations. Yeo, Yo.

You ever notice how everybody rap about the same ship thirty years and I'm still waiting for the name switch all around the world, same song and the same griff. Ain't no one in power was thinking ya ship is dangerous. Matter of fact, probably ghost road is. You're so focused, whole motive backing like you're working for the old potus, making my soul focused. You're gonna learn like I'm old, oldest, cuss your grass out, make it full throated. I'm old logan.

I ain't dying to lee and they're trying to bring wash you with lying and pretend. So I try to recommend dope ship. You can try it with your friend. I'm grown. I ain't trying to set a trend. Dope dope y dope knife, I'm legal, Franca. We are waiting on reparations. See you next week. See y'all waiting on reparations as a production of I Heart Radio. Listen to Waiting on Reparations on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.