Posts tagged hip-hop | Culture Making

11 May 2009

Mongolian Bling: Adventures in Nomadic Hip Hop teaser :: via 3quarksdaily

I have mixed feelings about this teaser (designed to help get funding for the film, which hasn't been made yet) because, I guess, it falls back on certain cliches to further its stated aim of breaking stereotypes. Perhaps it's just a necessary hoop to jump through, and it sounds like a very cool and worthwhile project. Still, there's a delicious irony to it all: easterners adopting and adapting western poses, for the service of westerners wanting a bit of the eastern coolness to rub off (and angling to take said easterners on a mystical journey—"nomadic" being a downright talismanic term for a certain sort of electronica-meets-world-music afficionado—to explore their culture's musical roots).

re: asia, cultural worlds, hip-hop, mongolia, movies, music

Nate:

4 August 2008

via Boing Boing

Trailer for "Diamonds in the Rough," a documentary about anti-war and -corruption themed hip-hop in Uganda. Looks fascinating and inspiring, though I'm just a tad troubled that, as with Wim Winders' wonderful "Buena Vista Social Club" film, the transcendent climax involves the musicians from the developing world making a triumphant and adulatory tour in the West.

re: africa, changing the world, community, hip-hop, horizons of the possible, movies, music, video, war

Nate:

21 July 2008

Look, Think, Stay Alive, by Jimmy Gathu, 1993 :: via Africanhiphop.com

There's quite a lot of cultural info and aspiration packed into this video. I'm not sure whether its plea for greater public safety fell, or would fall, on the young men who work for Nairobi's privately-provided public transit.

re: africa, hip-hop, kenya, public transit, safety, transport, video

Nate:

23 June 2008

Suggested soundtrack for Chapter 15 of Culture Making: "The 3, the 12, and the 120." About the close partnership of creating a new cultural good. And as with much pleasing hip-hop, the song is about the song.

re: 3 12 120, community, hip-hop, music, performing arts, technology and change

Nate: