By Carrie Loewenthal Massey
Special Correspondent
Washington - Although filmmaker Joshua Asen grew up in Brooklyn, New York, with an affinity for jazz and classical music, he has since become an unofficial ambassador for hip-hop, promoting its value as an art form.
Asen's film, I Love Hip Hop in Morocco, captures the experiences of several Moroccan hip-hop artists. Like artists around the globe, these young performers struggle to express themselves and the frustrations they encounter in daily life. They do it through hip-hop.
With financial support from the American Embassy in Rabat and the U.S.-based company Coca-Cola, Asen helped the artists organize a series of public, free concerts. His film documents the lives of the musicians, as well as the challenges of planning the groundbreaking music festival. After overcoming several logistical hurdles, the festival played in three Moroccan cities to more than 36,000 fans, according to the film.
Also reaching a large audience, I Love Hip Hop in Morocco screened at film festivals in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States, and continues to travel to universities. The U.S. Department of State recently acquired rights to distribute copies of the production to 100 posts worldwide, as well.
FROM RHODE ISLAND TO THE MOROCCAN STREETS AND STAGE
Asen's personal exposure to hip-hop music did not happen until he moved to Rhode Island to attend college.
"I had not had the right introduction to hip-hop until college when my good friend and co-director of the film Jennifer Needleman made me sit down and listen to the lyrics and appreciate the poetry and word play," Asen said in an interview with America.gov.
What began as appreciation for American hip-hop giants like Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z soon blossomed into a fascination with the history of the genre ( http://www.america.gov/st/peopleplace-english/2009/August/20090824100811bcreklaW0.8097345.html ) and its anthropological and musical impact on society. Asen began to explore the spread of this musical movement from its inception in the 1970s to its popularity today.
Hip-hop began on the streets of the Bronx, a borough of New York City, as an outlet for African-American and Latino teenagers struggling to escape poverty. Within 20 years, the stories told by these American youth sparked a global movement.
"In the '90s and beginning of the 21st century, [hip-hop] was growing and thriving in places like Morocco, South Africa and China," Asen said.
A post-graduation vacation to Morocco found Asen wandering in the Medina of Rabat, the remaining ancient section of the city, marveling at Moroccans playing both American and indigenous hip-hop on the streets. Questions arose in Asen's mind about the role of hip-hop in Muslim society and the globalization of hip-hop. He soon returned to Morocco on a Fulbright grant from the U.S. Department of State to seek answers to his inquiries.
"I was one of the first people to make a case for hip-hop as a legitimate field of study," said Asen.
Asen's studies took him around the country, meeting the subjects of his film along the way.
He encountered the teenaged "FatiShow" rapping at a train station. Fati lived in Fez, pursuing both her studies and her music. Each time she took the stage, she broke down gender barriers. She endured boos from the crowd when they saw she was female, but with microphone in hand, she quickly won their support.
Among other Moroccan artists, Asen also met and profiled in his film the group Fnaire. From Marrakesh, Fnaire members pioneered their own style, which they called "traditional rap." Their music mixes hip-hop beats and lyrics with traditional Arabic melodies. Following the 2004 terrorist attack in Casablanca, Fnaire produced a track called "Matakish Bledi (Don't Touch My Country)," a message to extremists to leave Morocco alone.
Asen continues to follow the artists he met in Morocco and remains friendly with several with them.
"I think they appreciated the interest I was taking in them, learning their language. I learned Moroccan Arabic so I could relate to them and ask them the questions I wanted to ask them," he said.
Learning the language and forging a dialogue with the Moroccan artists exemplifies Asen's view of hip-hop's influence on global culture.
"In the end, hip-hop is really about communication across the very difficult cultural and political borders. The fact that we're all hip-hop fans, including me as an enthusiast and student, allows us to negotiate and at least arrive at some kind of mutual understanding," said Asen. "The point is to create the dialogue and to share the dialogue with our respective followers."
HIP-HOP DIPLOMACY
Since completing I Love Hip Hop in Morocco, Asen has worked to promote the dialogue that hip-hop generates on issues of global politics and culture. His blog, Hip Hop Diplomacy ( http://www.hiphopdiplomacy.org/ ), tracks "the intersection of global hip-hop and geopolitics, with a focus on Middle East artists," Asen said.
His ultimate goal with the blog project is to "create more opportunities for cultural diplomacy programming to draw on the power and the outreach these groups are able to do within their communities," he said.
Among the hip-hop events Asen highlights on his blog are several concerts staged with the support of American embassies and the State Department. For instance, Asen cites the recent return to the United States of the Brooklyn-based group Chen Lo and the Liberation Family. The artists toured Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, performing with prominent local groups recruited by the different regional embassies.
Asen relishes the ability to partner with governments to continue to stage public hip-hop productions.
"I'd much rather see [politics] play out in the cultural, musical realm than on the street with a makeshift bomb or someone killing a protester," he said. "I consider myself a champion of hip-hop diplomacy and hope."
Source: U.S. Department of State
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