Beef—a common rap term for conflict and that can often be deadly—has to be one of the first.
Which is what makes Next Level — a small but far-flung hip-hop initiative supported by the U.S. State Department and run in conjunction with the music department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—all the more noteworthy.
The program—launched in 2015—not only sends emerging American rap artists and hip-hop educators abroad to places as far away and diverse as Serbia and Senegal, Tanzania and Thailand, but it also brings some of the most promising young hip-hop artists from those countries to the U.S. to engage in a cross-cultural exchange.
Recently, the program’s current cohort of artists from abroad made an appearance at American University, where they told their stories and performed and rapped freestyle in a “cipher” that featured lyrics in their native languages, which were as diverse as Swahili and Spanish.
With beats and rhymes echoing throughout the atrium at the School of International Service, the spectacle drew onlookers that ranged from students and faculty to maintenance workers.
At first glance, the event might have looked like any other student-led rap performance at a campus near you. But there was much more to this performance than the raps and breakbeats and dancers doing dangerous moves.
