by Alan MacLeod
Through its myriad of agencies, the United States government has recruited and groomed rappers from around the world to further its political interests. Washington has spent tens of millions of dollars funding, training, and promoting artists who foment public discontent, organize protests, and lead color revolutions in nations in its crosshairs.
In Bangladesh and Senegal, U.S.-funded rappers led political movements that toppled governments. Washington-backed musicians were the face of a failed counter-revolution in Cuba, and will likely be called upon again by the Trump administration. And artists in dozens of countries worldwide (including the U.S. itself) are paid to promote American government interests.
This is the story of how the U.S. government uses hip hop, a medium of struggle pioneered by Black artists in New York, as a tool for regime change.
Part 3 - West Africa: rage on behalf of the machine
Both Thiat and Kilifeu from the Keur Gui Crew also later participated in a much wider hip hop project bankrolled and overseen by the NED’s World Movement For Democracy. As part of a 2019 attempt to build bridges and links between “pro-democracy” (i.e. U.S.-backed) forces across Western Africa, the NED sponsored the production of a rap album, “Music as a Messenger of Democracy,” featuring a plethora of political artists from the region.
In addition to the Keur Gui Crew, this included Sengalese/Beninise rapper Moonaya, Awa Bling and Killa Ace from The Gambia, Nigeria’s Cill, Togo’s Elom 20ce, as well as Ami Yerewolo and Master Soumy from Mali.
Not only did the NED fund the production and promotion of the album, but it further supported the artists by hosting rap shows across the region. One example was a 2018 hip hop night in Dakar, Senegal, where, in addition to Thiat and Kilifeu, it flew in Elom 20ce and Killa Ace for the performance. Meanwhile, Cill spoke at the World Movement For Democracy’s Tenth Global Assembly.
Another West African hip hop act with a close relationship with the NED is DJ Switch, a popular Nigerian artist who collaborated with rap legend Busta Rhymes on a remix to her hit song, “So Tey.”
DJ Switch campaigned against police brutality, and even livestreamed the shooting of anti-government protestors, an act that jeopardized her safety in her home country. Only a few months after this incident, it was announced that, like Thiat, she had become an NED Reagan-Fascell Fellow.
For the United States government, the point of sponsoring huge numbers of individuals and organizations around the world is far less about training the shock troops who will lead a color revolution (although that certainly happens), and more about ensuring that a giant cadre of pro-U.S. agents exists in all countries and in all manner of influential fields, from politics and business to academics and the arts. This is so if the U.S. does decide to do something, there will be a loyal intelligentsia to support it. Rappers are merely a tiny piece of this puzzle.
One country, however, where hip hop artists are very much at the forefront of the U.S.’ regime change plans is Cuba.
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