by globalcipher_53ckum | Nov 14, 2023 | Gems
From the mysterious mountains of Latin America, some compelling gems arise in hip-hop lyrics. The rap crew, Crack Family from Bogotá, Colombia rhymes in their hit “Medicina” (which has some very cool images of Colombian mountains in the music video):...
by globalcipher_53ckum | Nov 2, 2023 | Gems
In my fieldwork in Japan, my man Jase Ng took me to see the “Hip Hop City” Mural in Kawasaki–the diverse working class city on the outskirts of Tokyo. There at the left of this epic monument to hip hop in Japan, the artist Dragon76 has connected hip...
by globalcipher_53ckum | Oct 26, 2023 | Gems
The name of our recently departed brother, the Mozambican MC, Azagaia, means “spear” — a reference to his anticolonial cultural politics and his “words as weapons” artistic ethos. CIPHER Team member, Janne Rantala, describes his views in...
by globalcipher_53ckum | Nov 15, 2021 | Gems
In early January 2018, the first well-known hip hop reference to footballer Mo Salah appeared. It quickly spread across the globe, with artist in other countries using the footballer as a reference point for excellence – most of them comparing themselves to Mo Salah...
by globalcipher_53ckum | Feb 6, 2021 | Gems
In this video 0phelia spits an acapella rap verse (‘Eagniocht and chrann’) in her native language Gaelige (Irish), demonstrating the hip-hop wisdom that can be found in nature. The captions provided in English are a loose translation of the original. ...
by globalcipher_53ckum | Nov 27, 2020 | Gems
Bboy Alienness refocused a generation through this seminal dance text of the 2000s. Inspiring a new old school, Alienness pushed the emphasis from power moves back to movement with feeling and groove, teaching: “I can teach a chihuahua to stand on one hand but I...
