Hip Hop Is Global, No Need To Invade

Chris Lighty points out that hip hop is a global business and his boy 50 Cent is a great example of that.  He can tour anywhere in the world and get mobbed by fans.  And, in keeping with 50's mentality, Lighty states:
We have an opportunity just like McDonalds to invade every part of the world with a piece of our culture thru hip hop music.

Now you can give me a hard time for picking out one line (although if you do, you'll have to listen to a lecture on discourse analysis, because it's clearly part of a well-established discourse, duh) but I'm sure you can agree that it does evoke the American mentality that is increasingly hated worldwide and part of the reason that Brand America is in serious decline.

In case you hadn't noticed Mr. Lighty, the first thing that goes in an anti-American or anti-Western demo/riot is the McDonald's and that's true from San Francisco (where I've seen it up close) to Pakistan (where I'll always only see it on tv).  Nevertheless, I love those fries!

But American musical acts don't have to think in terms of invasion.  American music is one of the last things the world still loves about the States.  Case in point, Michael Jackson.

One of the better pieces I've seen lately on emerging hip hop scenes around the world was in the NY Times on hip hop clubs in Manila:
Western visitors to Manila may be surprised to come across an otherwise familiar scene: young adults filling the streets, bouncing from one club to another, decked out in the latest hip-hop gear as if they had come straight from Brooklyn. Except, of course, everyone is Filipino, and the rap is spiced with Tagalog, a language of the Philippines.

And if you browse MySpace profiles you can find all sorts of hip hop references all around the world.  For example, as a Thai woman wrote to me at MySpace, Thailand is "full with hip hop wannabes u know?"

You'll also see that giving people the bird has gone worldwide across genders.  Good work, America!

Perhaps more importantly, you'll find that people all over the world are taking hip hop and adapting it to their own circumstances.  Lighty refers to the negative reaction from a variety of hip hop fans to such developments.  For some folks, it's fine for them to buy it but not for them to make it, whoever them might be.  And guess just how productive that mentality will be for those folks.  Case in point, New York.

For my part, I'm digging the hip hop diaspora, because it brings me good things like the theme song to Samurai Champloo: