Hip Hop School of Int'l Politics

Do you have trouble making sense of U.S./Iranian relations? Clearly, you haven’t been following the byzantine freestyle campaign between the rap world’s hegemon Jay-Z and rising power The Game. Word-slinging MC’s are a great model for nations locked in high-stakes diplomacy, as explained by George Washington University professor Marc Lynch. To hear Lynch tell it, Jay-Z is a good stand-in for the U.S., fending off provocations from The Game (Iran), while managing his relationship with middle powers like Kanye West (Europe). But in this rap-based power map, who does our own microeconomics-spitting contributor Dan Hamermesh represent? [%comments]