Conflict transformation, scalability, and the non-governmental ear in a hip-hop social project in Iztapalapa, Mexico City

This chapter analyses Hip-Hop Transformación, a project run by a Mexico City-based charitable organisation. It combines ethnographic research carried out between 2018 and 2021 with analysis of the music produced for this project. Hip-Hop Transformación has used competitions to foment hip-hop expression which criticises intra-community violence. In so doing, it has raised questions about scalability, agency, and listening. Introducing the notion of the ‘non-governmental ear’, the chapter explores the notion of scale by highlighting how Hip-Hop Transformación mediated between the expectations, associations, and aesthetic sensibilities of organisers and participants.