Hip-hop

SÃO PAULO: In a classroom at a community center near a slum, a street-smart teacher offers a dozen young students tips on how to improve their graffiti techniques. One floor below, in a small soundproof studio, another instructor is teaching a youthful group of would-be rappers how to operate digital recording and video equipment. The program, conceived in 2003, is an initiative of the Brazilian minister of culture, Gilberto Gil. Though today one of the country's most revered pop stars, Gil, 64, was often ostracized at the start of his own career and so feels a certain affinity with the hip-hop culture emerging here.