US Edition 
US 'hip hop diplomacy 'fails to heal rift with Pakistan'
It must have seemed like a good idea at the time: Send an American rap crew on a tour of Pakistan to help build bridges between two countries whose relations have plumbed new depths this year.
But after being detained by security officials in Rawalpindi and then seeing a major concert cancelled by a venue in Lahore at the last moment, the FEW Collective's attempt at cultural diplomacy has backfired, emphasising the frosty feelings between two awkward allies.
On Wednesday, the hip hop troupe from Chicago, was in Karachi preparing for a concert after being forced to abandon its Lahore gig amid allegations the venue had come under pressure to cancel the event.
The Al-Hamra Arts Council claimed US officials had not produced a No Objection Certificate from the Pakistani government.
However, a spokeswoman for the US embassy in Islamabad insisted that the paperwork was in order.
"We don't know whether there was pressure or not to hold it or if they just felt uncomfortable," she said.
While America's image through much of the Muslim world has been dominated by war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the music that sprang from its inner city black populations in the 1980s is popular everywhere from the West Bank to Kabul.
Rappers such as El General in Tunisia have even helped spread the message of democracy during the Arab Spring this year.
Hip hop diplomacy has become an increasingly important plank of American foreign policy during the past decade as officials try to tap in to the worldwide popularity of rap – just like the jazz tours of the Cold War when Dizzie Gillespie and Benny Goodman were dispatched to counter Soviet propaganda in Africa and the Middle East.
Nowhere is the effort needed more than in Pakistan.
In January, a CIA contractor shot dead two men in Lahore.
Then a secret mission to kill Osama bin Laden on Pakistani territory sparked a fresh wave of anti-US anger in May.
Meanwhile, CIA drones continue to pound targets in the country's lawless tribal belt.
The result is that only 12 per cent of Pakistanis have a favourable opinion of the United States, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center.
In response, the US embassy has hosted a string of touring musicians in order to show a different side of America.
But within days of their arrival the FEW Collective fell foul of the country's beady-eyed security services last week when a band member was spotted taking photographs from a US embassy vehicle in Rawalpindi, home to Pakistan's military headquarters and Benazir Bhutto International Airport.
They were released only after deleting images from their cameras.