THE TALKS
3 public conversations exploring the evolution of hip-hop practices, artistic communities and cultural contexts through exchanges between Swiss and Jordanian artists.
Cross Rhymez — a Swiss‑Jordanian hip‑hop exchange
What is Cross Rhymez?
Cross Rhymez is a 12-day Swiss-Jordanian cultural exchange program that connects artists and communities through hip-hop culture, bringing together rap, DJing, beatmaking, dance, graffiti, and beatboxing.
Why does it exist?
Fostering intercultural dialogue, artistic collaboration, and knowledge exchange between Jordan and Switzerland through the universal language of hip-hop.
Where and when is it happening?
The first edition takes place in Geneva, Switzerland, from the 3rd to the 15th of September 2026, with a reciprocal edition in Amman, Jordan in 2027.
Who is involved?
Jordanian and Swiss artists, educators, cultural organizations, and local communities, led by co-founders Jamal Suleiman and Nadia El-Hindi.
How can visitors participate?
Attend performances, join workshops and talks, volunteer, or follow the project online and become part of the exchange.
Our
Methodology
Cross Rhymez is developed through four interconnected axes: The Stage, The Lab, The School, and The Talk. Together, these four axes bring artists, audiences, and communities into a shared process of artistic creation, public performance, education, and dialogue. By connecting these different dimensions of hip-hop culture, Cross Rhymez fosters collaboration, knowledge exchange, and meaningful intercultural encounters.
The Lab
At the heart of Cross Rhymez, The Lab is a collaborative space where Swiss and Jordanian artists come together to experiment, exchange ideas, and develop new artistic work. Through artistic research, improvisation, studio sessions, and collective creation, artists from different hip-hop disciplines explore new approaches, challenge their practices, and build lasting creative relationships. The Lab serves as the foundation from which many of the project's performances and collaborations emerge.
The Talk
The Talk creates space for conversation, reflection, and the exchange of knowledge. Through artist talks, panel discussions, and public conversations, participants explore the social, cultural, and artistic dimensions of hip-hop while sharing experiences, creative processes, and perspectives from both Switzerland and Jordan. These encounters encourage dialogue between artists, audiences, cultural professionals, and local communities.
The School
The School extends Cross Rhymez beyond professional artistic spaces and into cultural centres and community venues across Geneva. Jordanian artists lead workshops in rap, DJing, beatmaking, dance, graffiti, and beatboxing, sharing their artistic practices with children, young people, and local communities. These sessions encourage creativity, self-expression, cultural exchange, and participation while creating meaningful encounters between artists and the Swiss public.
The Stage
The Stage is where the artistic journey comes to life. It presents performances, showcases, live collaborations, and public events that celebrate both individual artistic practices and the collective outcomes developed throughout The Lab. Bringing together artists from Switzerland and Jordan, these performances invite audiences to experience the creative dialogue, new works, and connections that have emerged throughout the residency.
Artists
Jordanian
Artists
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MCs/Rappers:
SHBASH
Translates trap and drill aesthetics in a distinctly sonic language - Raw, driven by rhythm, moving between digital subcultures and urban realities.
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DJs/Producteurs/Beatmakers:
SOTUSURA
A curatorial and historical ear: DJing, sampling and research connecting Arabic musical heritage to global hip-hop.
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DJs/Producteurs/Beatmakers:
BIG MURK
Hybrid across production, DJing, percussion and MCing - Grime bass music and underground rap.
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Dancers:
ALAEDDIN RAHMEH
Breaking plus cultural mediation. Through Underground Amman and Dammeh Art Centre, he documents Amman's Hip-hop scene as a social and urban language.
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Dancers:
NADER ISSAM
Works across dance, DJing, and Fashion - embodying how hip-hop aesthetics circulate between creative fields.
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Beatboxers:
ABOOD AL ADHAM
Beatboxer who uses a mix of traditional music and electronic music, blending it with a touch of hip-hop sampling art.
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Graffiti:
SUHAIB ATTAR
Graffiti artist creating public murals that transform shared spaces into places of dialogue, memory, and community connection.
Swiss
Artists
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MCs/Rappers:
DI-MEH
A distinctive voice within Geneva's rap scene, Di-Meh develops a practice blending raw energy, technical precision and personal storytelling. Influenced by hip-hop traditions, his work bridges old-school references and contemporary sounds with a unique stage presence.
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DJs/Producteurs/Beatmakers:
DB CHAN
Bridging jazz, hip-hop and electronic music, DB.CHAN develops a hybrid approach to composition and production. His work combines improvisation, beatmaking and collaboration across different musical scenes.
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DJs/Producteurs/Beatmakers:
KREAEM
Versatile in music production, Kreaem develops an open beatmaking practice navigating between hip-hop, fashion and contemporary sound cultures.
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Dancers:
NORA KLLOKOQI
Strongly involved in Geneva's hip-hop scene, Nora has developed a dance practice combining technical precision and musicality. Teaching, judging and organizing events with JAIA, she contributes to the transmission and development of hip-hop culture locally.
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Dancers:
JOCELYN KAGINA
Connecting Afro-diasporic legacies, club cultures and contemporary hip-hop practices, Jocelyn develops an embodied approach to movement. His work explores groove, musicality and embodied memory as forms of cultural transmission.
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Beatboxers:
FUNKAZTEK
Rooted in improvisation, technical mastery and live performance. As a multiple-time Swiss beatbox champion, Deon explores contemporary rhythmic expression.
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Graffiti:
WOST
A distinctive visual language, Wost develops a practice between graffiti, typographic design and contemporary visual research. His work explores perception, architecture and visual inscription within public space.
EVENTS
PUBLIC EVENTS OVERVIEW
Throughout the Cross Rhymez program, a series of public events will open spaces for exchange, transmission and discovery around hip-hop cultures across Switzerland and the Levant.
THE STAGE
4 public showcases highlighting the collaborations between Swiss and Jordanian artists developed throughout the program.
THE SCHOOL
8 workshops offering practical introductions and exchanges across different hip-hop disciplines.
THE LAB
Throughout the program, artists will take part in private co-creation sessions dedicated to collaboration and artistic exchange.
These sessions will bring together:
- Dancers at the Maison du Hip-Hop (MAP)
- Graffiti artists at Porteous
- Musicians and producers at Undertown
The co-creation process will remain private, allowing artists to develop their collaborations in dedicated spaces and timeframes. The outcomes of these sessions will then be presented through the public performances and showcases organised during Cross Rhymez.
Team
Jamal Suleiman
CO-FOUNDER · CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR · COORDINATOR · RESPONSIBLE FOR THE JORDANIAN PRODUCTION THROUGH LANES TALENT MANAGEMENT AND BOOKING AGENCY
Born in Amman, Jordan, Jamal Suleiman develops a practice at the intersection of hip-hop culture, and community-based artistic production. Holding a Bachelor's degree in Risk Management from the American University of Madaba, he combines an analytical perspective with a creative approach to cultural organization and artistic development. Active in Jordan's independent cultural scene, he has collaborated with various dance companies and participated in international residencies exploring themes of memory, displacement, and identity through movement. Deeply connected to hip-hop culture, he works as an event organizer, and cultural facilitator, creating spaces for exchange between artists and communities. Through his work within Amman's underground scene, he contributes to the development of collaborative practices and serves as co-artistic director of Cross Rhymez. He founded Lanes Talent Management and Booking Agency and serves as as a co-artistic director of Cross Rhymez.
Nadia El-Hindi
CO-FOUNDER · CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR · COORDINATOR · RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SWISS PRODUCTION FIGUES DE BARBARES NON-PROFIT ASSOCIATION
Born in Geneva to a Swiss-Syrian father and a Spanish mother, Nadia El-Hindi develops a practice at the intersection of research, artistic direction, and community-based cultural work. A graduate with a Bachelor in Design from ECAL, she develops a curatorial approach attentive to issues of cultural transmission, representation, and narratives emerging from diasporic experiences. Connected to hip-hop culture since her teenage years, she has been active for several years within Geneva's cultural and associative scene. Her artistic residencies and repeated stays in Jordan have strengthened her connection to the Jordanian scene and to artists from the Levant region. In 2025, she co-founded the association Figues de Barbares and serves as co-artistic director of Cross Rhymez.
Curatorial
Vision
Cross Rhymez is conceived as a collective working program based on the prolonged presence of artists from Jordan in Geneva and their collaboration with Swiss artists from different hip-hop disciplines (rap, DJing, dance, graffiti, and beatbox). The selection of invited artists reflects a desire to represent the richness and diversity of Jordanian hip-hop scenes by emphasizing artistic singularities, distinct aesthetics, and trajectories. Emerging from a culture historically rooted in orality, circulation, and the expression of marginal voices, hip-hop provides a particularly relevant framework for these exchanges and for fostering dialogue across contemporary realities.
In a context where media and cultural interest in the region is increasingly shaped by political events, Cross Rhymez seeks to propose a sustainable vision that integrates these artists into spaces of collaboration and sharing, placing the quality of their artistic practices and the richness of the exchanges they enable at the heart of the project. The project also lays the groundwork for a reciprocal format that would eventually allow Swiss artists to continue these exchanges in Amman, Jordan through a future mirrored edition.
Our Vision
We envision Cross Rhymez as a long-term platform for artistic collaboration and cultural exchange between Jordan and Switzerland. Through sustained encounters between artists, communities, and cultural institutions, the project strengthens international networks, supports the circulation of contemporary hip-hop practices, and establishes lasting partnerships across cultural contexts. Beginning with its first edition in Geneva in 2026, Cross Rhymez will continue through a reciprocal edition in Amman in 2027, creating an ongoing dialogue and exchange between both countries.
Our Mission
Cross Rhymez brings together artists working across rap, DJing, beatmaking, dance, graffiti, and beatboxing to collaborate through a shared process of creation, performance, education, and dialogue. By encouraging artistic mobility, collective research, and the exchange of knowledge, the project nurtures new artistic collaborations, strengthens international cultural networks, and creates lasting connections between artists, communities, and cultural institutions.
The importance of this collaboration
Cross Rhymez is built on the belief that artistic collaboration creates lasting cultural relationships beyond geographical and political boundaries. By bringing together Swiss and Jordanian artists for an extended period of collective work, the project encourages the exchange of artistic methodologies, experiences, and perspectives while creating new works rooted in dialogue rather than representation.
The project strengthens the international visibility of contemporary hip-hop while fostering sustainable networks that support future artistic collaboration, cultural exchange, and creative mobility.
Needs & challenges
Despite the growing recognition of hip-hop as a significant contemporary cultural practice, opportunities for sustained international collaboration remain limited; mobility restrictions, unequal access to resources, and limited platforms for artistic exchange continue to shape how these communities connect and collaborate internationally.
Cross Rhymez responds to these challenges by creating a framework that prioritises long-term artistic encounters over short-term presentations. Through residency-based collaboration, public programming, workshops, and discussions, the project creates meaningful opportunities for artists to develop new work, share knowledge, engage with local communities, and establish lasting professional relationships across borders.
