In last year's May Issue, we had a glimpse of cross-cultural collaborations involving traditional music, traditional musicians or ethnopop artistes of non-European background. This month, we kick off a two-part series about international collaborations between people of color outside the sphere of traditional music or 'world music', specifically in the arena of soul, rap, RnB and pop - genres that have transcended ethnic lines.

This issue's focus is on American artistes who employ the talents of East Asian counterparts in their albums. In the next issue, we will take a look at Japanese performers/producers who feature the contributions of Western artistes/producers in their work.

This list is not intended to be exhaustive or to represent the full spectrum of international collaborations.