Thursday, September 29, 2005
This can't be good news
You have to hand it to the Palestinian Arabs -- they don't ignore Western cultural traditions. They cherry-pick our greatest contributions:
Sigh.
You can get a look at some of the Palestinian Arab rap groups here. Thankfully, their posses, if they have them, are not in evidence.
The wanna-be gangsta boys arrive in baggy jeans and oversized T-shirts bearing the likeness of rapper Tupac Shakur, looking for a chance to freestyle with the night's star performers. The groupie girls in glittery tops throw their hands in the air, cheering on the breakdancers, when the hip-hop party is brought to a screeching halt:
Time for evening prayer.
Across the Gaza Strip, West Bank and even in Israel, young Arabic rappers are trying to juggle Middle East traditions with contemporary Western culture to create a political voice for their generation.
"It's the CNN of Palestine," says Tamer Nafar, a way to broadcast the news. Nafar, a skinny 26-year-old, is helping to turn Arabic hip-hop into an international phenomenon.
As a movement in its infancy, Palestinian hip-hop shares more in common with early American rap than the narcissistic, modern-day mainstream hip-hop that dominates MTV.
Just as Public Enemy, N.W.A. and Ice-T created furors with songs such as "911 Is a Joke," "F-k Tha Police" and "Cop Killer," Palestinian rappers such as Nafar take a provocative, controversial approach with songs such as "Who's a Terrorist."
"You call me the terrorist?
Who's the terrorist?
I'm the terrorist?
How am I the terrorist
When you've taken my land?!
Who's the terrorist?
You're the terrorist!
You've taken everything I own
while I'm living in my homeland."
Sigh.
You can get a look at some of the Palestinian Arab rap groups here. Thankfully, their posses, if they have them, are not in evidence.
1 Comments:
By 
cakreiz, at
Thu Sep 29, 07:46:00 AM:
But which style will Allah prefer? Fifty Cent? Biggy Smalls? Missy Eliot? Ludachris? Guess we'll see how the mullahs handle this important theological issue.
