Monday, August 29, 2005

The Palestinian Lyrical Front: A Step in the right direction

It’s times like these that I wish I poses a journalist’s writing skills and reach to describe the revolution taking place on the Palestinian end, for decades Palestinians have been outgunned and never outspoken, but not anymore. Armed with powerful words, singing in Arabic, English and Hebrew with topics ranging from history and politics to love; The Palestinian Lyrical Front, comprising of 10 rap artists/bands aims to break the silence with Slingshot, a Hip Hop documentary focusing on the struggle and daily life of Palestinians living in Gaza, the west bank and Israel. Their willingness to experiment with a new medium, the absence of religious scrapping, and the ability to differentiate between Zionism and Judaism is awe inspiring. These kids know their & peace’s enemy. Here’s a sample of their lyrics حرام يا شعبي حرام, عشان جدادنا اذا بشفونا بتألبوا بالقبور كيف هم اخترعوا الصفر واحفادهم صاروا صفور For the benefit of non-arab readers this means (it’s a pity how things have turned, if our grandfathers saw us they’d roll in their graves, they invented the zero and that’s what we’ve become) Although their music may lack the immediacy of other rap songs, it’s still a veritable storm of apt samples, grumbling percussion, memorable riffs, and powerful lyrics. Songs like “olive trees” describe the uprooting of the Palestinians from their land, much in the same way Israeli settlers are uprooting olive trees today. Ironically, olive trees are an international symbol of peace. Here's a list of some of their songs. Right click and select Save as to download. By the way (DAM stands for Da Arab Mc’s not Blood as I initially thought) 1- Slingshot A Hip Hop Documentary (Trailer) (Windows Media Quicktime) 2- MBS + DAM – Boomerang 3- DAM - Meen Erhabe? (Who’s the terrorist) 4- DAM - ANA EW INTI 5- DAM - BORN HERE (ARABIC VERSION) 6- DAM – BORN HERE VIDEO (A MUST SEE) 7 - IRON SHEIK -OLIVE TREES 8 - IRON SHEIK - THE TALE OF THREE MUHAMMEDS (A MUST) For More Visit: Iron Sheik, DAM, Slingshot Please feel free to copy this into your website if you don't feel like rewriting.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

palestian rap rocks!
i like girl in video

Anonymous said...

After reding on Ethan's blog, I made this webjay compilation.
http://webjay.org/by/phauly/thepalestinianlyricalfront
Simply go to this page, choose your player and click "play".
paolo (from italy, yes ;-)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the hype Yazan... we're trying to do music and politics in new ways.

Keep the journal going to... and link my blog up at www.kabobfest.com and I'll link yours'

Iron Sheik

Anonymous said...

Anyone could post the full lyrics in arabic please? I can't find it anywhere!!

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Anyone could post the full lyrics in arabic please? I can't find it anywhere!!

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

How come the Palestinian rappers are not wearing any hip hop jewelry? What's up with that!