Israeli and Palestinian MCs

1. The Israel Debate, to a Beat
2. American-Born 'Iron Sheik' Rhymes for Palestinian Cause

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NY Times, July 8, 2004
The Israel Debate, to a Beat
By BEN SISARIO

It was a standard enough hip-hop salute: "Peace!" But then came the
response: "Justice!"

For the handful of Israeli M.C.'s who performed at the Prospect Park
Band Shell last Thursday in a concert called the Unity Sessions, the two
concepts go together: no peace in the Holy Land without justice. "You
can never say let's live together and then have this thing called
occupation," shouted T. N., a Palestinian from the town of Lod, near Tel
Aviv. "They call it democracy," he added to growing jeers from the
crowd. "It's democracy for Jews and Zionism for Arabs."

T. N. — a k a Tamer Nafar, a wiry 25-year-old who raps in quick torrents
of Arabic — is part of the growing Israeli hip-hop scene, which barely
existed a decade ago but has become one of the most potent forms of pop
culture in the Middle East.

With beats borrowed from Gang Starr and a Tribe Called Quest and lyrics
inspired by the Beastie Boys and Tupac Shakur, Israeli rappers express a
political urgency not often heard in hip-hop, whether in New York or any
of the other corners of the world to which the music has spread.

The Israeli rappers, plus a couple from New York, were brought to
Prospect Park as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn series by JDub Records,
a nonprofit, New York-based Jewish record label that has produced events
in New York and Israel. Some 3,000 people attended, according to
Celebrate Brooklyn, and more than a few knew the Hebrew and Arab raps by
heart.

For T. N. frustration over occupation and the plight of Palestinians is
a central theme, and in his raps he often lashes out against Israeli
military tactics:

You buried the parents under the stones of their own homes

And now you call me a terrorist?

Who is a terrorist?

You are a terrorist.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/08/arts/music/08HIPH.html

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NY Times, July 8, 2004
American-Born 'Iron Sheik' Rhymes for Palestinian Cause
By DANNY HAKIM

DEARBORN, Mich., July 5 — This Detroit suburb lies near Eminem's
spawning ground on the south side of Eight Mile Road. But the women
covered in hijabs and the older men baking in the midafternoon sun
looked on skeptically as a D.J. began thumping a beat and a fledgling
rapper calling himself the Iron Sheik took the stage here on a recent
Sunday.

"This first song is dedicated to a girl in a refugee camp," began the
Sheik, a 26-year-old whose real name is Will Youmans. Stubbly faced,
with dark, curly hair, he wore a Detroit Pistons jersey — an
indispensable fashion statement here lately — with the number 48, as in
1948, the year of Israel's founding.

"If you feel for a Palestinian, you are a Palestinian!" he prodded the
crowd at the Dearborn Arab International Festival, held in a town that
is home to one of the nation's largest Arab-American communities.

And then Mr. Youmans began a set that substituted political statements
for the four-letter words of other raps. He extolled the festivalgoers
to get out of the bleachers and crowd the stage. He invited their
reactions to various hot buttons, asking, "Who here likes Fox News?" and
jabbing with banter like: "The next song is about George W. It's called
`Low Expectations.' "

Not many other rappers take time to insult the Fox talk-show hosts Sean
Hannity and Bill O'Reilly (though it does happen: the spat between Mr.
O'Reilly and the rapper Ludacris was featured in a VH1 special on
celebrity feuds). Certainly it would be hard to find another rapper who
chants the number of a United Nations resolution as a chorus — in the
Iron Sheik's case, Resolution 194, which addresses the Palestinian
refugees' right to return to their pre-1948 homes, among other things.

That song, "Return a k a 194," includes these lyrics:

Palestine's their home, that's where they belong
been living in these camps for way too long
a sad song
been displaced since '48
time to return to where they originate.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/08/arts/music/08SHEI.html



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