WingsOfAnAngel
Banned
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 3
By: Mohamed Hakam (Open Post)
2004-08-30
The first Arabian music awards (The Middle East's own version of the US Grammy awards) witnessed a huge surprise: Egyptian Rap Group MTM won the prize for best modern Arabic act. The public voted for the rap band in the face of media criticism of rap music as a harmful Western import.
"Now there are a lot of people doing Arab rap who didn't feel before that they had much of a chance," said Takki of Egyptian rap stars MTM.
But the mainstream infamous Rap band does not represent the real Hip Hop in the region. There is a bigger, boiling and more serious Hip Hop movement in the underground scene. In order to approach and understand this scene, let’s follow the Hip Hop story from the beginning…
Origins and causes of hip hop
Hip hop is an originally American cultural movement which is composed of four main parts: breakdancing and graffiti art, along with two more well-known aspects collectively known as hip hop music; they are rapping (emceeing) and DJing (although many DJs do not deal with hip hop music).
The roots of hip hop are in West African and African-American music. The griots of West Africa are a group of traveling singers and poets, whose musical style is reminiscent of hip hop.
True hip hop arose during the 1970s when block parties became common in New York City, especially the Bronx. Block parties were usually accompanied by music, especially funk and soul music.
The godfather of hip hop is DJ Kool Herc, he was one of the most popular DJs in early 70s New York, he focused primarily on DJing, and began working with two MCs, Coke La Rock and Clark Kent—this was the first emcee crew, Kool Herc & the Herculoids. While Kool Herc & the Herculoids were the first hip hop stars, more emcee teams quickly sprouted up. Frequently, these were collaborations between former gang members, such as Afrikaa Bambaataa's Universal Zulu Nation (now a large, international organization). It was all a matter of time for Hip Hop to spread widely…
Along with the low expense (it only takes "two turntables and a microphone") and the demise of other forms of popular music (the decline of disco, funk and rock in the mid- to late 70s), social and political events further accelerated the rise of hip hop.
In 1959, an expressway was built through the heart of the Bronx, displacing many of the middle-class white communities and causing widespread unemployment among the remaining blacks as stores and factories fled the area. By the 1970s, poverty was rampant. When a 15,000+ apartment building was built at the northern edge of the Bronx in 1968, the last of the middle-class fled the area and the area's black and Latino gangs began to grow in power.
In the mid-1970s, hip hop split into two camps. One sampled disco and focused on getting the crowd dancing and excited, with simple or no rhymes; these DJS included Pete DJ Jones, Eddie Cheeba, DJ Hollywood and Love Bug Starski. On the other hand, another group of DJs were focusing on rapid-fire rhymes and a more complex rhythmic scheme. These included Afrika Bambaataa, Paul Winley, Grandmaster Flash and Bobby Robinson.
As the ‘70s became the 1980s, many felt that hip hop was a novelty fad that would soon die out. This was to become a constant accusation for at least the next fifteen years.
The Hip Hop spread in the Arab world
Starting in the very late 1980s, hip hop spread across the globe, including Japan, India and Turkey, and especially France and Italy. The wave reached the Arab world for many reasons. One of which is the francophone influence, Moroccan, Algerian and Lebanese youth caught the fever from the French scene.
Another main reason is MTV’s huge popularity in the area, showing mega Hip Hop hits videos like MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This”; this phenomenon was soon reinforced with the launch of numerous satellite video clips channels, in the new millennium.
PC and internet revolution take part, the mp3 and peer to peer music exchange mania made different styles of Hip Hop music available for purchase and download online, Computer software made sampling, recording and editing a piece of cake for the underground artists.
But the main factor is expressing thoughts about areas that no other type of main stream music would approach in a bold way… Sex, religion and politics!
We can highlight on major Arabic Hip Hop scenes as follows:
The Hip Hop underground Palestinian movement
Young Palestinians have altered stones with Rap lyrics taking example of the African Americans battle to win equal rights.
One of the key performers in the west bank scene is Boi Kutt, an artist coming from the underground of Ramallah bringing Oriental-Electronica/Trip Hop with an Arabic touch. Starting out as an MC with a few Hip Hop groups and performing at parties gave Boi Kutt a name on the streets. Then, he began making beats, and instrumentals for MCs to rap on, and would sometimes put a verse or two on some tracks. With time and experience, Boi Kutt started creating weird and trippy instrumentals, using old Arabic records for samples, and new hardware/software for the rest. Learning more about music, Boi Kutt advanced, and started making Oriental-Electronica/Trip Hop.
Boi Kutt is now in Maryland/USA studying the technology of music, but this couldn’t keep us from reaching him, to have his opinion on the scene…
“To be honest, a real underground hip hop Palestinian movement still does not exist. Only a few keep the underground in the hip hop, but most just want to be popular and famous. Few friends and I are working on www.ramallahunderground.com, hoping to unite as many underground arts/artists as possible to actually create a SCENE or MOVEMENT.” Commented Boi Kutt.
“What do I think my songs and lyrics are about? Well my lyrics are merely my thoughts. I speak about our everyday life, and what we go through, the good and the bad. I speak about how we are treated by the occupying Zionists, and sometimes how we respond (in the wrong or right way). It is probably the most complicated issue on earth, so explaining it through rap is what I TRY to do! We live in a time where politicians basically don’t care about the people anymore, they do what they want. Maybe happiness is decreasing, but hope will remain strong as long as we have our minds and our vocal chords headed in the right direction.” Boi Kutt answered. “Hip Hop can definitely help increase the peace and decrease the heat in Arabia, as long as it stays UNDERGROUND!” He finally added.
Another act is coming from the heart of Israel itself; the Arabs of 48 Hip Hop scene is not only reacting to the Palestinian cause, but also fighting against the poverty, drugs, crime and discrimination. MWR (band members’ initials) attracted attention in Akko with great performances at Terrasanta School, The Jewish Arabic club for peace, also Makan Pub in Haifa and the Arabic Rap Festival in Nazareth.
Hip Hop, they say, helps them carve out an identity and a place in a society, where many Arabs feel left out. Sometimes they use Hebrew Lyrics… “We need a bridge, and language is the bridge here, we gotta talk, they gotta understand!”
The Lebanese Hip Hop
As a result of the civil war, many families left the country, giving the chance to their children for a multicultural learning experience. Those children are back now at a renaissance era, to form the richest Hip Hop scene in the area.
Every Lebanese underground group or artist have a mission, Takavoragan (Lebanese Armenian crew) are rapping the words of God through Hip Hop in a Lebanese English Hardcore/Abstract Hip-Hop style, so is Dezert Dragonz spreading Allah’s word and fighting the unfair s#*t going on in the Middle East and da cause of unifying 22 Arab nations in 1 through Lebanese Arabic/English Hardcore hip-Hop style, while Anarchist Army is dedicated to allow the street Hip Hop art to be embraced in the same manner it is worldwide, focusing on the struggle, the cause, and the pain they face to be portrayed in lyrical purity that is parallel to international Hip-hop standards.
Aside from the streets, there is no specific Hip Hop clubs, underground events is organized in different venues such as the Black n’ White and Baby M. The scene is widely supported by an internet society; sites like lebanonbands.com, www.peakhall.com, www.lebanesedj.com and www.vibelebanon.com that are covering all underground activities.
The Egyptian Scene Ancient Egyptians inspired American rappers!!!When you notice that many of the original American underground Hip Hop bands carry names related to Egypt like Cairo, Egypt and Kemet, don’t wonder.American Hip Hop artists think that ancient Kemetians (Egyptians) left no traceable evidence of a spoken language but did leave a form of communication in symbolic artwork known as hieroglyphics. They like to believe that bandannas and baseball caps have replaced crowns as a mark of royalty, that baggy jeans and sneakers have replaced regal togas and sandals, that tagging graffiti on walls and trains has replaced tagging temples and tombs, and that skillz on the mic have replaced telling a story on papyrus…It’s a fact that hip-hop has become one of the dominant cultures and once again we find ourselves in the presence of hieroglyphics…So who’s imitating who now?!
The Egyptian underground Hip Hop is not at its best now. Aside from the Oriental Jazz and Salsa Dancing acts steeling the spotlight, Hip Hop is banging between opposite judgements of being pathetic, a major joke and being surprisingly good!
>SKorz is a talented lyricist and cool MC, born and lived in Holland; he grew up in two different cultures, he is contributing with his Dutch experience to the Egyptian underground. We were able to catch-up with him, in order to get all about the scene from one of its heroes…
“In Egypt there are not much Hip Hop artists, and the ones that are around, try more to imitate the existing artists, instead of trying something new. The places, most of the time, are public places (clubs for example) or discotheques, so the places are not really Hip Hop focused, but for Hip Hop, House, and other music. Though I must say, there are some exceptions, a very few places have certain evenings in the month when they only play Hip Hop music. The Egyptian audience is mostly of youth, aged from 12-30, from all standards of society, but the real hardcore underground Hip Hop fans, are more from the lower standards of society, and they are not that much, growing steadily. I don’t see an extreme growth in this group of hardcore Hip Hop fans, as a matter of fact, I think the rate of this group will go down in the following years, due to the new influences that come from outside, collaborations between different types of music, which create new sounds and tunes, will eventually make the true Hip Hop scene disappear in the next 10 years.” SKorz described the scene.
When asked about the accusations of blindly imitating the western act and if the Egyptian Hip Hop has its own identity, he replied:” No and Yes. No, because I believe Hip Hop in general doesn’t really have an identity, and yes, because 90% of the regional hip hop scene is indeed blindly imitating the west. If you were to give Hip Hop its true identity, it would have to be related to the gangster, crime, and drugs scene. But because music is changing all the time, that period has long gone, its peak was from the mid '80s to the mid '90s, after that, the actual Hip Hop identity went underground, with all their hardcore fans, where it still remains until today.”
We discussed another important issue with SK, which is sampling from Arabic music and rapping in Arabic language, he expressed his opinion: “When people try to imitate a style of music, and try to apply it to their own language and culture, most of the time you will have 80% of those people failing in trying to put down a reasonably good project. In Arabic music, like everywhere, this is case as well, you have many people trying, but only very few succeeding. It takes some time, for the quality of the music, as well as the quality of the lyrics to improve and have a competitive market for the Arabic rapping music scene. I have only seen a very few, and then I mean one or two, individuals or groups, that have managed to do so, but haven’t been able to stay on top, by releasing more then only one album.”
More about SKorz: www.skorz.net
Hip Hop is close to young Egyptians because it speaks their language, it speaks about their real-life problems and social life from their point of view. We really needed this not only in Egypt but in the Arab world.
Be ready, there is an entire generation boiling in the underground, ready not only to be on the Hip Hop map, but to change it as well, and it’s going to be sooner than you think!!!
2004-08-30
The first Arabian music awards (The Middle East's own version of the US Grammy awards) witnessed a huge surprise: Egyptian Rap Group MTM won the prize for best modern Arabic act. The public voted for the rap band in the face of media criticism of rap music as a harmful Western import.
"Now there are a lot of people doing Arab rap who didn't feel before that they had much of a chance," said Takki of Egyptian rap stars MTM.
But the mainstream infamous Rap band does not represent the real Hip Hop in the region. There is a bigger, boiling and more serious Hip Hop movement in the underground scene. In order to approach and understand this scene, let’s follow the Hip Hop story from the beginning…
Origins and causes of hip hop
Hip hop is an originally American cultural movement which is composed of four main parts: breakdancing and graffiti art, along with two more well-known aspects collectively known as hip hop music; they are rapping (emceeing) and DJing (although many DJs do not deal with hip hop music).
The roots of hip hop are in West African and African-American music. The griots of West Africa are a group of traveling singers and poets, whose musical style is reminiscent of hip hop.
True hip hop arose during the 1970s when block parties became common in New York City, especially the Bronx. Block parties were usually accompanied by music, especially funk and soul music.
The godfather of hip hop is DJ Kool Herc, he was one of the most popular DJs in early 70s New York, he focused primarily on DJing, and began working with two MCs, Coke La Rock and Clark Kent—this was the first emcee crew, Kool Herc & the Herculoids. While Kool Herc & the Herculoids were the first hip hop stars, more emcee teams quickly sprouted up. Frequently, these were collaborations between former gang members, such as Afrikaa Bambaataa's Universal Zulu Nation (now a large, international organization). It was all a matter of time for Hip Hop to spread widely…
Along with the low expense (it only takes "two turntables and a microphone") and the demise of other forms of popular music (the decline of disco, funk and rock in the mid- to late 70s), social and political events further accelerated the rise of hip hop.
In 1959, an expressway was built through the heart of the Bronx, displacing many of the middle-class white communities and causing widespread unemployment among the remaining blacks as stores and factories fled the area. By the 1970s, poverty was rampant. When a 15,000+ apartment building was built at the northern edge of the Bronx in 1968, the last of the middle-class fled the area and the area's black and Latino gangs began to grow in power.
In the mid-1970s, hip hop split into two camps. One sampled disco and focused on getting the crowd dancing and excited, with simple or no rhymes; these DJS included Pete DJ Jones, Eddie Cheeba, DJ Hollywood and Love Bug Starski. On the other hand, another group of DJs were focusing on rapid-fire rhymes and a more complex rhythmic scheme. These included Afrika Bambaataa, Paul Winley, Grandmaster Flash and Bobby Robinson.
As the ‘70s became the 1980s, many felt that hip hop was a novelty fad that would soon die out. This was to become a constant accusation for at least the next fifteen years.
The Hip Hop spread in the Arab world
Starting in the very late 1980s, hip hop spread across the globe, including Japan, India and Turkey, and especially France and Italy. The wave reached the Arab world for many reasons. One of which is the francophone influence, Moroccan, Algerian and Lebanese youth caught the fever from the French scene.
Another main reason is MTV’s huge popularity in the area, showing mega Hip Hop hits videos like MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This”; this phenomenon was soon reinforced with the launch of numerous satellite video clips channels, in the new millennium.
PC and internet revolution take part, the mp3 and peer to peer music exchange mania made different styles of Hip Hop music available for purchase and download online, Computer software made sampling, recording and editing a piece of cake for the underground artists.
But the main factor is expressing thoughts about areas that no other type of main stream music would approach in a bold way… Sex, religion and politics!
We can highlight on major Arabic Hip Hop scenes as follows:
The Hip Hop underground Palestinian movement
Young Palestinians have altered stones with Rap lyrics taking example of the African Americans battle to win equal rights.
One of the key performers in the west bank scene is Boi Kutt, an artist coming from the underground of Ramallah bringing Oriental-Electronica/Trip Hop with an Arabic touch. Starting out as an MC with a few Hip Hop groups and performing at parties gave Boi Kutt a name on the streets. Then, he began making beats, and instrumentals for MCs to rap on, and would sometimes put a verse or two on some tracks. With time and experience, Boi Kutt started creating weird and trippy instrumentals, using old Arabic records for samples, and new hardware/software for the rest. Learning more about music, Boi Kutt advanced, and started making Oriental-Electronica/Trip Hop.
Boi Kutt is now in Maryland/USA studying the technology of music, but this couldn’t keep us from reaching him, to have his opinion on the scene…
“To be honest, a real underground hip hop Palestinian movement still does not exist. Only a few keep the underground in the hip hop, but most just want to be popular and famous. Few friends and I are working on www.ramallahunderground.com, hoping to unite as many underground arts/artists as possible to actually create a SCENE or MOVEMENT.” Commented Boi Kutt.
“What do I think my songs and lyrics are about? Well my lyrics are merely my thoughts. I speak about our everyday life, and what we go through, the good and the bad. I speak about how we are treated by the occupying Zionists, and sometimes how we respond (in the wrong or right way). It is probably the most complicated issue on earth, so explaining it through rap is what I TRY to do! We live in a time where politicians basically don’t care about the people anymore, they do what they want. Maybe happiness is decreasing, but hope will remain strong as long as we have our minds and our vocal chords headed in the right direction.” Boi Kutt answered. “Hip Hop can definitely help increase the peace and decrease the heat in Arabia, as long as it stays UNDERGROUND!” He finally added.
Another act is coming from the heart of Israel itself; the Arabs of 48 Hip Hop scene is not only reacting to the Palestinian cause, but also fighting against the poverty, drugs, crime and discrimination. MWR (band members’ initials) attracted attention in Akko with great performances at Terrasanta School, The Jewish Arabic club for peace, also Makan Pub in Haifa and the Arabic Rap Festival in Nazareth.
Hip Hop, they say, helps them carve out an identity and a place in a society, where many Arabs feel left out. Sometimes they use Hebrew Lyrics… “We need a bridge, and language is the bridge here, we gotta talk, they gotta understand!”
The Lebanese Hip Hop
As a result of the civil war, many families left the country, giving the chance to their children for a multicultural learning experience. Those children are back now at a renaissance era, to form the richest Hip Hop scene in the area.
Every Lebanese underground group or artist have a mission, Takavoragan (Lebanese Armenian crew) are rapping the words of God through Hip Hop in a Lebanese English Hardcore/Abstract Hip-Hop style, so is Dezert Dragonz spreading Allah’s word and fighting the unfair s#*t going on in the Middle East and da cause of unifying 22 Arab nations in 1 through Lebanese Arabic/English Hardcore hip-Hop style, while Anarchist Army is dedicated to allow the street Hip Hop art to be embraced in the same manner it is worldwide, focusing on the struggle, the cause, and the pain they face to be portrayed in lyrical purity that is parallel to international Hip-hop standards.
Aside from the streets, there is no specific Hip Hop clubs, underground events is organized in different venues such as the Black n’ White and Baby M. The scene is widely supported by an internet society; sites like lebanonbands.com, www.peakhall.com, www.lebanesedj.com and www.vibelebanon.com that are covering all underground activities.
The Egyptian Scene Ancient Egyptians inspired American rappers!!!When you notice that many of the original American underground Hip Hop bands carry names related to Egypt like Cairo, Egypt and Kemet, don’t wonder.American Hip Hop artists think that ancient Kemetians (Egyptians) left no traceable evidence of a spoken language but did leave a form of communication in symbolic artwork known as hieroglyphics. They like to believe that bandannas and baseball caps have replaced crowns as a mark of royalty, that baggy jeans and sneakers have replaced regal togas and sandals, that tagging graffiti on walls and trains has replaced tagging temples and tombs, and that skillz on the mic have replaced telling a story on papyrus…It’s a fact that hip-hop has become one of the dominant cultures and once again we find ourselves in the presence of hieroglyphics…So who’s imitating who now?!
The Egyptian underground Hip Hop is not at its best now. Aside from the Oriental Jazz and Salsa Dancing acts steeling the spotlight, Hip Hop is banging between opposite judgements of being pathetic, a major joke and being surprisingly good!
>SKorz is a talented lyricist and cool MC, born and lived in Holland; he grew up in two different cultures, he is contributing with his Dutch experience to the Egyptian underground. We were able to catch-up with him, in order to get all about the scene from one of its heroes…
“In Egypt there are not much Hip Hop artists, and the ones that are around, try more to imitate the existing artists, instead of trying something new. The places, most of the time, are public places (clubs for example) or discotheques, so the places are not really Hip Hop focused, but for Hip Hop, House, and other music. Though I must say, there are some exceptions, a very few places have certain evenings in the month when they only play Hip Hop music. The Egyptian audience is mostly of youth, aged from 12-30, from all standards of society, but the real hardcore underground Hip Hop fans, are more from the lower standards of society, and they are not that much, growing steadily. I don’t see an extreme growth in this group of hardcore Hip Hop fans, as a matter of fact, I think the rate of this group will go down in the following years, due to the new influences that come from outside, collaborations between different types of music, which create new sounds and tunes, will eventually make the true Hip Hop scene disappear in the next 10 years.” SKorz described the scene.
When asked about the accusations of blindly imitating the western act and if the Egyptian Hip Hop has its own identity, he replied:” No and Yes. No, because I believe Hip Hop in general doesn’t really have an identity, and yes, because 90% of the regional hip hop scene is indeed blindly imitating the west. If you were to give Hip Hop its true identity, it would have to be related to the gangster, crime, and drugs scene. But because music is changing all the time, that period has long gone, its peak was from the mid '80s to the mid '90s, after that, the actual Hip Hop identity went underground, with all their hardcore fans, where it still remains until today.”
We discussed another important issue with SK, which is sampling from Arabic music and rapping in Arabic language, he expressed his opinion: “When people try to imitate a style of music, and try to apply it to their own language and culture, most of the time you will have 80% of those people failing in trying to put down a reasonably good project. In Arabic music, like everywhere, this is case as well, you have many people trying, but only very few succeeding. It takes some time, for the quality of the music, as well as the quality of the lyrics to improve and have a competitive market for the Arabic rapping music scene. I have only seen a very few, and then I mean one or two, individuals or groups, that have managed to do so, but haven’t been able to stay on top, by releasing more then only one album.”
More about SKorz: www.skorz.net
Hip Hop is close to young Egyptians because it speaks their language, it speaks about their real-life problems and social life from their point of view. We really needed this not only in Egypt but in the Arab world.
Be ready, there is an entire generation boiling in the underground, ready not only to be on the Hip Hop map, but to change it as well, and it’s going to be sooner than you think!!!
