Imitation is a sure form of flattery

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/08/ar...08HIPH.html?th



Sorry KC, obviously I didn't think so

Angela Jimenez for The New York Times
Matisyahu, a Lubavitcher, rapping in Brooklyn.

The Israel Debate, to a Beat
By BEN SISARIO

Published: July 8, 2004


t 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."

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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.

"My lyrics are with peace," he said in an interview. "The question is which peace. Before you reach peace, you've got to have equality. I'm with peace, but I'm against the Zionism."

Not all are as blunt as T. N. Another performer at the Unity Sessions, Khen Rotem, a stocky 35-year-old from Jerusalem who uses the stage name Segol 59 — meaning Purple 59, a name taken from his laundry identification tag from his kibbutz days — is inspired by the same violence and injustice he sees in his neighborhood.

"I live not far away from the territories, from Ramallah," he said. "I'm deep in this thing. I see it every day, and I see that it's not a good situation."

But his raps are less combative than T. N.'s. "Summit Meeting," from 2001, is a typically pointed satire that mixes frustration with absurdist humor and enthusiastically jumbles Western culture with Middle East politics:

The president of hip-hop calls for a draft of all units

'Cause the situation's critical and everybody's drawing their weapons

I feel like a desperado just like that song by the Eagles

While the peace process is taken apart just like Yoko did the Beatles

"I'm against our occupation of Palestinian land, and I think Israel should withdraw from the territories," Mr. Rotem said. "Of course I condemn the Palestinian terrorism because it's against my people, but if you look at the whole picture, we've got to reach some kind of settlement and give them back some land."

But as hip-hop in Israel has grown, it has divided along political lines, and not every rapper there would agree that Israel has to withdraw from anything.

One of the biggest Israeli rap stars, Subliminal (né Kobi Shimoni), was not invited to the concert. Striking a gangsta pose with heavy jewelry, including his signature bejeweled Star of David, Subliminal represents the right wing of Israeli rap. His latest album has gone platinum in Israel (more than 40,000 copies) on the strength of catchy anthems and incendiary nationalist imagery, as in "Divide and Conquer," where he says: "The country is shaking like a cigarette in the mouth of Yasir Arafat."

Subliminal has already created a divide in the hip-hop community. Aaron Bisman, the founder of JDub Records and one of the promoters of the Prospect Park concert, said he did not invite Subliminal because he did not think the concert's message of openness and peace would be of interest to him.

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"Make your words soft and sweet, you never know when you have to eat them" Saudi Prince Bandra

"We are unknown to ourselves,
we seekers after knowledge."
Nietzsche

Do you have to sign up to see the link you posted?

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I think "our" policies in that region of di world has opened a Pondora's Box.

__________________
"Make your words soft and sweet, you never know when you have to eat them" Saudi Prince Bandra

"We are unknown to ourselves,
we seekers after knowledge."
Nietzsche

hi! i am a stupid spammer who has just been Domo'd. Please donate to my intelligence so I can go and buy some at the dollar store. thanx!

I bet you do Alex. Why don't you tell us how many biatches you scored while using it.

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Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.

You so crazy

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Domo

You guys started it.....the spamming. I saw your alter spam over the weekend too.

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Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.