Lupe Fiasco & Erykah Badu at Hip Hop Awards '11: #occupy, Palestinian flag, kufiya, burkah...

Rapper Lupe Fiasco performed his song, "Words I Never Said," at the Hip Hop Awards 2011 on October 10. The performance was provocative in all kinds of ways that we like here at hawgblawg.

First, Erykah Badu backed him up on vocals (singing), dressed like this:

Yes, full-on burqa. And green fingernail polish. And a hat that makes her look, kinda like an Orthodox Jew? In any case, the most remarkable thing is the burqa. This does not mean that Badu (who in the past has laced her lyrics with the doctrine of the Nations of Gods and Earths, and who in the past used to dress in the style of an Earth, a modestly dressed female Five Percenter) has become a devout Muslimah. Rather, one guesses, she is expressing solidarity with the devout burqa wearer. Or trying, by putting the burqa on, to make it appear less strange, alien and exotic. I doubt it's a matter of burqa chic.

And then there is the matter of the banner that Lupe Fiasco has attached to his mike stand, a combination kufiya and Palestinian flag, with the word, Palestine stitched into it.

Avid readers of this blawg will know that Lupe was seen waving a Palestinian flag in concert on September 16, when he expressed his support for Palestine's admission to the UN. They will also recall that Lupe is a Muslim who doesn't hide it and that he has been spotted in a kufiya several times in the past. The real avid readers might also recall these lines from the song he performed at the Hip Hop Awards, "Words I Never Said":

Gaza Strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit
That's why I ain't vote for him, next one either
I’m a part of the problem, my problem is I’m peaceful
And I believe in the people...

I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bullshit
Just a poor excuse for you to use up all your bullets...

Now you can say it aint our fault if we never heard it
But if we know better than we probably deserve it
Jihad is not a holy war, where's that in the worship?
Murdering is not Islam!

And you are not observant
And you are not a Muslim
Israel don’t take my side cause look how far you’ve pushed them

And then there is the matter of the shirt that Lupe was wearing:

What can I say? We really like this. Occupy everything.

Erykah took her hat and face covering off at the end of the song:

The purpose was not to "disrobe." (Unlike Erykah did famously here.) The purpose was to show her face so that Mos Def could introduce her -- otherwise, I guess, no one in the audience would have known who that "weird" person in burqa was. Here, she looks like someone in less "severe" Islamic dress, in hijab rather than burqa.

I only wish I really loved the song, "Words I Never Said." I think the rap/rock combo is hard to pull off, and for me, it isn't successful in this case. I do, however, admire the performance and the lyrics, a lot. Especially all the provocation and the expressions of solidarity. And I do like a lot of Lupe's material. But not this song, so much.

Mos Def to change his name to Yasiin in 2012

Mos Def (born Dante Smith), one of the most visible and well-known of today's rappers (but not one of the most productive, in terms of sheer quantity of recorded output), will change his name to Yasiin, starting in 2012. He converted to Islam (he is a Sunni, i.e. orthodox as opposed to Nation of Islam or Nation of Gods and Earths) as a teenager. He has stated, regarding the name change, that "[I don't want] to deal [any more] with having any moniker or separation between the self that I see and know myself as." I read this as meaning, he wants to be more open about his Muslim faith and identity.

I have written in the past that Mos Def has been spotted in a kufiya, but I've not found a photo, ever. My source was a piece in Kabobfest -- but there is no photo. We do have this evidence, from his song "War" (on the album The New Danger, 2004), that Mos Def did/does have some appreciation for the condition of the Palestinians:

But for now I'm a soldier abidin' my time
Writin' my rhyme behind enemy lines
Palestine, Kosovo, Kashmir
No different than the avenues right here

(Funny, Kashmir is usually spelled Cashmere, if you hunt for the transcription of these lyrics on line. C'mon, folks, learn some geography and history from our man Mos Def, soon to be Yasiin.)

I like the look he has in the photo above (courtesy GQ): it's kinda snappy NOI (the bowtie) and devout Sunni (the kufi) at the same time.

Were Kufiyas Used to Incite Fear of Attica Uprising, September 1971?

I meant to post something on the Attica massacre on the 40th anniversary of the event. I was living in New York City, and participated in a demonstration on the day that it happened, Monday, September 13. The demo got rather wild, we were marching in the street without a permit, people were very mad, and there was a bit of "trashing." There was also a big demonstration on the weekend, probably Saturday, September 18, that I attended as well. During that week, with 3 other friends, I also participated in a "tagging" of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Our tag: "Pig Rockefeller, Attica Murderer." The New York Times published a photo of our tag a few days later. I have a note to myself to find a copy on microfilm and reproduce it. All this by way of saying that the Attica events were something that I and thousands of other US progressives felt very intensely about.

I was pleased to see that the New York Times published an excellent article on Attica, by Sam Roberts, on its 40th anniversary. I was also, again, incensed by what had happened, and felt that our description of New York governor Nelson Rockefeller as a pig murderer, was absolutely spot on. The complaints of the prisoners, who demanded better living conditions, were very justified. 29 inmates and 10 prison-guard hostages were shot in the course of the assault ordered by Rockefeller, all killed by New York State troopers. Prisoners were tortured and harassed without mercy after the prison was retaken. Roberts reports, based on recently published logs of phone conversations, that Rockefeller told President Richard Nixon that it was a "beautiful operation." Nixon, with his typical bluster, told Rockefeller “The courage you showed and the judgment in not granting amnesty, it was right, and I don’t care what the hell the papers or anybody else says."

Perhaps these photos, widely printed in newspapers at the time, played a part in the attempt to orchestrate mainstream sentiment against the inmates at Attica, mostly African-American, who had taken hostages.

This iconic photo featured pictures of those seen as representing the main actors, published in a round-up on the events in Attica on Sunday, September 19, 1971, in The New York Times.

It's cropped from this photo, also a widespread image at the time.

As was this one.

It's telling, don't you think, that, out of the 1,000 or so prisoners at Attica who participated in the uprising (the institution housed about 2,200 at the time), African-Americans in what looked like Arab headdresses were made so iconic?

We can speculate about what this was about. Progressive African-Americans had long felt a sense of solidarity with the Palestinians, particularly during the late sixties and early seventies, at the high point of guerilla activity by the Palestinian resistance movement. On the other hand, given that it was very hot in Attica, and that prisoners were in the yard in full sun during the days, it would have made sense to fashion head coverings to protect against the sun. (I remember that reports at the time said that, towards the end, the prisoners were short of water and very thirsty, and hence very tense.)

Another piece of the story may have to do with the fact that prison officials believed, or at least claimed to believe, that Muslim prisoners were responsible for organizing the uprising and for threats to the prisoners. There were, of course, considerable numbers of Nation of Islam adherents at Attica Prison, as well as members of the Moorish Science Temple, and the Nation of Gods and Earths (Five Percenters), as in all prisons with substantial African-American populations at the time. Members of each of these groups were active in the uprising. Non-recognition of their religious rights was an important motivation for their participation in the prison movement. Muslim prisoners were not permitted to hold religious services at Attica, and "any assembly in the prison yard of more than three Muslims was punishable by solitary confinement." One of the negotiators brought in, at the request of the prisoners, was Nation of Islam representative Louis Farrakhan. Of the five man committee negotiating on behalf of the prisoners, one (Carl X. Blyden) was a member of the Nation of Islam and two (Carl Jones-El and Donald Noble) were members of the Moorish Science Temple. When the prison was retaken, the Muslim prisoners (but accounts that I've seen don't distinguish between the NOI, Moorish Scientists and Five Percenters) were singled out for special retaliation on the part of the guards. It turned out that, in fact, the Muslim inmates (again, which "Muslims" is not clear) played a major role in protecting the hostages from other inmates.

Are the iconic Attica prisoners in the photos wearing what look like makeshift kufiyas in fact Muslims (of the Five Percent, Moorish Science or Nation of Islam persuasion)? Who knows? Did these photos play a role in inciting mainstream fears of the dangers that "radical" Black Muslims posed in the Attica uprising? Likely.

More on Tilda Swinton and her Palestine scarf in Vogue

I posted on this a few days ago. Since then I came across a nice piece on the subject by Emily Lawrence in Electronic Intifada, who meditates on whether Tilda's act is just a bit of provocative fashion, or real solidarity. This has been a long-standing issue in my kufiya posts on hawgblawg. She concludes: 'how better to convey a political message to a fashion-conscious audience than through the medium of clothing? Swinton is voicing her support for the Palestinian cause without ever having to speak. Such is the power of fashion.'

What I found most interesting is that the scarf in question was designed by Bella Freud for The Hoping Foundation (Freud is its co-founder), which raises money in the UK to fund projects to aid Palestinian refugee children. As I noted in an earlier post, is the great-granddaughter of Sigmund; an outspoken critic of Israel and; the elder sister of Esther Freud, author of the autobiographical novel Hideous Kinky (made into a fairly decent movie, starring Kate Winslet).

Freud and Hoping Foundation co-chair Karma Nabulsi are ever devising high-profile events to raise funds for Palestinian children, such as this event, where Italian fashion house Missoni designed a limited-edition shoulder bag to sell for Hoping projects.

@bellafreud (twitpic)

Alas, it seems the scarf is no longer for sale at Hoping.

Autotuned Egyptronica Sha'abi

I have no idea if that name is really appropriate. And I don't quite know what to make of these vids, and the music, that I've been running across, coming out of Egypt.

Check out this one.



The author of this piece is known as DJ Vigo. The title also indicates that this is a video from a wedding celebration. It certainly looks like farah, a wedding party, in a popular quarter of Cairo or some other Egyptian urban center. And it is the kind of dancing that you might see at a wedding party in a popular quarter (mantiqa sha'biya), with young women dancing together. What is a bit disconcerting is that the camera is fetishizing the body and movement of a young woman belly dancing, in a way that is perfectly appropriate in all-women company, but rather provocative when it is filmed and taken out of that context. As for the way the young woman is dressed, in higab (head-covering), t-shirt and rather tight jeans -- I've seen such outfits over a period of twenty years in Egypt. Even the t-shirt, which says "Let's Bring It On," is not completely surprising. I don't have time or the chops, really, to work through the lyrics right now, but there are references to smoking and hashish...The music (vocals and beats and instrumentation) are rather rudimentary, but they allow the singer to declaim whatever he wants. (Just as the much more famous Sha'bola does.) You will find a number of videos in this vein from DJ Vigo فىجو, some with as many as 20,000+ views.

Then there is this:



Advertised as a song from the Gamal 'Abd al-Nasir School for Girls, it features girls singing, lots of autotune, the occasional interjection of a mail voice, hot beats, and a video that consists entirely of teenaged girls (who seem to be both Egyptian and non-Egyptian). As of this writing, the song has over 270,000 hits, which is quite substantial. The comments, as far as I can tell, are entirely in Arabic. The music is much more interesting than the first, but more or less in the same vein. Other youtube subscribers have taken the same song (provenance: unknown to me as of now) and put other images of young girls to the music. This one has over 666,000 views to day; this one (with bawdier photos), over 182,000 hits.

Clearly this is a mass phenomenon, very sha'abi, in the sense that it no doubt is the object of scorn from the part of the educated and the mandarins, and very popular, with young people, especially in the popular quarters, the homes of the working classes, the lower middle classes, and the workers and entrepreneurs in the informal sector. This is, of course, just an educated guess. I hope this serves as a provocation to someone to find out more and tell us.

They're everywhere...

My checker at Safeway (Wisconsin Ave.), October 28, 2011, a photo by tsweden on Flickr.

Ramy Essam, voice of the Egyptian uprising, is the 2011 Freemuse Award winner

Congratulations to Ramy Essam, winner of the 2011 Freemuse Award. Ramy, of course, was the author of the famous, unforgettable Tahrir song, "Erhal" (Leave).



And many other songs. Not only did Ramy sing for the revolution, he fought for the revolution. He was wounded fighting off the baltagiya, the regime thugs, on the night of February 4-5.

And he was arrested and tortured by soldiers, who dragged him and other Tahrir occupiers off the square, on March 9. The story was reported widely, most memorably (in my opinion) in this account by Steve Inskeep of National Public Radio, who visited Ramy in his home. I loved this part of the report:

We ask if, when he got hurt, his mother said, "I told you so."

They [Ramy and his brother Shady] laugh and say yes. Even in pain, Ramy Essam smiles.

Ramy continues to be active in support of the struggle, and especially, against the SCAF, the junta that continues to rule Egypt, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Presumably it was due to this that the Dean of Cairo University's Medical School shut down a concert, in mid-performance, that Ramy was performing there on October 26. Read about it here.

FREEMUSE, The World Forum on Music and censorship, is an independent international organization, whose secretariat is based in Copenhagen, which advocates freedom of expression for musicians and composers worldwide. Pete Seeger was the Freemuse Award winner in 2009.

Mabrouk, ya Ramey. Why don't you learn this song from Pete Seeger and sing it in solidarity with #OccupyWallStreet when you go to Copenhagen Stockholm to receive your award on November 21?

ADDED October 31:

Ramy will receive his award at the Right! Freedom of Music & Speech conference in Stockholm on November 21. One of the speakers at the conference will be the artist Peaches! (Can you imagine the right-wing and conservative Islamist press having fun with this one?!) Thanks to 'anonymous' whose comment prompted this correction.

kufiya higab in video for No Military Trials for Civilians (in Egypt)

I really love this kufiya higab. The kufiya has been an important sartorial symbol for the Egyptian struggle for democracy. I used to say, Egyptian revolution, but it is clear that it is, as of this date, a revolution in process, an incomplete revolution. One of the major issues confronting Egypt's democracy advocates is the ongoing military trials imposed upon civilians, and the Egyptian revolutionaries continue to mobilize against this great injustice. This video, from the Egyptian campaign called No to Military Trials for Civilians, contains some very compelling testimony from trial victims and their relatives. Please watch! Here is an English link to the organization, and here is the Arabic link.

#occupy kufiyas

I predicted (to my FB friends) that, as the weather cooled off in the US, we would see more kufiyas in the #occupy movement. Of course I was correct (yeah, it was like shooting fish in a barrel, this prediction). So here is a small sampling.

Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post

This one is from today's events in Occupy Denver, where the police cleared out campers and the crowd, throwing all supplies and tents and food into a garbage truck, arresting 7 demonstrators. I'm sure tomorrow's event will be even bigger.

This is from Occupy Kansas City, posted by my friend and high school classmate Don Maxwell on Facebook today. (Thanks, Don.)

This is from the mother of the #occupies, Occupy Wall Street. It was posted on the Occupy Wall St. Facebook page yesterday, with this note:

SAVE THE DATE: November 17th. This will be big. VERY BiG. On November 17th, we call on all allies and supporters across the nation to put a stop to business as usual and reclaim this country for the 99%. Details to come

Today, at Occupy Wall St., was Existence is Resistance Keffiyeh Day. Here is a video about it -- not really very good quality, but it gives you some idea of what was going on.



The fact that this event happened drove to distraction at least one prominent Islamophobe, Pam Geller, a leading figure in raising the level of racist hysteria against the so-called Ground Zero Mosque and the author of the notorious Atlas Shrugs blog. She claims that the Kufiyeh Day is proof solid that the OWS movement is controlled, or being overrun by, anti-Semites and Nazis and Obama-ite Muslims and proponents of imposing shariah law on the US. She asks, when is it going to be kippah day at OWS. Well, I don't know how many kippahs there were (of course there were some), but between 700 and 1000 Jews participated in an open-air Kol Nidre service on the eve of Yom Kippur, at Occupy Wall Street, on October 7.

Finally, here's a screen shot of an Occupy London demonstrator, from the October 24 edition of Democracy Now! (Thanks, Pritam!)

Keep wearing those kufiyas, folks. It's getting chilly out there. And friends, send me photos, please!

Tilda Swinton in UK Vogue (November)

This photo has been passed around heavily by my Palestine-oriented FB friends. It was announced that this photo appeared in the November issue of Vogue. I immediately ran down to my local Barnes & Noble and thumbed through every single page of the November issue. I didn't see it. I deduce that it appears (alas!) in UK Vogue and not in the USA edition. I hope someone will send it to me as a gift. It's pretty amazing, no? For those of you who are not Palestine fanatics, the scarf is in the the colors of the Palestine flag.

(Meanwhile, you have to see Tilda in the film Gloria (2008). Absolutely phenomenal.)

World Book Kufiya

Thanks to Alyssa for sending me this. Unbelievable. And how do you read this: the kufiya subversively penetrating the mainstream? World Book coopting subversion? Or does that kufiya just look damned good? All of the above? Yeah, stunning. (Click on the photo for the full effect.)

Levi's kufiya fashion, from last winter

Levi's kufiya fashion, from last winter, a photo by tsweden on Flickr.

I'm trying to catch up on kufiya fashion logging. I'm way behind. I was sent this photo back in February, by Nirvana. I wish I had bought the shirt for someone.

New York Times math: a growth of 275% is 'more than doubled'

Check out this headline from today's New York Times, reporting on the fact that the top 1% of the US population has seen their income grow by 275% between 1979 and 2007, according to a study by the CBO.

And then check out this one, from today's Huffington Post, reporting on the exact same study.

Which do you think is correct? A growth of 275% is more "nearly tripled" than it is "doubled," no? Is the Times trying to tamp down our anger? (The income of poorest fifth of the population rose only 18% during the same period, while the rise of the three-fifths of people in the middle of the income scale was just under 40 %.) Is the Times unconsciously biased in favor of the 1%, who own the paper?

kufiyaspotting: on Charlie Ahearn's 'Wild Style The Sampler'

kufiyaspotting, a photo by tsweden on Flickr.

gotta get this book! (but not at Amazon, at my local bookstore).

How the New York Times spins the news (misleadingly) on #occupyoakland

Check out this. Here's a screengrab of what is on the New York Times home page right now (10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, October 26, 2011):

If you click on the link right now, you will get to a page that says this:

The blog headline is much more accurate, in fact almost the exact opposite, of what it says on the Times' home page. (I.e., the home page depicts the protesters as the aggressors, the actual report suggests that the police were the aggressors.)

If you read the article, you will note that the headline could in fact be much improved. It should read, "Oakland police fire teargas, rubber bullets, beanbags, and flash grenades at largely peaceful protesters."

This is one for the ombudsman, no? And for journalism students.

#occupy

Grimes (Claire Boucher) Kufiya

How about that for a kufiya? I came across this one thanks to an article by Simon Reynolds (New York Times, October 7) about new women artists with a penchant for synthesizers who are making feminized electronica (that's more or less how Reynolds puts it). They sounded interesting, so I checked some of them out. I found this photo at the website for Arbutus Records, which is Grimes' (the stage name for Claire Bouchard, of Montreal) label. Go here and you can download two Grimes albums (Halfaxa and Geidi Primes). I tried to pay but the site wouldn't let me, so I grabbed them for free. They are definitely worth a listen. I am quite gobsmacked by how Boucher uses the kufiya. She definitely has a unique look.

Arab Traces: Grace Slick in Jefferson Airplane's "The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil"

One of my favorite Jefferson Airplane songs, off of After Bathing at Baxters (1967). There's a lot of melisma in this song from Marty Balin and especially from Grace Slick. It's not the kind of melisma that has become so banal and over-used courtesy of Mariah Carey and American Idol. Check out what Slick does with her voice from around 2:43 to 2:45 on this song. Listening to Arab singers must have been an influence. Umm Kalthum? Bob Dylan did.

It's not just the pot, or the LSD.



The quality of the sound on this vid is pretty lousy, perhaps deliberately so. So go out and buy a decent copy already. Finally, isn't Jack Cassidy's bass solo, starting at 2:08, just to die for?

Other, random, Arab traces in the Airplane. From "White Rabbit," this lyric: "Tell them a hookah smoking caterpillar/Has given you the call."

Kufiya'd Keira Knightley in 'Domino' (2005)

I'm surprised that none of my more avid movie-watching friends spotted this before me. Kiera Knightley plays Domino, a hard-assed bounty hunter in Domino (2005), alongside Mickey O'Rourke (who turns in a creditable performance as Ed) and Edgar Ramirez (as Choco). I found the film pretty enjoyable, although the effects, courtesy director Tony Scott, are sometimes too over-the-top for my tastes, and the plot makes little sense. (But neither for that matter did that of The Big Lebowski.)

Knightley as Domino appears garbed in the purple kufiya pictured here several times. I intend/hope in future to get hold of the DVD and take some photos of all the scenes (which occur at about 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour and 1:15, for those who need to know) when I have the chance. These shots were what I could pull off the web. Domino (the film is based very loosely on the real-life story of Domino Harvey, daughter of actor Laurence Harvey) as played by Knightley is a tough, reckless, gorgeous young woman who can handle guns and nunchucks (shown above) expertly and can tangle with the best of them. No doubt the kufiya, along with the leather jacket that she also wears frequently, is here to contribute to her tough-bitch image.

In terms of the history of kufiya craze in the West during the aughts, the appearance of the kufiya in Domino precedes, by just a bit, the full blown kufiya explosion of 2006-2007 (quite a bit of which was documented here, on hawgblawg).

As for the film, it received a lot of bad reviews. But the New York Times' Manohla Dargis rather liked it.

hijabistas

Entrepreneurial Muslim women, making modest dress mainstream in Europe.

Her customers include non-Muslims too. "You don't have to be Muslim to prefer conservative dress," she said.

Lupe Fiasco waves Palestine flag in concert, and endorses Palestine's admission to the UN

This happened when Lupe Fiasco played at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland on September 16.



The vid below gives the wider context. It seems that a fan, waving the Palestinian flag, jumped up on stage during the performance of Lupe's "Beautiful Laser." As an impromptu gesture, Lupe took the flag and talked about the fact that the Palestinian leadership was going to the UN on September 23 to request UN membership. Lupe expressed his endorsement for the move, and then asked the fan if he could keep the flag. The crowd cheered Lupe's pro-Palestine sentiments, and booed when he mentioned the US intention of a veto.



Lupe Fiasco was spotted wearing kufiyas during the so-called "kufiya craze," and I (of course), blogged about it here, saying that unlike many kufiya-clad celebrities, Lupe was probably quite well informed about Palestine, and given that he is an (out) Muslim. His Palestine endorsement in Maryland last week certainly supports the point.

To quote the flag-waving fan: Long Live Palestine.

P.S. (added a few minutes later)

Will put me onto this, from Lupe Fiasco's song, "Words I Never Said":

Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist
Gaza Strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit
That's why I ain't vote for him, next one either
I’m a part of the problem, my problem is I’m peaceful
And I believe in the people

And some more lines:

I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bullshit
Just a poor excuse for you to use up all your bullets...

And these, showing that Lupe will throw his criticisms fearlessly:

Now you can say it aint our fault if we never heard it
But if we know better than we probably deserve it
Jihad is not a holy war, where's that in the worship?
Murdering is not Islam!

And you are not observant
And you are not a Muslim
Israel don’t take my side cause look how far you’ve pushed them

Kufiya'd protester in Lebanon: Down with Bashar

Via The Middle East Channel, August 16, 2011, this photo:

with this caption: A woman wearing a mask and an Arab Keffiyeh head dress uses her mobile photo to record a protest in the Lebanese capital Beirut in support of the five month uprising in neighboring Syria, on August 15, 2011, as Syrian troops clamp down on flash point towns and cities (ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images).

I'm not sure whether this is supposed to be an Arafat mask. My guess is that the woman is wearing a mask not so much to identify with Arafat as to disguise herself, since demonstrators in Lebanon who have come out in support of the democracy movement have, on occasion, been attacked by local agents of Syrian intelligence, to wit, the local branch of the Ba'ath Party that is affiliated with Syria and by members of the SSNP (Syrian Social Nationalist Party, ex-PPS).

British Urban Music and the Riots

This is probably the most interesting commentary on the riots in England that I've seen, primarily because you hear the voices of the artists who, collectively, are being blamed for the 'disturbances.' ("Rap responds to the riots: 'They have to take us seriously'" by Dan Hancox, The Guardian, August 12, 2011.)

The artists are so incisive, so smart, and their music is so brilliant. Professor Green, Lethal Bizzle, and Wiley. Mostly "grime" artists, not "rap." Please read, and please watch the vids. Here's a particularly terrific one, Lethal Bizzle's "Babylon's Burning the Ghetto," from 2007. Prophetic, no?



If all those pundits and talking heads in England who are blaming "rap" for the riots really knew something, or anything, about the history of rap, they would know this: after the LA Rodney King riots of 1992, rappers were widely blamed. In fact, if one had been following the rap of artists like Ice Cube, NWA or Ice-T, one could have predicted that LA was headed for a blow-up, and one could have understood the sources of the rage that boiled over in the wake of the acquittal of the officers charged with beating King. Ditto: grime, UK hip-hop and road rap, as this article makes clear.

Report on Hirbawi's Kufiya Factory

December 2010, from the blog, A Nabulsi Story.

Tahrir in Tel Aviv (traces, at least): Irhal!

"Irhal" or "Leave!" was the slogan of the Egyptian revolution. And he (Mubarak) did leave. Let's hope for an early exit of Bibi too. The photo is from the progressive Israeli blog +972. The banner says "Irhal" in Arabic, and in Hebrew, "Egypt is here!" It was taken at today's demo in Tel Aviv, which numbered an estimated 200,000, in favor of social justice, and in particular, focusing on the housing crisis.

According to +972, among those who addressed the rally in Tel Aviv was Palestinian author Uda Basharat, who stated: ”It’s about time this protest will be become the protest for all those exploited, Jews and Arabs.”

Connections between Israel's housing movement and the so-called Arab Spring have been, on occasion, raised explicitly. Joel Beinin reports in an absolutely essential piece on the connections between today's social struggles in Israel and the Arab Spring (published by Middle East Report Online) that: 'During the first week of the protest one Rothschild Boulevard demonstrator interviewed on Israeli radio’s Channel 2 told a reporter, “We have to do what they did in Egypt. Yalla, tahrir, jihad.” The fact that a middle-class Israeli suggested, even if it was only rhetorical excess, that this Israeli movement had anything to learn from an Arab political phenomenon is astonishing and unprecedented, to say nothing of the use of the hyper-provocative word jihad.' Beinin also underlines the important obstacles to the explicit making of such connections.

Note too this excellent report from The Real News, which shows large numbers of protesting Israelis last week chanting, "Mubarak, Asad, Bibi Netanyahu!"



The best slogan to come out of Tel Aviv would be one, however, where "irhal" referred not to the departure of Bibi from politics but the departure of Israeli troops from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

El Tanbura Live, "Old Port Said"

One of the most fabulous things I did while in Cairo in late March was go to see the group El Tanbura perform on March 24, at El Tanbura Hall in Abdeen. El Tanbura perform Egyptian "folk" music from the city of Port Said. Port Said's music is famous for being driven by an instrument known as the simsimiyya, the lyre. (I've posted on El Tanbura previously here.) El Tanbura was actively involved in the protests at Tahrir from January 25-February 11 (see this video), as were other groups affiliated with the El Mastaba Center for Egyptian Folk Music, established by Zakaria Ahmed, who performs with El Tanbura.

I was told that a song or two of El Tanbura's revolutionary repertoire were quite popular among the crowd at Tahrir. This is one of them. I've been unable to identify an Arabic title for the song. In English it's "Old Port Said." It's a nationalist song, about the Suez Crisis of 1956, when Egypt's president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, and was attacked by Israel, France and Great Britain. CNN recently published a report on Egypt's revolutionary music on the occasion of the performance of Egyptian musicians (including El Tanbura and Ramy Essam) at the Barbican in London. It discusses El Tanbura and has a link to a recording of "Old Port Said." You can also read more about El Tanbura here.



(I filmed El Tanbura with Zakaria Ahmed's permission. Zakaria is the one who introduces the song.)

Anthony Shadid on "Yalla Irhal Ya Bashar": Syria's Revolutionary Anthem

Check out his video report here, and his article in the New York Times, yesterday, here.

The vid, with performance by Ibrahim Qashush (whose throat was cut soon thereafter) is here, with subtitles.



Note that the subtitles do not capture this: at about 2:30 the chanter says "ru7 sale7 7aref il S" which means go fix your pronunciation of the letter S, referring to Bashar's lisp! (Thanks to Yusef for this.)

No SCAF Rap: Message to Tantawi, by Ramy Donjewan

I've been complaining of late that the role of hip-hop in the "Arab" Spring has been somewhat exaggerated. I plan, or I should say, hope, to do a post on this later, once I've thought it through more. But I really like this rap, from Ramy Donjewan, that was posted today on youtube.



It's called "Message to Tantawi," and it is just that, a message to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces, the Minister of Defense, and the chair of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces or SCAF, which has ruled Egypt since the departure of Hosni Mubarak on February 11. The message to Tantawi is in his capacity as the head of SCAF. The democracy movement in Egypt has become increasingly frustrated with the SCAF, and in particular, of late, its failure to prosecute effectively those responsible for the 800+ deaths at the hands of the security forces during the revolution. Donjewan articulates this, and other demands, and frustrations of the revolutionary movement.

I like this song's flow, its lyrics, the calculated urgency of the Donjewan. Its slow, measured beats, convey a sense of dread, and the simple, repetitive guitar playing adds to the effects. I especially like the chorus, which can be translated as: What we did at first we'll do again Tantawi if our demands aren't implemented. (It's very poetic and effective in Arabic.)

(Once again, I urge someone who can do it quicker and more effectively than me to translate the lyrics of this song.)

You can download the song for free here.

Donjewan put out a song right before the start of the revolution, called "Against the Government," that was quite fantastic as well. Check it out here.

The title of this post: No SCAF Rap, is lifted from the 3Arabawy blog, where I first learned about this song.

(Footnote: the wikipedia entry on Tantawi says he's of Nubian origin, but the sources for this claim are gone. Is this true?)

UPDATE (later the same day): Robin translated a bit more: "Oh Tantawi, my brother's blood is very dear, and we are not making threats... where is the right of the poor, the one who died?"

Ultras in kufiya (Cairo, Tahrir)

One of the great stories from the Egyptian revolution is how the "ultras" (fanatical football/soccer fans) of Cairo's two main clubs, Ahli and Zamalek, played a key role in defending, and in fact saving, the Revolution, on the night of February 2nd. When I was in Cairo, a good friend (and a reliable source) told me about how, on that night, when the thugs (baltagiyya) of the regime attacked, the word was sent out from ultras on the square, and 2000 more ultras showed up to organize those on Tahrir, many of them middle class youths not so accustomed to street fighting, as well as to fight for the revolution themselves. As my friend explained, the "ultras" detest the police, who have been as tough on them as on any Egyptians causing "trouble," or not. They've experienced the beatings, the torture, the abuse that so many young Egyptians have routinely faced at the hands of Egyptian security. And, what is more, the ultras have lots experience fighting the police and the security. The other key force that came to the rescue of the revolution on the night of February 2 were the Muslim Brothers. Their leadership was also called from the square when the regime thugs launched their attacks, and so the Brothers sent out about 2000 of their own "self-defence squads," i.e., their toughs, their enforcers. A coalition of ultras and Ikwhan therefore saved the revolution that night, along with the less-experienced but willing-to-fight thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators who were already there. (A great source on the intersection of politics and Middle East soccer is James Dorsey's invaluable blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer. He has posted several times about the role of the ultras in the Egyptian revolution.)

This Friday, July 15, the Brotherhood boycotted the protests at Tahrir. But the ultras were there, as this photo, and account, from 3Arabawy, shows. And I quote:

Ahmed Bahar and Tarek “Masaken” of Zamalek’s Ultras White Knights in Tahrir Square on Friday night. 


I had an interesting chat with Tarek, a young UWK member who’s also a staunch pro-Palestine supporter. He told me he’s been attending demos in solidarity with Palestine since he was a prep school student. Both Bahar and Tarek in addition to thousands of other UWK members took part in the January uprising, and their role, as well of that of the Ultras Ahlawy, were sometimes central in confrontations with the Central Security Forces troops on the Friday of Anger, and against the thugs during the “Battle of the Camel” on 2 February.

It's great to learn that some of the ultras are not just struggling for democracy in Egypt, but are also supporters of the struggle of the Palestinians. And please note the Che t-shirt.

kufiyas: Cairo airport and Riyadh shopping mall

This is from Cairo airport, July 2011 (thanks, NT). You might think this represents an Arab woman in "traditional" fashion, but women don't usually wear kufiyas as headscarves. Swarovski is an Austrian company that produces lead crystal and other related luxury products, so this mannequin doesn't seem to have anything to do with the kiosk behind it.

Then there are these, from Mamlaka Shopping Mall, in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, January 2010 (thanks, EC). Very deluxe kufiyas, that have nothing to do with Palestine solidarity or any progressive politics whatsoever, and everything to do with elite Saudi identity. (The red kufiya, with white dishdash, is traditional Saudi dress.)  Kenzo, Lamborghini, Borsalino, Versace: very swank. Please get me a Versace next time you're in Jedda, won't you?

kufiyaspotting: "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" (2008)

Nick (Michael Cera) and Norah (Kat Dennings) are on the track of a band called Where's Fluffy. They get to a NYC club, where everyone is waiting for the late-night appearance of Where's Fluffy. This band (Are You Randy) comes on instead. Everyone is disappointed, boos, and leaves. Except for one loser, who takes his shirt off and dances around like a loon. The fact that the deejay of the band (played by Sammy Marc Rubin) was wearing a cool kufiya didn't dissuade anyone from leaving.

David Harvey, "Greece Should Default"

Essential viewing.

Coke & Pepsi and the Egyptian Revolution (+, yes, kufiyaspotting)

Like all companies trying to make money in the new Egypt after Mubarak, Coke & Pepsi are trying to ride the revolution. (Thanks to Robin for calling them to my attention.)

Check out this ad from Coca-Cola, with the theme, "Make Tomorrow Better." We see the middle class youth of Egypt (the presumed revolutionary subjects) ushering in a new dawn. Note that the focus is entirely on Cairo's downtown, which has both been a site that the upwardly mobile in neo-liberal Egypt have been fleeing for the upscale satellite suburbs, and which is also the focus of plans for gentrification. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, note the penultimate shot, which shows Tahrir Square, with a crowd (meant, of course, to evoke a demonstration, right before the last shot of a young person drinking a bottle of Coke.



Then check out this Pepsi advert. Again, the middle class youth of Egypt are the subject. They are shown to be adding color (literally) and life to Cairo's downtown (which has, in fact, been renovated in recent years). They possess the trappings of advanced modernity (flat screen televisions, laptops) and also evoke the youth of the revolution. This young woman carries the iconic cellphone (the "twitter revolution") and, yes, yes, you guessed it, she wears the requisite iconic accessory of the revolution, the kufiya.

And towards the end of the video, youth begin to gather at a street intersection in what looks like it could be a demonstration, and from a balcony looking over the intersection, a young man gives an enthusiastic revolutionary salute, with a can of Pepsi in his hand.

The overall theme is "express yourself." Among the lyrics of the song are the lines, "you are the new, you are the unique," and "tomorrow is waiting for you." And here's the vid:



Don't be too surprised, or dismayed. Both Coke and Pepsi attempted to ride the waves of the sixties counterculture and oppositional movements in the US.

Here's a "psychedelic" ad from Pepsi, from 1969.

And one from Coke, featuring Lady Soul Aretha Franklin, from 1968, when she had only recently crossed over, as a sign of Black Pride.

Big capital will, of course, inevitably, try to profit from the revolutionary fever...

Update (one hour later): Just a bit after I posted the above, I came across an article from Al-Masry Al-Youm on the same subject (although less critical), entitled "Soft-drink giants ride wave of post-uprising optimism." “It’s about empowering youth to come up with ideas and do something about them,” said Karim Khouri, managing director at Impact BBDO, the agency that designed ads for Pepsi.

Songs of the Syrian Revolt

It's thanks to Iman that I know about these two songs.

The first is by Syrian singer Samih Choukeir. I knew nothing of him before hearing this song. What I now know is based on this wikipedia entry, in Arabic. He is an established artist in Syria (or at least he was--who knows, after this song!), active since 1982, composing for the theater and t.v. serials as well as performing his own compositions. He studied art in the Ukraine (like so many other Syrians, who got advanced degrees from Eastern Bloc universities prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union) and is married to a Ukrainian woman. He does not belong to any political party in Syria but appears to be on the Syrian "left." (Here's his official bio in English.)

The song, "Ya Hayf (Oh Oppression)," is dedicated to the martyrs of Dera'a, March 15. Dera'a is where the Syrian revolt started. (It's also where T.E. Lawrence was tortured, if you remember the film Lawrence of Arabia.)



This one features someone leading a call-and-response song at a pro-democracy demonstration in the city of Hama, uploaded on June 23. It's entitled, "Bidkum Bashar (You want Bashar)." The singer chants various lines of government propaganda, and then chants Bidkum Bashara, and the crowd responds loudly, "La wallah" (No, by God!). It's quite wonderful.


(Again, I hope someone will translate these into English, and other languages, at some point.)

The Turban Makes a Glorious Comeback (last fall!)

Kirsten Luce for The New York Times

I clipped this article from the New York Times last fall, but it got misplaced in some pile or other, and I've just recovered it. I think it's still of interest.

It focuses on the claim of June Ambrose (pictured above) who, it says, wore a turban every day during New York Fashion Week. And it traces the current trend to a Prada show in 2006, which wasn't picked up, but then began to catch on by 2009. Kate Moss wore one at the Met gala in May 2009. And it started showing up on the street, on young women.

The new fashion connected them to "sophistication linked with Hollywood glamour of the 1920s and ’30s, when women like Garbo, Gloria Swanson and Joan Crawford wore them. “From way back, turbans signified a woman who was very educated and worldly,” said Caroline Rennolds Milbank, the fashion historian."

The article goes on to say that, 'Because turbans have historically been associated with Arab dress, it is tempting to connect them with the conflict in the Middle East. “They make a strong political statement, like wearing harem pants,” Ms. [June] Ambrose said. “We take an element of other cultures and internalize it”'

For his part, the curator of the Costume Institute at the Met, Harold Koda, 'isn’t convinced that they have anything to do with politics: “It’s not a part of a Kumbaya fashion movement. I think it’s more of Poiret’s view of Orientalism than women watching the news and referencing what’s going on in Afghanistan. It’s an exoticism, a sense of the other that is visually compelling.”'

Fashion historian Caroline Rennolds Milbank meanwhile 'noted that in the past, Western culture looked at the Middle East for its exotic form of dress, which was seen as sexually liberating. “If you look back at the portrayal of women in films like ‘1,001 Nights,’ ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ or even the television show ‘I Dream of Jeannie,’ the West depicted those women very sexually with sheer fabrics and an exposed midriff,” she said. “Going back to the turban is a return to the allure and sexiness of a foreign culture.”'

My opinion is not that it's a question of either/or. Probably the trend has something to do with Middle East politics--in some displaced fashion. And no doubt it's also rooted in the history of popular Orientalism in the US. Check out the slideshow that goes along with the article for more turbans. I particularly liked the photo of Nina Simone wearing one.

(credit: Associated Press)

I've posted a few times on turbans, as well as related Orientalist fashions. Re Maria Montez and Lana Turner, here. Rudy Ray Moore and more here. Beyoncé here. Kim Wilson. Chuck Willis. The Fabulous Ottomans and Sam the Sham. Prince and Prada. Ongoing obsession.

Gaza (dancehall version)

(Niketa Thomas, New York Times, June 19, 2011)

There's no evidence that Vybz Kartel gives two whits about Palestine's Gaza. Gaza is the name of Vybz's dancehall posse, as well as the name of the section of the Waterford housing scheme in Portmore, Jamaica, where Vybz Kartel grew up. He is also known as Gaza Emperor. Gully is the name of the actual gully which bisected Cassava Piece in St Andrew, where Vybz's rival Mavado grew up, and it's the name of his posse. Gaza/Gully feuding is constant in Jamaica. Read more here. (Thanks to Wayne Marshall for the reference. Don't blame Wayne for the fanciful account of the 'real' Gaza.)

(There is also a 'Tel Aviv' area in central Kingston.)

Vybz has released two albums called Pon Di Gaza. Please check out his Mavado dis song, "Pon Di Gaza":

Chic of Araby

Italian designer Walter Albini created this in 1976 (photo from the New York Times, Oct. 12, 2010). Read more about him here. You'd think that, today, the more germane term would be hijab chic.

The phrase, Chic of Araby, isn't original. In fact, the Times used it for a men's fashion spread in Spring 2010. Below is a representative photo. Very Lawrence of Arabia retro. More here. (Maybe the Times got the name from the John Abercrombie 2009 track.)

Is White the New Black?

"Beyond the Pale" -- Kelefa Sanneh in The New Yorker, April 12, 2010.

Kurdish Kufiyas/Puşis

(Photo by Jodi Hilton for The New York Times. Caption: "Kurdish youth commemorated the 1977 May Day massacre last month during a march to Taksim Square in Istanbul")

This photo appeared in a recent article in the New York Times about the Kurdish struggle in Turkey for cultural autonomy, and particularly in the field of music.

I found the article quite enlightening, but I was, of course, particularly struck by the photo, which features Kurds wearing very stylish kufiyas. These are known in Kurdish as puşis. The puşi is traditional wear for men in Kurdistan, and is often taken as an insignia of Kurdish identity. In my investigation of kufiyas, I've not yet devoted much time to the Kurdish angle.

An article in the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet states that kufiyas/puşis have also become trendy in Istanbul, and that the origin of the trend is via the West. One vendor claims that it was due to the fact that Angelina Jolie was spotted wearing one. (I've not seen a photo of this. But I will look.) The kufiyas, in multiple colors, are made in Syria, the article claims.

But apparently, based on the evidence in this photo, it's not simply about trendiness. These Kurds are trendy, yes, but they are also political activists.

To be continued.

not your 'typical' electronics musicians

photo: Abdel-Rahman Hussein

Meet Yara Mekawie and Ola Saad, performing "abstract minimalist electronica" at the 100 Live Electronic Music Festival in Cairo last Thursday (as reported by Abdel-Rahman Hussein in Al-Masry Al-Youm).

Surprised by their "Islamic dress"? Yes, contemporary Egypt continues to surprise.

The 100 Live Electronic Music Festival is put on by 100 Copies Music, the Cairo label devoted to experimental music, and the label associated with the music of Ahmed Basiouny, who I have posted about several times, a martyr of the revolution.

I've not been able to learn much more about these two artists, who perform as RGB, other than what is written in Al-Masry Al-Youm. What I find of note is this:

1. RGB's music is very conceptual. Their performance was not, they say "about making music." “It’s about the sound and trying to convey colors through it,” Saad told Al-Masry Al-Youm. Mekawie concurred, adding, “When you hear what we do, the intent is for you to see light.”

2. They cite Ahmed Basiouny as their inspiration.

3. According to Hussein, "their work evokes Brian Eno and Robert Fripp’s “sonic landscapes” pioneered in the 1970s, but is more minimalist, less textured."

4. Most interesting, perhaps, is that the duo claim that the fact that they are women, and the only women in the festival, is "irrelevant." "The important thing is what we do."

The fact that they wear "Islamic dress": not even mentioned. At all.

Sennheiser headphones kufiya

Thanks to both @southsouth (who blogs here) and @wayneandwax (he blogs here) for informing me about the kufiya in the packaging for Sennheiser headphones. (Sennheiser is a German company.) I've used @southsouth's photo, which is to be found here. Wayneandwax's is here.

Hip, eh? Powerful bass goes perfectly with a kufiya, no?

And thanks to all my kufiyaspotting friends and comrades.

Oh so hip Wal-Mart

Another Wal-Mart Shareholders' Meeting has descended upon my hometown, Fayetteville. And more pop stars have joined the Wal-Mart Hall of Shame, lending their voices to shill for one of the world's premier anti-labor corporations. This year brought us: Will Smith, Black Eyed Peas, Alicia Keyes, Darius Rucker, and Bob Seger. Previous years have brought such luminaries as J-Lo, Beyoncé, Kool and the Gang, Journey, Shakira, Taylor Swift...the list goes on and on.

Okay, let's forget about workers' rights, for the sake of argument. The Walmart Visitors' Center in Bentonville, on the site of Sam Walton's original Five and Dime store in that city, sits right across the street from a statue to Confederate soldier James Berry, erected on the town square in 1908 by the Daughters of the Confederacy. You can see how close that monument to the heroes of the War of Treasonous Secession is to the monument to corporate America from the photo above, which I shot on a visit to Bentonville a couple weeks ago.

Seriously, Will & Fergie & Alicia, couldn't you at least ask why Wal-Mart, with all its corporate power, doesn't insist that the statue to those who fought for their Confederate home and fatherland be taken down? Do you really need the money that badly?

And seriously, why does no one ever seem to complain about the fact that our beloved pop stars cavort so shamelessly for corporate power?

And then there's the issue of Crystal Bridges, the museum of American art that will open in Bentonville this November. It was initiated with funds from Alice Walton (daughter of Sam, founder of Wal-Mart, and the 8th richest American -- 3 of her siblings are alson in the top 10), and just received another huge endowment from the Walton Family Foundation. It will be a fabulous museum, and the architecture and the site promise, according to all reports, to be amazing. (Expect a report in the New Yorker soon.) And at the same time it will serve the function of art-washing: to clean up the Wal-Mart image through the Walton family's "disinterested" support of culture and the arts.

Lady Gaga gets the Bollywood treatment

Read about it (and watch the vid) in/on the Wall Street Journal here.

India is an appealing target for entertainers, as it has 700 million people under the age of 30.

And watch the Salim and Sulaiman Desi remix of "Judas" here: