Misc. 4.765: North African Autotune. Graffitti on the Wall. Gaida

1. Jace Clayton has penned a nice piece on Autotune for Frieze. I have noticed of late that all contemporary rai vocals coming out of Algeria seems to be 'autotuned.' It drove me crazy, but more recently, and thanks largely to Clayton, I now see the virtue of its uses. Clayton discusses Autotune as a global phenom, and discusses its ubiquity in North African pop. Here are some excerpts--but I urge you read the entire article.

The most important piece of musical equipment of the last 10 years is not an instrument or a physical object. It’s called Auto-Tune and is used on roughly 90 per cent of all pop songs...Auto-Tune bends off-key notes into pitch perfection...

After joking about vocalists who ask him to ‘make their voice robotic’, Moroccan producer Wary says: ‘Sometimes you have great singers who don’t know how to use Auto-Tune and it sounds really bad.’ Traditional singing chops aren’t so useful in Auto-Tune’s world. It’s neither a fight with technology nor love of it; it’s more like glossy coexistence, a strange new dance of give-and-take.

T-Pain’s R&B isn’t the only example highlighting the ‘impassioned melismas’ that Rosen says ‘powered black popular singing’ before Auto-Tune messed everything up. Melisma is equally if not more prevalent in Maghrebi music. This explains the plug-in’s mind-boggling success across North Africa. Contemporary raï and Berber music embrace Auto-Tune so heartily precisely because glissandos are a central part of vocal performance (you can’t be a good singer unless your voice can flutter around those notes): sliding pitches sound startling through it. A weird electronic warble embeds itself in rich, throaty glissandos. The struggle of human nuance versus digital correction is made audible, dramatized. Quite literally this is the sound of voice and machine intermodulating...

At his home studio in the Parisian suburbs, Wary explained that Auto-Tune hit the Arab world with a single in 2000 by Algerian Chaba Djenet (below). Since the start of this decade, it’s been hard to find an album of North African Berber pop where the Tamazight dialect vocals don’t have full synthy Auto-Tune (it’s surprising how much a female voice can sound like a violin on these recordings)...



From the US to Mexico, Jamaica, Africa, and beyond – Auto-Tune usage has splintered, with different approaches from scene to scene and artist to artist. (It remains the most sonically extreme in Berber Morocco.)...Rather than novelty or some warped mimetic response to computers, Auto-Tune is a contemporary strategy for intimacy with the digital. As such, it becomes quite humanizing.
The Chaba Djenet youtube video for "Gwit Galbi Wahdi" is a must-see, because it features the music of Chaba Djenet over a video of Lebanese "pop tart" sensation Haifa Wehbe singing. Hilarious!

2. Courtesy Time magazine, an interesting piece on the latest iteration of graffiti on the apartheid wall. (Thanks, Daniel)

Thanks to a group of Dutch and Palestinian activists, people can now immortalize their words on the wall without a passport or a can of Krylon. For $40, you can compose a message at www.sendamessage.nl, and a trio of Palestinian graffiti artists will spray your words on the wall and e-mail you a photo as proof. The only restriction: no messages of hate or anti-Semitism...

So far, the group has written 850 messages, ranging from the quirky (a falafel recipe) to the anarcho-romantic (JOIN THE RESISTANCE: FALL IN LOVE) to the sardonic (ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS NO MATCH FOR NATURAL STUPIDITY). But most are mushy love notes (M.L. LOVES HER FUNKY D). So one of the organizers, Dutch theater director Justus van Oel, decided to up the ante. He commissioned Farid Esack, a South African religious scholar and former antiapartheid activist, to write a 1,998-word letter, in English, to Palestinians urging nonviolent resistance to the Israelis. The work is now being painted in 2-ft.-high letters along a 1.6-mile stretch of wall near Ramallah. The writing will consume more than 400 cans of spray paint and has been paid for by private donations. The South African was chosen, says Van Oel, because "Esack gets beyond the anger. He is a reconciler." The letter, in part, reads: "Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation? In your land, we are seeing something far more brutal, relentless and inhuman than what we have ever seen under apartheid."

3. Check out Syrian-American vocalist Gaida on her myspace page.

"Gaida’s forthcoming CD, Levantine Indulgence, a song sequence of alluring beauty, is steeped in the traditional music of her Syrian heritage, but also shows the eclectic worldview of a New York singer-songwriter," writes David R. Adler, in Timeout New York. I have to say I prefer the "traditional" songs to the more updated material--but check it out for yourself.

4. Finally, the new Narcisyst CD, P.H.A.T.W.A. is now available.

Various & sundry 2.753. Tripoli Rap. Invincible. Kronos Quartet & Ramallah Underground. Palestine's First National Rap Talent Contest.

More in the ongoing series of miscellaneous items I've come across and want to record for...my own future use.

1. A report on hip-hop in Tripoli, Lebanon, from Jackson Allers, menassat.com, reposted on the World HipHop Market blog, and focusing on Kimo and Balsam, of the group Mic-Rob. The two talk about their neighborhoods and do an acapella rap.

At least 90 people have died this year in the Tripoli violence that has mainly been between the rival ghetto youth from Bab al Tabaneh and neighboring Jabal Mohsen, wioch is dominated by the Alawites, an offshoot of the Shia branch of Islam.

“The problem is that the majority of the people doing the fighting are poor street kids who are looking for any excuse for a fight. No money. Fucked up families. And here they have guns,” says Balsam, who lives in the neighboring area of Bab al Rmeil...

and from their rap:

"They – the politicians
and the corrupted
Made us live
In a nightmare
that we can’t wake up from
We got no money or prospects
So our pockets are starving”

More from Mic-Rob at myspace.

2. Playlist is a terrific series, focusing on "fusion" music, from Al Jazeera English. I've not even watched all the episodes dealing with Middle Eastern music from this rich and varied series. I hope to post on them in future. Interesting, isn't it, that no US cable news network has tried to do anything remotely approaching what Al Jazeera English has done. Thanks to the Detroit rapper Invincible, who clued me into this episode (series 2, episode 10, part 2), where Playlist goes back to some of the "fusion" artists they had interviewed and asked them what fusion artists they were paying attention to. The Palestinian rappers DAM say, check out Invincible, and so, we get to see clips from Invincible's video, "People Not Places," from her album Shapeshifters. (I've written about the song previously, but had not seen the vid.)



Be sure to watch the whole segment--the kuduro group Buraka Son Sistema are not to be missed!

3. Kronos Quartet's latest album, Floodplain, is out, and it is, well, all Middle Eastern/North Africa and Balkan and Central Asian. Spinner explains its genesis:

The seeds for the Kronos Quartet's new album, 'Floodplain,' an exploration of the rips and seams of Middle Eastern, North African, Balkan and Central Asian cultures through the distinct Kronos artistic lens, started to sprout a decade ago in a Beirut marketplace. The group was there to perform concerts, and founder-violinist David Harrington asked friend and sometime collaborator Ali Jihad Racy, who was joining Kronos for these shows, to take him music shopping.

"He took me to a record store," Harrington reminisces. "I just wanted to get a sense of Lebanese music and basically he helped me pick out 30 or 40 representative albums. And in going through these later, I heard this incredible son sung by Fairuz, when she was a very young woman. It blew me away."

The song, 'Wa Habibi,' (a video of a later Fairuz performance is here) tantalized and mystified Harrington with repeated listening.

"It sounded like it could have been Jewish music or Islamic or Christian," he says. "It turned out it was a song for Easter time. And I asked [composer-arranger] Steve Prutsman to make a version of it for us to play."

And that piece became a staple of Kronos concerts about eight years ago -- not long after the events of 9/11 charged perceptions of the Middle East with the air of suspicion and fear. It was a perfect statement: music that sounded, to Western ears, Islamic but intended to convey a Christian message of devotion, acceptance and sacrifice.

I love it: inspired by a trip to Beirut (where I lived for nearly 11 years) and an encounter--mediated by the esteemed UCLA ethnomusicologist and buzuq and saz player Ali Jihad Racy--with the divine Fairuz!



And even better, Floodplain has a contribution from the Palestinian hip-hop ensemble, Ramallah Underground (as advertised previously on Hawgblawg). Spinner continues:

It was an entirely different marketplace in which Harrington found the seeds of another one of the album's key pieces.

"Eventually I was casting about on MySpace several years ago and came upon this band from Palestine called Ramallah Underground and I loved their music," he says. "It was something I'd never heard before. So I got in touch with them and asked them to write for us. And they did the track for 'Tashweesh.' "

It's a striking collaboration, with Kronos playing over the electronics assemblage created by the Palestinian group, a perfect representation of the title, explained in the liner notes as meaning "interference or static, and by extension miscommunication and not hearing or understanding correctly"...

Read the rest of the article here. And to listen to segments from each of the tracks on Floodplain, go here.

4. Palestine's First National Rap Talent Contest, sponsored by the Sabreen Association and the Palestinian Broadcast Corporation, is taking place in May and June, 2009.



Here's the notice of the event, courtesy HipHopf. (I've edited it just a bit.)

“HipHopKom“ is Palestine’s first national rap contest and climax of the previous held training courses and Hip Hop promoting events as part of Project Hip Hop Palestine. Rappers and Hip Hop fans all over Palestine are now waiting to prove their talents to Palestine.

The contest is based on the concepts of ”Star Academy” and MTV’ Arabia’s “HipHopna” and is a national contest, which will take place as an open public show and be broadcast on TV.

A locally based film crew in the West Bank and Gaza will follow the event outline and document the development of the day. This will be broadcast live from the venue and projected in the Gaza and Ramallah venues. The event will be broadcast on PBC 36 local tv stations, the satellite channel Palestine TV and the local radio network.

14 Palestinian groups/artists selected by a jury in two prior auditions in the WB and Gaza will perform live on TV presenting their contribution to the rap contest.

Based on prior advertisement Palestinian rappers residing in ‘48 and the West Bank will be invited to participate in an audition for the contest. 10 participants will be selected by the jury from the WB audition out of an estimated number of 200 participants. A second audition might be arranged according to the number of registered rappers.

All of the rappers of the Gaza Strip will be invited to participate in a closed audition for the contest. It is assumed that rappers from 12 Hip Hop groups will join the audition. A jury of two persons will assess the performance of all artists and select a maximum of 4 persons to participate in the final contest.

In case no foreign artists can enter Gaza Sabreen organizes an audition in Gaza and transmits the audition to Ramallah where the whole jury resides. There would be no training program for the Gazans, only in Ramallah. The 4 selected talents form Gaza would perform in the Ramallah contest via a satellite transmission.

The jury, consisting of Shadia Mansour - British-Palestinian rapper, Zaki, the Danish-Egyptian rapper, and Mazzi, the Iranian-American rapper and breakdancer, will give their critique and assessment of the contributions together with the local rap pioneers Saz (Ramle) and Dam (Lid).

Between the auditions and the show the selected talents will be invited to undergo training with the jury preparing their performance for the show.

Voting and selection:

The show in Gaza will be held in al Hilal theatre in Gaza City and the West Bank show will be held in al Qasaba.

The winner will be chosen via SMS sent in by the television viewers. The show will see live performance by professional rappers.

The winners will be given the opportunity to travel to Denmark and meet and perform with the established Hip Hop scene in July 2009 + record the winning song on a single.

The program will be financed partly by the Danish Representative Office, the Roskilde Foundation and private Palestinian sponsors.

The Kominas, and -- DJ Rekha to play at Wakarusa (Ozark, AR)

Over the past three weekends I've traveled to NYC, DC, and Oslo. And I finished up the paper and exam grading for the semester. Now I'm deep into summer school teaching, which I started the day after I returned from Oslo. I think I'm still recovering from the jet lag. So there hasn't been much energy for blogging...

(photo: Baltimore City Paper)

I just read this quite useful and illuminating post about the, I guess we should say, so-called taqwacore band, The Kominas, on the YellowBuzz blog. Here are some good excerpts:

The song [on the album, Wild Nights in Guantanamo] that brings out the best of the Kominas’ mixed influences, I would say, is “Par Desi.” It begins with a Bhangra-inspired, chromatic surf guitar riff. Basim sings about living in a social limbo between Pakistan and the U.S. “How'd I get here, from a land with long monsoons? / In Lahore it's raining water, in Boston it rains boots.” Following the second chorus is an 8-second analog sample of a live Bhangra percussion recording. This segment features fast striking on dhols, a two-headed drum used in Punjab, a region in the northern part of South Asian subcontinent. The syncopated bass accents in the sample suspend one’s attention on the 4/4 meter in the first part of the song and enables the transition a series of triplets interspersed by noise guitar. The sample, in short, seamlessly bridges the first and second part of the song, each with a disparate rhythmic articulation. I give these guys props for their compositional sophistication...

In the interview, the Kominas criticized how media pigeonholes them. Shahjehan explained, “Taqwacore is no more than just a few kids that talk online every now and then. People think it’s like we all hang out, we all live in a house. It’s not.” Apparently six of the taqwacore-associated bands have disbanded since the 2007 tour. Shahjehan continued, “Another thing that gets lost in the media angle of taqwacore within the book is that there are different people that have different relationships to Islam. Now within this band, there are different people with different relationships to Islam, or none at all.”

Adding to the commentary, Arjun explicated how the press has blown up and distorted the story of the Kominas by presuming their liberal, diversified “Muslim punk” identity as an alternative to Islam as imagined by mainstream media in the U.S. and Europe...

I highly recommend following the Yellowbuzz, the asian-american music blog, btw. (Which links to me, I just discovered. Thanks, comrades.)

More Kominas/Taqwacore/MM Knight miscellanea: To keep up with the happenings of the taqwa, please follow the Taqwacore Webzine, which only recently started up.

And please check out this episode of Playlist, a great series on music from Al Jazeera English, which deals with taqwacore. Check out the whole series, there's much more of interest, including coverage of Palestinian rap.



Meanwhile, and still on the Asian-American music tip, DJ Rekha, the esteemed organizer of Basement Bhangra, a monthly, movable dance event in New York City, going strong since 1997, will be performing at Wakarusa. Started in 2004, this music festival was held in Kansas until this year, when it will convene in Ozark, Arkansas, June 4-7. I'm pretty excited that DJ Rekha will be performing, and I plan to go.

I highly recommend her album, Basement Bhangra. (If you want to buy it, don't get it from iTunes, which only has it available as a continuous mix. Amazon, and maybe other outlets as well, sell it as discrete songs.)

From the streets of the NYC: Kufiyas at Kate Moss's Topshop

My comrade Dave just sent me these photos, which he took on his iPhone. They are from Kate Moss's new store, Topshop, located on Broome and Broadway. 20 bucks. The only description on the tag, says Dave, is the color.


It's worth recalling that back in 2007, Kate Moss was involved in some charity kissing to raise money for Palestinian children, in an event sponsored by the Hoping Foundation. At the time, Topshop's Kate Moss line also featured kufiyas, marketed as "Tablecloth Scarves."

"You're not allowed to enter Egypt and bring a pig with you": Shaaban Abdel Rahim weighs in on Swine Flu

You must watch this video, courtesy of MEMRI.

"May God protect us from cats and dogs too."

(But in the interview, which you also should not miss, Shaaban admits that he loves dogs, and owns two.)

"So what if some pigs die?...It's better for people to be healthy, to hell with the pigs."


The first question from the interviewer, who treats Shaaban in a bemused fashion, is about his lime-green suit, which is truly remarkable. As Chris remarked to me, it's pretty clear that Shaaban is being used. A sha'bi ('popular') singer who expresses his support for the regime and its decision to slaughter all of Egypt's pigs. To the great dismay of poor Christians in the suburbs of Cairo who collect the city's garbage, sort it, and feed the edible materials to their pigs.

Read BBC's report on the events here. An excerpt:

Egyptian pig farmers have clashed with police in Cairo, as they tried to stop their animals being slaughtered.

Hundreds of people at the Manshiyat Nasr slum threw stones and bottles at police who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

The government wants to cull all the nation's pigs, a move UN experts say is not necessary to prevent swine flu.

Egypt's pigs mostly belong to the Coptic Christian minority who say the cull has reignited religious tensions.

Shaaban, shilling for the regime...

Pope in Kufiya Drag

In case you missed it: (Thanks a mill to Waleed, who alerted me to this.)

Here's the caption for this photo, which I found courtesy of the Charlotte Observer:

In this photo made available Saturday, May 9, 2009, by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI wears a traditional Jordanian "Kaffiyeh" during his visit to the Lady of Peace Church in Amman, Jordan Friday, May 8, 2009. Pope Benedict XVI expressed deep respect for Islam Friday and said he hopes the Catholic Church can play a role in Mideast peace as he began his first trip to the region, where he hopes to improve frayed ties with Muslims.

Note: a red kufiya in this context signifies Jordanian identity, and not Palestinian, not Hamas, not PFLP, not Communist.

Look at the Fucking (Kufiya Wearing) Hipster

The kufiya is by now so stereotypically associated with hipsterdom (and its follies) that you would expect that this new website, "Look at this fucking hipster," devoted to making fun of hipsters, would feature some kufiyas. And of course it does (thanks, Susana). And it's being constantly updated (you can send in your own photos, if you've got it in for hipsters), so if you like this sort of thing, you can check back.

Meanwhile, a 'fucking hipster', photo posted March 31.


The snarky caption reads: “Hmm…well, the orange matches my helmet strap and the avocado goes perfect with my Yasir Arafat scarf. All I need now is something to go with my fucking disgusting sneakers, and I should be all set with groceries.”

Yasir Arafat scarf? In turqouise? That's a new one!

And this one, from April 19.



The caption reads, “Thank you, but we prefer to be called Hipspanics.” (Uh, no comment on that 'pun.')

Noa & Mira Awad: Israel's Entry, Eurovision 2009

Check out this video, featuring Israel's entry in the 2009 Eurovision contest. Try to figure out who is the Arab and who is the Jew?



Of course, to engage in such an exercise is to conjure with problematic racial stereotypes. Nonetheless, in this instance it's worthwhile. Noa, the Israeli singer, looks more stereotypically Arab. That's because she is of Yemeni background. Mira Awad, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, is 'whiter' and looks more European. That's because her father is a Palestinian Arab and her mother is Bulgarian.

What does it mean when Israel decides to enter a duo representing Israeli minorities, a Mizrahi and a Palestinian, to represent the Israeli nation in the Eurovision contest? Is it a clever ploy to give Israel a positive image, at a time of growing demands for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, in the wake of the Gaza outrage?

Yes.

According to a recent article in The Guardian,

When the announcement of their Eurovision entry was made, Israel's military was deep into its devastating three-week war in Gaza. Suddenly, Nini and Awad found themselves facing a bout of criticism from the left. Several Arab artists – some Israeli, some Palestinian – published an open letter asking the pair to withdraw.

"The Israeli government is sending the two of you to Moscow as part of its propaganda machine that is trying to create the appearance of Jewish-Arab 'coexistence' under which it carries out the daily massacre of Palestinian civilians," the letter said. "Israeli artists, authors and intellectuals that take part in this propaganda machine, instead of working for justice, equality and the upholding of human and civil rights, not to mention international law, are partners to the crime."

On the other hand, does the choice of Noa and Mira Awad represent, in a sense, the success of struggles of Mizrahim and Palestinian citizens of Israel, to change Israel's Eurocentric, Ashkenazi, and exclusively Jewish character?

A cautious yes.

Noa, according to The Guardian, "has taken part in several joint projects with Arab artists, publicly backs a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and refuses to perform in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank."

Noa recorded a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" together with rai artist Khaled, which was released on the European version of Khaled's 1999 album Kenza. It was not included on the US release of Kenza, from Ark 21.

The Guardian goes on to say that Noa "faces occasional anti-Israel demonstrations during her tours abroad, once in London and most recently during a tour of Spain last month, and has been very critical of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement, in Gaza."

As for Awad, "She works in an Arabic-Hebrew theatre in Jaffa and made a breakthrough appearance in an Israeli television sitcom, Arab Labour. She has sung with Nini for the last eight years and has previously competed to represent Israel at Eurovision, despite objections from the Arab community."

As far as I can determine, the Israeli sitcom, Arab Labor ("Avoda Aravit"), seems to be a sign of Arab inroads into mainstream Israeli culture.

So while I'm sympathetic to the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement, I regard the Noa/Mira Awad collaboration as a complicated matter.

But whatever you think about the politics, there is no way that this song should win the Eurovision contest. It's sappy and dreadful.

(I saw Noa perform at the Fez Festival of Sacred Music in Morocco in summer 1999, and did not care for her music at all. And the duet with Khaled, "Imagine," is awful as well.)

On the other hand, Dana International, Israel's Eurovision entry in 1998, truly deserved to win. Even if she has been shilling for Tzipi Livni of late.

"P.H.A.T.W.A." by Narcicyst (kufiya & Abu Ghrayb content)

Check out this remarkable video from the Iraqi-Canadian rapper Narcicyst.

It's about the kind of everyday harassment that Arabs and Muslims receive when they attempt to travel, especially when they cross borders. It is quite brilliant. And highly amusing.

Narcicyst gets nabbed for questioning at the airport, wearing a t-shirt that says, "Same Shit, Different Saddam." Then we see a shot of Narcicyst's Afro-Canadian sidekick, and a guy with a kufiya around his neck, whose t-shirt reads, "Same Shit, Different Hipster." The hipster, of course, even though he is garbed in Arab gear, doesn't get fingered by security.


Security searches Narcicyst's luggage, and find this magazine, "Petrosexual Man." As the security guy looks at the mag, the woman, clad in red bikini and red kufiya, jerks off the oil derrick, and it spews oil. The pub seems to represent the security agent's fantasy, with its titles, "Strapped to an Oil Rig and Ready to Blow!," "The Biggest Drills!", "The Nakedest Chicks!", "The Deadest Arabs!", "Secret Prisons: A Look at the World's Most Brutal Facilities."

And best of all, there are several scenes of Narcicyst seated at the interrogation table, rapping, with dancing Abu-Ghraybish hooded prisoners, as his backup singers. Too much!


Check out Narcisyst's blog here, and get ready for the release of his first album, on May 25, which will include the song "P.H.A.T.W.A."

For more on harassment of traveling Muslims and Arabs, please see Safraz Manzoor's piece in today's Guardian, "How to tell I'm not a terrorist."

All Muslims who consider themselves liberal and tolerant could apply for a special card which when presented would show the holder was a "pre-approved Muslim", thus saving time at airports. Sure, some may say that such a card would represent a gross violation of human rights but I think it could be marketed like a credit card: membership has its privileges – in this case not being indiscriminately arrested or held up when traveling. Those who feel uncomfortable carrying a card could be offered an alternative – a white girlfriend perhaps, someone to vouch for the fact that they have successfully ­integrated into society and have no immediate plans for a holy war.

Misc. #84.07: Edible Undies in Syria; 5% Fez; 'Democracy Now' Kufiya; Leila K

Continuing to purge the desktop:

1. I just came across this article, "Edible Undies in the Muslim World," at Salon.com, originally published in Der Spiegel. The title is misleading, it's all about Syria's lingerie industry, which exports elsewhere in the Arab world.

It's the "latest thing," Abdullah Hayek says, holding the garment up. It's an almost nonexistent bra and thong, which consists of strings and a tiny triangle. It's made, not of fabric, but of sugar fondant, which has been rolled out until it is wafer-thin, held together with elastic cords.

"This allows the husband to nibble the underwear off of his wife's body," explains Hayek. The garment, which costs the equivalent of about $3.90, is available in a selection of flavors, including pineapple, apple, honey, chocolate and mango. "I probably sell 15 of them a day," said Hayek.

It refers to the book, The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie: Intimacy and Design. I met Malu Halasa, one of the co-authors, at a conference in Holland in 2007, and posted about the book here.

And here is another report, from Martin Asser of the BBC. It's somewhat sharper and less leering than the Spiegel report, and it has the added attraction of a bit of video, where Asser goes into a lingerie workshop to talk to a man who makes lingerie, and we see a singing g-string. The workshop owner, Ali Nasser, tells Asser:

"Our work is all about igniting the desires of a husband for his wife, so he doesn't go looking elsewhere. It's a good thing and there's nothing wrong it."

"There's no shame in religion," he adds...

2. I keep wanting to get back to the topic of the fez (tarbush) and its coolness. (Earlier posts here and here.) Here's a photo from the back cover of rapper King Sun's 1990 release, Righteous But Ruthless, which I have posted on previously, but without a photo. King Sun is wearing the black kufiya, and it's probably his producer King Shameek who is wearing the fez. King Sun belonged to the Nation of Gods and Earths (Five Percenters), as did so many leading rappers of the period. Although King Sun, like other 5% rappers, did not rap about the Middle East, the kufiya and the fez are examples of the 'romantic alignment' with Islam and the Arab world that was, and is, so common in Afrocentric circles. The album is well worth a listen, recalling the great work of Poor Righteous Teachers, who collaborate with King Sun on one track.

3. For the archive. You've seen it many times--every day, really: the kufiya that shows up in the opening to Amy Goodman's show, Democracy Now. It's a great image, no?


4. A posting on wayneandwax reminded me of Leila K , the Swedish-Moroccan rapper, of Moroccan origin, who came out with a quite wonderful 12", "Got to Get," back in 1989. It's very old school, it has some cheesy lines, ("I ain't down with no crack") but it is catchy and energetic. Check the video out here. Wayne's discusses another Leila K, "Open Sesame," which was a big dance hit all over Europe in 1992. Through one of the comments on Wayne's post, I learned about another Leila K hit, "Electric Power," from 1995 (watch the video here). It's decent, and like "Open Sesame," in the Eurodance vein rather than rap. Leila K is important, arguably, as one of the first, maybe the first, well-known rapper from Europe who was of Arab origin. And again, for the sake of the archive, here are the front and back covers of the "Got to Get" 12".

The dudes are Swedish producers Rob'n'Raz, who got equal billing with Leila K on this, her first release.

Egypt, April 6, Political Uses of Kufiya

Just in case you were in any doubt whether or not the kufiya still maintained some political meaning, check out these images. They are from a report on al-Jazeera English about the April 6 pro-democracy movement and the role of bloggers in this struggle. It features an interview with my friend Gamal Eid, an Egyptian lawyer who is involved in the legal defence of the pro-democracy bloggers, and who serves as the Executive Director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information. The photos are from about 2:35 into the report, and they show a rally in favor of the April 6 movement, which called for a strike on that day. Notice how central to the event is the black-and-white kufiya, which is worn by activists who are chanting, and is held aloft as a kind of token of resistance, nationalism and democracy. And that's what it's about in Palestine, too.

Unfortunately, the movement was not able to generate much action on April 6, as reported by The Arabist.

More on the white phosphorus tip

Human Rights Watch recently (March 26) produced this short documentary:

And Al-Jazeera English did this report (March 25) on Pine Bluff Arsenal, the source for the white phosphorus shells the Israel 'Defense' Forces used in/on Gaza.

Random #4589

Items I've wanted to post about have been piling up. They need to get off my desk. Let's begin the cleanup!

1. Thanks to Wayne, I learned about this wonderful hip-hop mix, featuring many of the Arab world's top artists. I was particularly glad to see Algeria's MBS included. The song "Dunya" from Canadian-Palestinian rapper Belly is particularly revelatory. Plus there is Detroit's Invincible. It's courtesy the blog The Hairdryer Treatment, which we all should be following.

2. Last month Human Rights Watch released a report stating that Israel's military had used phosphorus in an indiscriminate manner during its three week assault on Gaza, result in deaths and injuries to Palestinian civilians, and constituting a war crime. Did you know that the phosphorus weapons Israel used are supplied by the US, and that the white phosphorus shells are produced, in their entirety, in my state, at the Pine Bluff Arsenal?

3. You need to read Jace Clayton's review of two recent rai compilations. And you need to purchase both of them. I've posted about one of the tracks Clayton writes about, "Un gaou oran," here, on my mepop blog. (The video is a must see.) One of the compilations, 1970s Algerian Proto-rai Underground, from Sublime Frequencies, is only available currently as a download, but I believe it is coming out very soon on CD.

4. Also essential is Clayton's recent article about the Master Musicians of Jajouka. (By the way, Clayton records and performs as dj/rupture, and he runs the essential music blog mudd up!, where I am constantly snagging amazing mp3s.) Or rather, it's about the rival groups, the Master Musicians of Jajouka and the Master Musicians of Joujouka, the emergence of the feud, the kif-laden legends surrounding the group(s), a critical assessment of Talvin Singh's production of a Jajouka album in 2000, and more. Very smart stuff. (For more, see Philip Schuyler's witty and erudite article, "Joujouka/Jajouka/Zahjoukah: Moroccan Music and Euro-American Imagination.") Despite all the myths that Jajouka/Joujouka is freighted with, the Jajouka group puts on quite a lively concert. And there is a new recording that proves it. Check out Live Vol. 1 by The Master Musicians of Jajouka with Bashir Attar.

5. RIP J.G. Ballard. Crash is one of the most shocking, subversive, disturbing, dangerous, and incisive novels I have ever read.

6. Then there is the sensational basketball player Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, a high school star from Springfield Massachusetts, who plays wearing Islamic dress, including hijab. She just beat the state scoring record, for men or women, topping 3000 points during her career. I'm very excited that she will be playing at the University of Memphis next year, and hope that a game with the University of Arkansas is in the schedule. The Boston Globe produced an excellent article about Bilqis back in February. More recently she was covered by Sports Illustrated. Unfortunately but symptomatically, the author, Selena Roberts, manages to link Bilqis' struggle for acceptance as a devout Muslima basketball player in the US to the issue of Shahar Peer, the Israeli tennis star who was denied a visa to play at the WTA tournament in Dubai in February. Roberts makes the denial out to be a "religious" issue, when it was in fact political, and had to do with the groundswell of protest against Israel's aggression in Gaza (December 2008/January 2009).

...Desk cleaning will continue later. There is more to come.

BUY PALESTINIAN KUFIYAS!!

This is terribly exciting. A group called The Kufiyeh Project has been set up to promote the kufiya as a Palestinian symbol and, more important to my mind, to promote the sale of Palestinian kufiyas (now made only at the Hirbawi factory, Hebron).

This is how the project describes itself. Please check out the group's website, order kufiyas ($12, a dozen for $120), sell kufiyas, involve yourselves in the project.

The Kufiyeh Project was conceived by concerned activists from New Orleans Palestine Solidarity and the Austin Coalition for Palestine, in coordination with Palestine Online Store. The project is not-for-profit, and its objectives are:

1. To proactively promote the kufiyeh as a symbol of Palestinian identity, resistance, struggle for justice, and solidarity with it.

2. To support Palestinian industry and make sure that kufiyehs continue to be produced in Palestine.

Our strategies and tactics will include asking progressive celebrities to wear it and to speak up for justice in Palestine. We also intend to promote the Palestinian-made kufiyeh as much as possible using all forms of publicity. And, last but not least, we will support the Hirbawi factory to the best of our ability and also encourage better quality production.

The Kufiyeh Project is currently being coordinated by Mai Bader and Haithem El-Zabri, and an advisory board is being formed. Income generated from sales and contributions will be rechanneled into the project (under supervision of the board) to pursue the above-mentioned objectives.

Contact the group at info@thekufiyehproject.org.

(I'd really like to get hold of the kufiya shopping bag--where can I find one of those?!)

UB40 Concert, NYC, May 7

I'm posting this on behalf of a friend who is helping to promote the concert.

To aficionados of old school reggae: UB40 will be performing in New York, on Thursday, May 7 at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square. UB40 are from Birmingham - formed in 1978 - and (as 80s heads may know) have had 50 hits in the UK. They gained popularity in the US with the release of Labor of Love, an album of cover songs; their breakout hit on this side of the Atlantic was "Red Red Wine" (a cover of a Neil Diamond song.) Other hits include "Groovin'", "I Got You Babe" with Chrissie Hynde (who discovered them) and "Kingston Town" (a remake of Lord Creator's 1970 version, though UB40's version is a tribute to the earliest West Indian immigrants to England - see newspaper headline: "Town Stages Dance For Coloured People").

See video

Concert Info

Discount Tickets Available!

Leather Keffiyeh from Designer Natalia Brilli

This is really wild, a leather kufiya, from Belgian designer Natalia Brilli, available from the new online shopping site Studiohomme, devoted to men's fashion. Only €546.00. What is interesting about this item, other than the materials and the price, is that it is marketed as a Keffiyeh. (More views of the item, and enlargements, here.)

Here's what Hyphen has to say about Studiohomme:

Officially launched on February 19th, 2009 this bilingual (English-French) e-commerce site targets the stylish man who is looking for luxury goods and fashion forward designers such as Flouzen, Unity, Comme des Garçons and recently added Alexis Mabille.

Created by Sebastien Roubaud and Arnaud Vanraet, the site also offers some editorial content via its “Journal” feature and the “designer interview” along with styling advice for its clients, how they actually implement the latter part is not quite clear at the moment.

Postscript on Sex and the City

My friend Nadine suggested that if I wrote an article on the previous post, Kufiyaspotting #47, that I give it the title: "The Kufiyyah Tank Top: Eros & (A)politics in Sex and the City."

I really like the title, and it brings up something that I was thinking about after I put up the post: how completely devoid SATC is of political discussion, and how stark the juxtaposition is in the scene referred to in the previous post: between discussion of men, and fashion, and relationships (the staple of SATC) and the (disavowed) sign of Palestine. The contrast is made even more remarkable by the fact that Sarah Jessica Parker looks totally hot (as usual on SATC) in her kufiya tank top.

Does this warrant an article? I'm undecided.

Kufiyaspotting #47: Sex and the City

Rema, who I met after the MESA panel where I presented my paper on kufiyas, told me about a Sex and the City kufiya episode. Finally, and thanks to Nadine, I have got hold of the DVD. It's from Season Four, Episode 17 ("A 'Vogue' Idea"). It's the episode where Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) attempts to write an article for Vogue (the "Mecca" for fashion writers, she calls it), but runs up against the bitchy editor, Enid, played by Candace Bergen. You remember it. It's always a treat to see Candace B. on the screen.

Carrie and her pals are having the usual foursome lunch together, after the meeting at Vogue, and Carrie shows up wearing this kufiya top.

This was way ahead of the curve. As you would expect from SATC. This would have been first broadcast on February 3, 2002, according to my calculations. Less than four months after 9/11, in case you didn't notice. Way before the kufiya fashion explosion that started in 2005 or so.

I shot these photos off my computer screen.

Nawal: Music from the Comoros Islands

I've been meaning to write more about Arabesque, the truly amazing arts festival held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC last month, but, well, life has intervened. Maybe I'll finally get to it. In the meantime, please watch the live concert of Nawal, the truly remarkable vocalist from the Comoros Islands. (Click on the photo, here.) Unfortunately, you can't enlarge the video, but the music is really spectacular. In case you didn't know it, the Comoros Islands, located in the Indian Ocean, between Madagascar and Mozambique, is a member of the Arab League. I don't hear that much "Arab" influence here. The tarab music that is so popular in Tanzania and Zanzibar is much more "Arab" in its sound. Nonetheless, you must give it a listen. As a part of the Arabesque series, it expands our notion of what "Arab" culture and arts might be. The sound quality is quite good, so you can watch a bit and then just listen.

More about Nawal and her latest recording, Aman, here.

"Dis-Orienting Rhythms" available for download

I learned about this book over ten years ago from Tony Mitchell, and have found it invaluable. I urge anyone interested in BrAsian politics and culture, fans of Fun'Da'Mental, Asian Dub Foundation, Talvin Singh, and the like, to read this book. Apparently it is no longer in print, alas! But you can now download it via darkmatter, the blog of Sanjay Sharma, one of the editors. Do it now! Read! Study! Internalize all the ideas! Go here.
Dis-Orienting Rhythms: the politics of the new Asian dance music (1996, Zed books), edited by Sanjay Sharma, John Hutnyk and Ash Sharma.

“This book writes back the presence of South Asian youth into a rapidly expanding and exuberant music scene; and celebrates this as a dynamic expression of the experience of diaspora with an urgent political consciousness. One of the first attempts to situate such production within the study of race and identity, it uncovers the crucial role that South Asian dance musics - from Hip-hop, Qawwali and Bhangra through Soul, Indie and Jungle - have played in a new urban cultural politics …”

Ramallah Underground Update

I got this a few days from Ramallah Underground on Facebook. I'm reproducing it with their permission. I've been a big fan of the group for several years, I play them often on my Interzone Radio show, and I almost got to meet one of the group in Ramallah last summer. My time in Palestine was too short.

A summary: a great new track to download for free; the group is doing a workshop for refugee camp youth; they will appear on the new album of the Kronos Quartet (!); they'll be in London this summer; participating in the prestigious Vienna Biennale. [Correction, April 9: RU member Basil Abbas and Ruanne (the group's VJ) will be doing a sound installation at the Venice Biennale.

Now if we could just get RU to tour the US...

Ramallah Underground Update:

New track: Sijen ib Sijen, available for download on http://www.ramallahunderground.com

Coming up very soon, on the 6th and 7th of April, is a workshop in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp, organized by Sports Under Siege from Italy, where we will be presenting our techniques in beat production. This will be followed by a performance on the 11th of April at the Ibdaa Center. http://www.ibdaa194.org/

Kronos Quartet's upcoming album, Floodplain, will feature a piece, entitled 'Tashweesh', composed by Ramallah Underground.

Floodplain is set to be released on the 19th of May: Pre-order here.

We have just finished a remix for a track entitled "Brute force" by bleubird. Download Street talk 5 EP here.

Also out now is Chronicles of a Refugee, a 6 part DVD documentary looking at the global Palestinian refugee experience over the last 60 years. It can be purchased from the Palestine Online store (http://www.palestineonlinestore.com). The Documentary contains many bits and pieces from the RU labs.

This summer RU will be taking part in an artist residency in London from June 15th to Sep 15th, where we also plan to do some performances around the UK and Europe.

At this point, gigs that have been confirmed (includes before and after summer too):

Ibdaa Centre (Dheisheh Refugee Camp, Palestine) April 11 '09
Marxism Festival (London, UK) July 3 '09
Bluecoat (Liverpool, UK) July 17 '09
October Fest (Taybeh , Palestine) Oct 3 '09
Kronica (Bytom, Poland) Nov 27 '09

Please check "Live" on http://www.ramallahunderground.com for updates.

Before the residency aswatt (RU) alongside Ruanne Abou-Rahme, will be creating a sound installation entitled 'Ramallah Syndrome' (http://ramallahsyndrome.blogspot.com/) at the Venice Biennale which opens on the 6th of June.

Salaam
RU

Update on Kufiyaspotting #44: "Taking the Stage"

I've noticed that MTV keeps fooling with the un/availability of the trailer for "Taking the Stage" (Kufiyaspotting #44). So here are a couple of shots of Shaakira, who is the most prominent kufiya wearer in the trailer, in kufiya. They're taken from other footage, including this one.

?uestlove Kufiya

A sort of update about The Roots, house band for "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." The promotional material produced just prior to the show's opening, which featured the band, showed the Roots' drummer ?uestlove garbed in kufiya. I froze a frame on my computer, and shot this shot.

Check out this review of The Roots' first week with Fallon. It says, among other things, "the greatest revelation of the first week of "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon"...was that it's wholly plausible that the Roots are funnier than their host."

Kufiyaspotting #46: Steve McQueen

Just when I think that the kufiya is now longer a very important fashion item, I spot this, a couple weeks ago or so, in the New York Times Style Magazine, Men's Fashion Spring 2009. Steve McQueen is the director of the acclaimed recent film Hunger, about imprisoned IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands. McQueen is also an accomplished artist.

The photo is prominently featured in the magazine, on the back page, under the title THE ORIGINALS. Curiously, the caption only discusses the skirt McQueen is wearing, designed by Yohji Yamamoto. No mention of the kufiya. If you look closely, you will see that it has skulls woven into the design.

I don't have a scanner, so a photo of this will have to do. To see the original online, go here.

"Yes, White People Are Devils. Yes, That Includes Me"--Michael Muhammad Knight

A very astute essay from Michael Muhammad Knight, courtesy Goatmilk, which is running a monthlong series, “Facing Race: Muslims and Islam." Based on this essay, we'd all do well to keep track of this series.

Knight tells us that he doesn't believe in the Yacub theory, but that this, and other such beliefs of the Nation of Islam and the Nation of Gods and Earths, contain a deeper truth. A truth that both US white people, and Arab Muslims, could usefully take on.

(I have my own "white devil" essay: "The White Devil as Expert Witness," published in Anne Meneley and Donna Young, eds., Auto-Ethnographies of Academic Practices, Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2005. It's about my experiences as an expert witness in the case [Marria v. Broaddus] of a young Five-Percenter inmate, Intelligent Allah, who filed suit against the NY State Prison system, demanding that his religious rights as a member of the Nation of Gods and Earths be recognized. He won!)

Be sure to read all of Michael Muhammad Knight's terrific books.

DAM Tour the US: Palestinian Hip-Hop!

I just now learned about this through Facebook. Very exciting. Hawgblawg readers, please attend, and send reports! Note that the shows are often in conjunction with screenings of Slingshot Hip-Hop, and that several shows have other guests on the bill, including the likes of Suheir Hamad, Abeer, Invincible, Dead Prez and Muhammad al-Farra of Gaza rap group PR.

THE TOUR DATES - April 2009 (more info coming--and I will try to keep up on this)

April 4 BROWN UNIVERSITY, Providence, RI
Doors: 9:45PM, 10:30 show
Salomon Hall 101, 75 Waterman St.
FREE EVENT, (donations accepted at the door)
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=73782938486

April 5 BOSTON PALESTINE FILM FESTIVAL
Slingshot Hip Hop screening 4:30 PM, Kendall Theatre, Cambridge

8:30 DAM show with DJ Oja and Suheir Hammad with The Foundation Movement. Natural Bliss. Re-up. Blak Madeen
Ryles Jazz Club, 212 Hampshire St., Cambridge
$25 suggested. $10 minimum

more info: http://www.bostonpalestinefilmfest.org/news/2009/03/slingshot-hip-hop-showing-kendall.html
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?sid=6e8ab5076a40110bfc39d40b74e8e887&eid=57992623682&ref=search

Apr 6 HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE, Amherst, MA
3:30PM Slingshot Hip-Hop screening followed by a Q&A with DAM
West Lecture Hall of FPH

8:30PM DAM show, Hampshire College, Saga Dining Commons
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=65213637002&ref=mf

April 7 BROOKLYN, SOUTH PAW
8:00PM DAM, Rebel Diaz, Invincible, Finale, and DJ Oja
8pm doors, 9pm show
more info - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=73582762089

April 9 PITTSBURGH, PA
7:00PM McConomy Auditorium, Carnegie Mellon University
Featuring DJs Elie and Joud Mansour
For tickets call (412.268.2107).
The facebook event is http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=77142042533&ref=ts

April 10 OBERLIN COLLEGE, Oberlin OH
Details TBA!

April 11 EARLHAM COLLEGE, Richmond, Indiana
10:00 PM
DAM, Abeer AlZinaty, Mohammad Al Farra, Comstock
FREE EVENT
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30215231&op=1&o=all&view=all&subj=67260489214&aid=-1&oid=67260489214&id=1139550070#/event.php?eid=65519106103&ref=nf

April 12 CHICAGO FUNDRAISER FOR GAZA
7:00PM DAM, Mohammed ALFarra, Abeer, Dead Prez, Shadia Mansour, Rebel Diaz
Logan Square Auditorium
2539 N. Kedzie Blvd #15, Chicago, IL 60647
For more info:
http://gazaaidproject.blogspot.com/
773.678.5522
gazaaidproject@gmail.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=51329708077&ref=mf

April 13 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON
5:30PM Slingshot Hip Hop screening
Social Sciences Room 6104, 1180 Observatory Drive
Panel Discussion Following the Film
FREE EVENT

April 14 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON
8pm-11pm DAM Performance
Memorial Union Terrace (rain/poor weather location Der Rathskeller), 800 Langdon St.
http://www.union.wisc.edu/terrace/
DJ Vilas Park Sniper
Opening Acts: Lucha Libre & DJ Tamara

April 17 HAVERFORD COLLEGE, Haverford, PA
7pm Slingshot Hip Hop screening at Bryn Mawr followed by a Q&A with DAM

10:00PM-2:00AM DAM performance at AcadeMIX LIVE
Founders Great Hall, Haverford
FREE EVENT
http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#/event.php?eid=74598032889&ref=mf

April 18 GOUCHER COLLEGE, Baltimore, MD
9:00Pm SHOW
featuring DAM, Abeer, Son of Nun, Komplex, Finale, Invincible and Rebel Diaz

April 19 WASHINGTON, DC
Layla Lounge

April 20 PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
7:30PM Slingshot Hip Hop screening, followed by a Q&A with DAM

101 McCormick Hall (unconfirmed room number)

April 21 OLYMPIA, WA
Doors 6:30pm show 7:00pm
Capitol Theater
206 5th ave SE
http://olympiafilmsociety.org
Phone:360.754.5378

April 22 UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, Seattle WA
8:00pm DAM with Canary Sing, Gabriel Teodros, and One Be Lo
HUB Husky North Den

April 23 SEATTLE, WA
7:00PM Slingshot Hip Hop screening Q&A with DAM
Ethnic Cultural Theater, Washington

April 24 VANCOUVER, BC, Canada
5:30-7:00pm Slingshot Hip Hop screening

7:00 to 10:00 pm DAM show
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=60385834348&ref=ts

April 25 EDMONTON, Manitoba, Canada
8:00PM, Slingshot Hip Hop screening and DAM show
Stanley Milner Library Theatre
7 Sir Winston Churchill Square T5J 2V4 (780) 496-7000

More info:
www.myspace.com/damrap
www.slingshothiphop.com

Muslim Chic from Urban Outfitters

This is pretty unbelievable. A leather and rope bracelet with allah الله inscribed in Arabic. What is Urban Outfitters up to? First the kufiya, and now this? Is Islamic style really becoming chic?

Except that, the item is no longer available. Were their protests? I don't know. (I learned about this from Kabobfest awhile back. But no harm in recycling, is there?)

(And in the back of my mind, I'm hearing an objection. Allah in Arabic just means God. When Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews speak of God, they use the same word.)

When you could get it, the bracelet cost $8.

Palestine archipelago

This map, which brilliantly illustrates the existential position of Palestinians living in the West Bank, is from the blog Strange Maps. It's created by Julien Busac, who says:

“Maybe posting the full map would help to take it for what it is, i.e. an illustration of the West Bank’s ongoing fragmentation based on the (originally temporary) A/B/C zoning which came out of the Oslo process, still valid until now. To make things clear, areas ‘under water’ strictly reflect C zones, plus the East Jerusalem area, i.e. areas that have officially remained under full Israeli control and occupation following the Agreements. These include all Israeli settlements and outposts as well as Palestinian populated areas.”

If Obama wants to help solve the Palestine question--and he must do so if he ever wants the US to do any good in the Middle East--then he must recover all that "drowned" Palestinian territory. Only then can the two-state solution that the US claims it wants be realized.

Read the whole post here. Click on the map above to see it larger. But go to the original for an even better view.

A close view of the Jerusalem archipelago is here.