The Final Call

Hip Hop is a universal language

What's your opinion on this article?

(L-R) Da Arabian MC's - Mahmoud Jreri, Tamer Nafar and Suhell Nafar. Photo: DAMPalestine.com ‘For us 2Pac was actually the teacher of the English language because back then we were listening to his music. I was listening to hip hop in general but 2Pac made me to look for the lyrics.. because I felt his message. He was talking about political, social and personal problems and those are the same problems that we are facing in my own hometown.’

The Final Call (FC): When you create the lyrics to your songs, how do you determine what you will discuss and what you will include? Real life events, political theories and ideas?

Suhell Nafar: What we say is our lyrics and our art is influenced by our life so it's thirty percent the music we are listening to which is Hip Hop and thirty percent is the music that we grew up on which is Arabic music and cultural music or the folklore and our poetry and forty percent is the reality.

When I open my window and see what's going on down there, when I just want to go to a friend's house and cops are stopping me and attacking me just like what's happening with African-Americans here in America or when my friends are calling me and telling me ‘they (Israelis) are demolishing our house.' I am going to write about it right after or when I talk to my friend in Gaza and they tell me what is happening with them. I am a human (and) there is violence all around me. I also have a human side. Sometimes we do also just jokes, just fun songs. We are trying to cover 100 percent of Palestinian (life). If we are just going to sing about politics, that will show that we have only violence around us and I don't want to pass this message to the world. I want to show them that we are human beings. I want to show them that we have occupation that is killing us; we have social problems in our community; we have drug problems, we (also) have love.

FC: In the movie, ‘Sling Shot Hip-Hop' that you all were featured in, I listened as you talked about the parallels between the struggle of young Black men and oppressed people in the United States and the struggle of the young brothers in Palestine. I remember a portion in which you said that you didn't really know how to speak English but looking at hip hop videos and specifically 2Pac, you learned to speak English?

Mahmud Jreri: For us 2Pac was actually the teacher of the English language because back then we were listening to his music. Also I was listening to hip hop in general but 2Pac made me to look for the lyrics and then I started to learn English from 2Pac. I think because I felt his message. He was talking about political, social and personal problems and those are the same problems that we are facing in my own hometown, Lod which is the biggest crime city in the Middle East.

He was talking about police chasing him and I was feeling it. I wanted to know more about it because it was the same thing for me in my neighborhood. When he was talking about political problems that they treat him in a way because he is Black, well in Israel they were treating me in a racist manner because I am Arabic, I am Palestinian. So I felt that he was talking to me. I felt him more than the Arabic music back then because the Arabic music back then was talking about love and about flowers, which we weren't living over there. So that's why 2Pac was the only one we felt back then.

Tamer Nafar: Black people are born to know their own tragedies, to know their own heroes, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Black Panthers. Over there our heroes don't have a day like Martin Luther King. Our heroes are still being named terrorists. So we are still broken inside, we still don't have people to follow yet. The Master came and took our house, so we are not looking for equal rights. We are looking to be the owner of that house again. It's a few differences but we are using the same weapon for sure. And I am going to tell you the truth the gate to my culture was through American music. I used to listen to 2Pac's music and there was this song from his album, “It's a Whiteman's World” and he was having samples from a film. I asked them what kind of film was that? They told me “Malcolm X” by Spike Lee.

FC: What would you like to tell people who know nothing of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict other than the biased coverage they sometimes see or hear on the news?

Suhell Nafar: Come visit don't be afraid. I heard so much about South Africa and Apartheid from all the media, how they covered it. So I saw how bad it is in the media, so I said ‘this is a good place.' Every place that the media shows you is really bad, you should (instead) go and support it. So just come and support Palestine; you have great places to see. Also these days the most important part is to assist us in the boycott against Israel. We have a lot of things to boycott and not just for us, for your own self here in America. The government is saying that they are democratic. Let's show them that it is not democratic and tell them we want this, we want that! This actually is not only for Palestine, this is also for Africa, this is also for all the brothers in Venezuela or South America or Cuba. These are all the people who have been getting killed generation after generation and the most important thing is to unite. We need to know each other's history and all the people who have been occupied and have been killed. This is why we are happy about this event. This is a big unity. It's a good feeling for all of us and we will gain support for our causes.

FC: Thank you.

(Check out Da Arabian MC's at www.dampalestine.com and on MySpace at www.myspace.com/damrap.)