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The Narcicyst x Shadia Mansour: “Hamdulillah”
After long last, and not a moment too soon or late, the much-anticipated music video for the first collaboration between Iraqi-Canadian MC The Narcicyst and Palestinian-British singer Shadia Mansour,...
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Shahada x Shadia: bearing witness
I’m often asked, “What value does Hip Hop have in the realm of cultural diplomacy?” A film review I read today in the New York Times about the new German film, “Shahada” (a thesis project by Burhan...
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Arab Rappers in Solidarity
Great new piece by raptivist and scholar Aisha Fukushima on New America Media: Arab Rappers in Solidarity With Uprisings in Middle East & North Africa New America Media, News Report, Aisha...
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When State comes up short, Chen Lo makes it happen
Lebanon’s Brooklyn, NYC Peeps: The Lo Frequency make good in Beirut By jackson allers In late October, the Brooklyn-based live hip-hop outfit Chen Lo and the Liberation Family – known now as The Lo...
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The Hip-Hop Rhythm of Arab Revolt
From the Wall Street Journal The Arab Spring is widely known as a Twitter rebellion, but underground hip-hop artists also played a very important role. Robin Wright, author of “Rock the Casbah: Rage...
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An Embrace of the U.S., Spun and Mixed by Iraqis
Joseph Sywenkyj for The New York Times BAGHDAD — With his New York Yankees jersey, baggy jeans embroidered with “U.S.A.” down one leg and his casual greeting of “What’s up?”, Ali Jabbar, a rapper and...
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The Mixtape of the Revolution
From the New York Times The Mixtape of the Revolution By SUJATHA FERNANDES Published: January 29, 2012 DEF JAM will probably never sign them, but Cheikh Oumar Cyrille Touré, from a small town about 100...
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Leveraging Hip Hop in US foreign policy
From Al Jazeera and the longer article, “Race, Rap, and Raison d’Etat” by Hisham Aidi. The US government wants to improve its tarnished image abroad by sending out ‘hip hop envoys’ [GALLO/GETTY] In...
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Rapper Faces Death Threats in Iran
From The New York Times By THOMAS ERDBRINK TEHRAN — With lyrics that tread on ultrasensitive topics and an album cover that shows the dome of a mosque in the shape of a woman’s breast, Shahin Najafi is...
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Anthems for the Arab Spring
From USA Today (UK edition) Rappers provide anthems for the Arab Spring By Naomi Westland, Special for USA TODAY Eighteenth-century French revolutionaries marched to La Marseillaise, and two centuries...
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Rapping the Arab Spring
From the World Policy Journal By Sam R. Kimball TUNIS—Along a dusty main avenue, past worn freight cars piled on railroad tracks and young men smoking at sidewalk cafés beside shuttered shops, lies...
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