Prometheus 6

Arab hip-hop doesn't get airplay on stuffy state-run radio and TV stations around the Middle East, so rappers have turned to MySpace.com and other Internet sites to find their audiences. No record deals are in the works for the Gaza crew, but fans abound in the Middle East, Europe and the U.S.; PR's website has had thousands of visitors since last June, according to Al Farra.

Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007
Taking the Rap
By TIM McGIRK

As the late 1990s shooting deaths of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. demonstrated, the rap life can be a dangerous existence. But being a rapper in Gaza? Now that presents some unique hazards. At a concert by the Palestinian Rapperz (PR) last summer, Islamic youths, outraged by the group's arm thrusts and crotch grabs, rushed onstage and beat up its four members. Soon after, a Palestinian M.C. known as Sompol was also assailed for immorality. He was kidnapped midperformance and let go three hours later, after a warning at gunpoint to stop bringing un-Islamic Western behavior into Gaza.

And yet rap is thriving. The U.S. import has taken root in the Palestinian territories and Israel, evolving into a gritty hybrid expression of the Arab-Israeli conflict that steers clear of the original's current preoccupations with flashy wealth, gangster attitudes and fast women. "It's preposterous to pose as a gangster out here," says Sagol, 59, hailed as the Israeli godfather of hip-hop. Instead, Israeli and Palestinian artists have borrowed from earlier, more socially conscious rappers such as Shakur, and sharpened their songs to a razorlike political edge.

PR's lyrics are full of death (by falling bombs, Israeli Mossad agents or feuding Palestinian gangs) and set to an ominous, rumbling beat that sounds like an approaching Israeli tank. "Traditionally, Palestinian songs are all about love," says one member, Mohammed al Farra, whose rap handle is D.R., the Dynamic Rapper, "but our reality in Gaza is about suffering. Gaza is like a big prison, and we get our message across with rap music." At concerts, PR ignites a dervish-like frenzy among Palestinian teenagers. When they sing, "Just because we're Palestinians/ America and everyone suspects us of being terrorists/ But all we're asking for is freedom," the crowd erupts with the same raw energy you see in the Gaza showdowns between Palestinian and Israeli forces.