“We learned English from hip-hop, so you can learn Arabic through hip-hop.”
What Austin experienced last night when Palestinian rappers DAM hit the stage at the Scoot Inn just a few minutes after 10pm wasn’t the usual. Bunched tight together in front of an ample mix of local hip-hoppers, Mahmoud Jreri and brothers Tamer and Suhell Nafar gave us all a music history lesson: with hip-hop, sometimes understanding the lyrics is the least important part.
Sure, we’d done our research. We’ve watched Slingshot Hip-Hop and the subtitled YouTube videos. We know what they’re talking about, the topics they cover, the chaos along the Gaza Strip. Even so, specific words held no meaning Thursday night. Sentiments and understanding aside, it was entirely possible, as was the case personally, to take in each ripped lyric entirely for its rhythmic standing.
Boy could they rap, though. Lead MC Tamer Nafar joked, “A lot of people say that because we’re Palestinians we can’t flow,” but given what was transpiring, the crowd jeered such nonsense at top volume. Nafar breaks into Twista-speed rhyme both indecipherable and perfectly awesome. DAM was all flow, in fact. Voices were instruments once again.
They were part of the beats, as well, beats that stomped with shades of New York City, Houston, Atlanta, and their hometown Lod. They toyed with Jay’s “Big Pimpin’,” hit first with a nod to Busta Rhymes’ “Touch It” (in Arabic, mind you), and led the crowd in a rousing rendition of Bob Marley’s “Revolution,” this time dealing with a whole other oppression.
As I stood and watched, stage left only 10 feet from the speaker, I couldn’t help wonder what the Wild Style’s founding fathers would think – the Grandmaster Flashes and the Melle Mel’s. Because DAM was purely about rhythm circa 1982 in the Bronx. A quarter of a century ago, who would’ve predicted we could find that vibe again with a Palestinian rap trio somewhere in Austin, Texas?
This article appears in May 9 • 2008.