A new electro/rap album from Beirut inspired me to continue clicking through the World Wide Web. Within transnational Lebanese networks I found great, crazy, funny, strange and sometimes also worrying videos, tracks, as well as a book. Here, all together in one post - without too much commentary.
Mazen el Sayed and Jawad Nawfal (Picture Tanya Traboulsi - www.tanyatraboulsi.com)
“Kachf el Mahjoub / Unveiling the hidden” is a musical collaboration between Lebanese poet and musician Mazen el Sayed, otherwise known as El Rass (The Head), and Lebanese electronica artist Jawad Nawfal aka Munma. The collision of harsh beats and brazen, slammed vocals was produced and released by radio journalist, producer and Norient author Ziad Nawal from the Independent Lebanese label Ruptured. Belgian electronic musician C-Drik helped mastering the album. Ziad Nawfal met with the musicians for his ruptured radio show on Radio Liban.
Radio Interview with El Rass and Munma
Part 1:
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Part 2:
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Buy “Kachf el Mahjoub” via Rough Trade, Boomkat, Amazon or iTunes.
Inspiration for Cyber-Mix 001
“Kachf el Mahjoub” inspired me to click through the latest (and a bit older) videos and tracks from Beirut and from the transnational Lebanese networks. «Cyber-Mix 001» (a possible new category on Norient.com?) starts with great collaborations between Lebanese musicians and local, as well as international filmmakers. Then we dive into transnational Lebanese Rap and Hip-hop networks. «Cyber-Mix 001» ends on the topic «Rap and Islam». Further, I had to include the controversial “Sexin’ Islamic Girls” by the FOKN Bois. The two performed at our 3. Norient Musikfilm Festival in January. – It is quite a journey, from mostly secular music circles in Beirut, to Diaspora rappers who seek truth in Islam, to the FOKN Bois. Enjoy!
Videos from Beirut
OkyDoky – The Hand
Ramcess L’Hamorabi – Ahla W Sahla Bel Madineh
Ashekman – Ya Reit
Michelle & Noel Keserwany – 3al Jamal bi wasat Beirut
Lazzy Lung – Strange Places
Sandmoon – Sea of Love
The Incompetents – Bullets Gently Dancing Over My Head by
Zeid and the Wings – General Suleiman (Zeid Hamdan got arrested for this song)
Cham3oun & Ostoura – 7alit khoff
Scrambled Eggs – Girls On Fire
Safar Barlik – Jabal
Tania Saleh – Wehde
I-VOICE – Live at Shatilla refugee camp, 2008. (More Info)
More Videos: Playlist
From the Norient CD: «Golden Beirut»
Mashrou’ Leila – Raksit Leila
The Incompetents – Disposable Valentine
Transnational Rap-Networks
Check out the new album and the blog of La Gale, great Lebanese rapper, living in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Rap and Islam
- with Yassin ‘The Narcicyst’ Alsalman and his book The Diatribes of a Dying Tribe:
«A story of four young Arab men who joined forces to create their own representative governing meeting. Excentrik, Ragtop, Omar Offendum & the Narcicyst spent two weeks in California and endless hours on a computer crafting the Fear of an Arab Planet; an examination of the heightened anxiety towards Islam, the Oriental gaze towards the Arab face and the ever-growing paranoia of the ‘other’, all over some bangin’ beats to rock to. As a post-analytical view of the making of an album, this book serves as a document on the burgeoning Arab poetry scene, and how the two mother cultures of a migrant society coalesced through a modern hyper-culture called Hip-Hop. From TSA agents to ABC rappers, The Arab Summit were on a mission to be heard… and that is exactly what happened.»
A comment from Ghana by the FOKN BOIS
