|
|
|
Static
I ain’t drinkin’ no 40
I be thinkin’ time wit’ a nine
Until we get some land
Call me the trigger man
— Public Enemy, By the Time I Get to Arizona
Greetings of peace from these windblown southern lands, friends. News from the homeland is that there’s been rain. Lots of it. Apparently the Heavens opened up with full force recently. And of course we as a collective are least equipped to deal with natural disasters, alien invasions and other such phenomena. But whenever it rains, the people of Karachi (as of the other metros, I take it) greet the heavenly showers with both delight and more than a little apprehension.
Delight, because there’s respite from the mid-summer heat and folks can kick back with pakoras and other such goodies. Apprehension, because chances are that all civic infrastructure (we have civic infrastructure?) will be washed away. As a good friend said in an email, “roads, what roads?’
But enough of this positive talk. We kick off this week’s funfest with a homage to some of rap’s most gifted sons: Public Enemy (admittedly this homage is long overdue). PE started off in Long Island, New York and by the mid-80s, were chugging along like an unstoppable politically charged, socially aware hip-hop locomotive. Core members consisted of Carl Ridenhour, better known as Chuck D, chief clown Flavor Flav, Professor Griff and Terminator X. Chuck D, also known as MistaChuck, is — I believe — one of modern popular music’s sharpest minds, whilst Terminator X is something of a virtuoso on the wheels of steel, respected by disk jockeys from Atlanta to Aotearoa.
In interesting times, PE shook up both mainstream America and the pop industry, by lacing their lyrical darts with razor-sharp rhymes that reflected intelligent, conscious minds. Not like the gun-toting fake hip gangster wannabes that pollute hip-hop today. If these cats rhymed about glocks, nines or AKs, you damn well knew they weren’t fronting, and that their verbal braggadocio had actual substance to back it up. Whereas now, most of these candy rappers can’t stop rhyming about women’s behinds, booze and drugs. Forget that, man, PE was the real deal. And the abovementioned particular slab of funk delivers yet another poisoned arrow from the quiver of the notorious MistaChuck. Bring the noise.
From the minds of one set of verbal warrior poets to another: in the lands of our former imperial overlords (though through the actions of many of our compatriots, it is clear we are still very much slaves) the Great British, there has been quite a kerfuffle over musical collective (somewhere described as an Islamic rap band … ha!) Fun-Da-Mental’s new album release. Titled All is War (The Benefits of G-had) and released online on August 7, because of the name and the righteously rebellious nature of group leader Haq Nawaz Qureshi (nom de guerre Aki Nawaz), the fur has been flying.
Apparently, sections of the mainstream media machine have gone nuts over Fun-Da-Mental’s socially conscious lyrical matter. Tracks like Cookbook DIY, I Reject and Che Bin — comparing Argentinean Marxist revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara with a certain Mr Bin Laden — have ruffled quite a few feathers. Mostly, it’s the same self-righteous hypocrisy: free speech is great as long as what you want to hear is being said. But the moment someone takes a genuinely dissenting view, all hell breaks loose.
Pundits have claimed that the record glorifies ‘terrorism’ and suicide bombers, while Aki has repeatedly and emphatically denied it. As the man said in an interview in London’s Independent: “My only weapon is words. Am I going to do anything beyond that? I don’t think I’ve got it in me to hurt anybody. If I were in Iraq or Lebanon, I might feel differently, but I despise bombs.” He’s had to face flak from not only the media, but also from his own label, with a few execs threatening to quit.
Now I had the pleasure of meeting Aki persoanlly. From our short meeting, I gathered that he’s a very humble, modest man, and one deeply commited to his cause. And I respect him for taking a stand and making music that puts issues over ego and other rock star bulls***.
As for the music, according to the Independent article, he spent a month in Pakistan working with local musicians, along with collaborating with the South African group, The Mighty Zulu Nation. About the media-mudslinging — specifically about the track Cookbook DIY, the song that supposedly ‘glorifies’ suicide bombers — in an interview with the BBC World Service, Aki says this: “It is to show the absurdity of all of us, who give more moral grounding to someone who makes a bomb which kills 200,000 people, and say he is better than someone who makes a bomb which kills 50 people.”
There you have it folks. Money talks, bulls*** walks and substance is nearly always overshadowed by hype, at least on the present plane of existence. And in a somewhat connected little snippet marrying politricks and the media, I’m sure quite a few of you have either seen or heard the clip of British MP George Galloway scolding a Sky News anchor.
Now before this, I hadn’t heard of Galloway, and reading up on him, one comes to the conclusion that the feisty Scotsman is quite a colourful character. To top that, he also has a connection to Pakistan (do some research kids, it’s quite interesting). Apparently, the TV anchor was asking him some ignorant question (as the talking heads often do), labelling Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah as a ‘terrorist’ group.
Galloway gave it to her, and good. Three cheers! I just felt like sharing that, as it is rare that the incredibly ignorant ‘free’ western media gets a taste of its own medicine. Not to say our electronic (and dare I say print?) media is very free or fair either. Some of it can be equally idiotic and even more sensationalist. I guess what I’m trying to say here is that ignorance is the enemy. So, in the words of KMFDM, “In the age of super-boredom, hype and mediocrity, celebrate relentlessness.”
That just about brings us to the end of another fun-filled edition of Static, friends. I might have ruffled a few feathers. I hope I did, for as a wise man recently told me, if your enemy is unhappy with you, you must be doing something right. I hope.
It is indeed encouraging to see these global voices of dissent in such an era of turmoil where true freedom is crushed under the guise of unending ‘wars on terror,’ the preservation of democracy and other such nonsensical pipe-dreams. As for our local popsters, most of them appear to be more worried about maintaining their lucrative sponsorship deals and appearing in sexy eight-column spreads in the weeklies, dailies or monthlies. Each to his own, I guess.
As for our youth, well, I laugh, albeit a little facetiously, when I see teeny-boppers rocking T-shirts emblazoned with the handsome mug of Che Guevara, a genuine revolutionary, as a fashion statement. You have to admit, it’s a little ironic.
With these wandering thoughts I leave you. Till next time, ponder over these words by Joseph Conrad: “We live, as we dream — alone.” — QAM
|
|
|
|
