Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets – Pt. 1

 

Jazeera Airways magazine cover for the Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets show in January 08

In honor of this legendary night of hip-hop in Beirut in January 2008 – Immortal Entertainment, Phonosapien Productionz and Beats and Breath Productions brings you the Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets Redux @ Basement on Sunday, January 10!

Send an email to me for more information on the January 10 show: jacksonallers@gmail.com

In a basement in downtown Beirut, Jackson Allers gets the lowdown on the Lebanese hip-hop underground.

BEIRUT CITY (January 2008) – I check I have the right address. Could Black and White, a swanky venue in the upmarket district of Monot, really be the epicentre of Beirut’s nascent hip-hop movement? Zipping my jacket open, exhaling the last bit of cold-weather condensation from my mouth, I make my way down the stairs and catch the muffled thud of a major sound-system.

A nod to the bouncer, the obligatory body-search and then full immersion into a dungeon filled with dozens of heads bobbing in unison to old-school jams from the golden era of rap, the early 1990s, when hip-hop effortlessly combined political intent with truly innovative musical arrangements.

For a second I think I’m somewhere else. Was this Lebanon or Fort Greene, Brooklyn? After 15 years of covering and promoting hiphop in the United States, I found the unpretentious, fashionable street vibe of Black and White awfully familiar.

MC Siska from the oldest Lebanese hip-hop crew - Kita' Beirut

“Yo Jacks, wassup? kifak?” MC Siska of the veteran hip-hop group Kitaa Beirut gives me a big hug and the mandatory handshake, a slide across the palm leading to a meeting of closed fists. “Word ya khayi (brother), you ready to mash it up tonight?” I inquire.

He nods and smiles, “You know how we do,” his woven hat and full beard making him look much older than his 24 years.

Over in the corner, surrounded by an entourage of hipsters who look like they’ve been plucked straight from the pages of Fader or XXL, is Malikah, one of the newest kids on the block and a finalist in MTV Arabia’s answer to American Idol, Hip Hop Na (Our Hip Hop). Also known as MC Lix, her reputation as a powerful live performer is on the up and many are in the club solely to see her perform. “I hope to set the bar for up-and-coming female rappers in the Arab world – like a role model,” she once told me. “Maybe I can even have my own production studio to help them grow.” Confidence is a good thing and Malikah has it in spades.

“How ya doin’ Beirut City, Lebanon,” yells DJ Lethal Skillz, the reigning king of the city’s hip-hop scene and the man anchoring the production on this night. “Let me know you’re feelin’ this!” Hands shoot up on the packed dance floor as Dr. Dre’s anthem Let Me Ride is cranked up. With his trademark dark-tinted goggles and oversized silver timepiece on his wrist, Skillz mixes his way through an anthology of hip-hop – and the crowd’s loving it.

DJ Lethal Skillz workin' the decks on that legendary evening © Tanya Traboulsi

Over fifteen years, Lethal Skillz has become Lebanon’s number one practitioner of turntablism – playing Technics SL-1200 record decks instead of traditional instruments. He has invested thousands of dollars in a professional studio where he can work with Lebanon’s rap talent – a collective that’s become known as the 961 Underground Family. They performed in Poland in the autumn of 2007 for the first time under the 961 moniker, thrilling the eastern European audiences with a rare blast of home-grown Arabic hip-hop.

As I’m drawn towards the stage, I greet two visiting MCs from Los Angeles: “Wassup Omar? Hey Ragtop! Wassup you two?” Omar Offendum, a Syrian-American rapper from the group The N.O.M.A.D.S, and Ragtop, a Palestinian-American from The Philistines, are here for the week as guests of the 961 Underground Family. “Man, performing in Beirut with Skillz and crew – it feels like history in the making,” Offendum tells me.

“Mic check. One two, one two.” A voice from the stage informs us that the show is about to get started. The subsequent live performance flows from Mic Mssadah (Rusty Mic), a track featuring Siska and RGB, to Ragtop and Omar Offendum’s heavily sampled Arabic melodies on Teezie and Nimroud (Stubborn). Their stage presence is immense and their deliveries are flawless.

Next up is Malikah, whose electrifying set peaks with Tafrikah (Discrimination), with its highly charged lyrics about the West’s narrow-minded perception of Arabs. Afterwards, the MCs freestyle until 3am, when the turntables stop spinning and a small contingent of us go back to Lethal Skillz’s Red Leb Studios to keep the party alive.

Unlike the States, where the East, West, and Central Coast scenes vie for legitimacy, Lebanon’s hip-hop movement works from the same lyric sheet. Sunnis, Shias, Christians, Syrians, Armenians and Africans all join the cypher. Given what Lebanon’s going through, I couldn’t help but feel that hiphop has a unifying power.

“There’s no room for beef (rivalries) in a country as small as Lebanon,” Lethal Skillz tells me. “Especially when we’re struggling to create a market here. Sticking together is the only way we can grow this movement and show both Arabs and non-Arabs that we’re legit.”

The 961 Underground Family consists of members from all sides of the political divide. They may not always agree when it comes to politics, but they’ve come to rely on each other for encouragement, support and inspiration. Which is exactly the way it should be.

Ragtop from the Philistines (left) and Omar Offendum from The N.O.M.A.D.S. will perform again at Basement with Mark Gonzales on January 10

Levant Hip-Hop Essentials:

1.) Radio in Beirut – NO GOOD HIP-HOP RADIO IN LEBANON but peep DJ Sotusura’s show URBAN BEATS online at 102.5 Beat FM in Amman, Jordan on Wednesday’s from 9pm – 11pm (Jordan time +2 GMT)
2.) The Essential Albums – Eslam Jawaad’s solo debut album ‘Mammoth Tusk’, DJ Lethal Skillz’ ‘New World Disorder,’ and The Naricyst’s debut solo effort ‘Phatwa’

Eslam Jawaad: an old-school Arab MC comes correct

We are in the throes of Arab hip-hop’s most significant contributions to the larger world hip-hop massive (Diaspora). Arab hip-hop crews the world over are feelin’ it. Like sharks attracted to blood, Lebanese, Moroccan, Palestinian, and (fill-in-the-blank) Arab MC’s are schoolin’ up to take a bite out of the Arabic hip-hop phenomenon. Lebanese-Syrian MC Eslam Jawaad is one of the leaders of this new school.

By JACKSON ALLERS

The Album Cover: Eslam Jawaad with a couple of Siberian mammoth tusks pointing him in the right direction…an errant mafia deal with a pair of mammoth tusks helped turn all his attention to the hip-hop music hustle. © Eslmaphobic

BEIRUT/LONDON -  Eslam Jawaad (real name Wissam Khodur), the 32-year old ex-Lebanese mafia affiliate and father of three isn’t some fresh-faced, knuckleheaded-hobby-rapper talking about what it means to “stay true to the hip-hop game” while barely scrapping by eating $2 dollar slices of pizza (or manaeesh as it were) and begging for metro fare – all the while espousing the tenets of the “revolution.”

“If you want to do this rap thing out of pure the love for the (hip-hop recording) game. Then do it and I’ll support you all the way,” he tells me in a phone call from his home in London – where he’s been based since late 2003.

“I’m not doing it out of the pure love for the game anymore. I’m no longer a young buck. And I’ve been in the game for so long that this is all I know how to do. If I have to raise my family and still be a revolutionary, I need money. Simple as.” The man has a family to feed.

Nearly 4-years in the making, Eslam’s debut album ‘Mammoth Tusk’ hit stores in this summer in the UK (no stats on album sales at print time).

Pairing down some 80-recorded tracks to 15, ‘Mammoth Tusk’ reads like a who’s who of rap royalty, in part because of his affiliation to Wu-Tang Clan [legendary NY-based hip-hop group] family member – the Dutch-Moroccan rapper/producer and manager Cilvaringz, who Eslam hooked up with in 2003 after Cilvaringz heard his demo in the UK.

Along with Cilvaringz, the Wu Tang Clan’s RZA [the Wu Tang Clan's mastermind] lends production help on the track ‘So Real’ featuring Palestinian R&B singer/MC Shadia Mansour (also out of the UK).

Original Native Tongues (a collective of late 1980s and early 1990s hip-hop artists) member, De La Soul (left) join Eslam on a classic hip hop track ‘Rewind DJ,’ and in a skit on the track ‘It wasn’t me…’, US-based white-boy rapper Eminem’s radio DJs Lord Sear and Rude Jude of Sirius/Shade45 satellite radio jokingly accused Eslam of blowing up the World Trade’s on 9-11 during a live interview.

But the title song (and album namesake), ‘The Mammoth Tusk’ produced by Dr. Dre’s right hand man Focus, is the track that provides the most fodder for gossip.

“The track tells the tale of a failed business deal between the Syrian and Lebanese mobs over a Siberian mammoth tusk.”

“I was expecting to make a lot of money from the deal ($1.6 million), and when that money didn’t come through, it made me realize that the (mob) life wasn’t for me…I wasn’t willing to go all the way with the shit.”

Lucky for Arab hip-hop heads that the old-guard Lebanese mobsters weren’t prepared to let some young upstart cash in on such payola.

BEATS AND BREATH caught up with Eslam in May, only a month after recording sessions with Damon Albarn, frontman for Blur and the virtual group Gorillaz. [Albarn also lends his production skills to 'Mammoth Tusk' on the track 'Alarm Chord' which has that eerie Gorillaz hallmark sound all over it.]

Eslam Jawaad (left) during a show with the Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) fronted group “The Good, the Bad & the Queen” – which features musical legends – Tony Allen (pictured lower left), Fela Kuti’s musical director and the leader and drummer of the Africa 70′; Paul Simonon, bassist from The Clash (pictured, right), and Simon Tong from the Verve on guitar.

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BEATS AND BREATH: Let’s talk about ‘Mammoth Tusk.’ You’re getting much press for this story that led to the naming of this album.

ESLAM JAWAAD: “Well. Where do I begin? It’s a story from when I was working with the Lebanese mob. As you can tell, it involves the sale of a Siberian mammoth tusk that the Russian mob sold to a businessman in Dubai.”

“He was looking to sell it to a Syrian group that approached me to see if I could hustle it off to the Lebanese mob.”

“I eventually got cut out of the deal which took me a few months to set up. My mistake was that I tried to make the deal go down in Lebanon when I should’ve let it go down in Syria.”

“The bottom line is that these guys were gangsters and they were not about to let some kid walk away with like $1.6 million.”

B&B: An article in The Independent (“Preaching to the Unconverted” March, 27) suggests it was this botched deal that convinced you to move to the UK to do your music full-time. Is that accurate? Where was the music when you were working with the mob?

EJ: “My music was there all along. It predated any involvement with the mob. I think my involvement in the mob came from my involvement with music. It’s not the other way around, but the Independent article seems to suggest the opposite – that the mob thing didn’t work out so I turned to music instead.”

“I think the type of music that I was listening to encouraged my fascination with mob culture. It was the mid-90s and it was like everybody was listening and romanticizing mob culture.”

“Culture of the Godfather and Scarface. Everybody loved them, you know what I mean? Youth culture and music then, it developed around mob affiliating or wanting to be mob affiliated.”

“I just really ‘was’ mob affiliated.”

Eslam Jawaad’s video from his single ‘Pivot Widdot’ featuring the Lebanese-based female MC Malikah

B&B: You’re representing the Arab hip-hop Diaspora. Why the UK and not Lebanon?

EJ: “Very simply, when I was in the Beirut at the time, the industry was showing no love to what we were doing.”

“Despite my hustling for 3 years out of university trying to do the rap thing in Lebanon, I realized it wasn’t going to happen. I had a couple of contacts in the UK and decided to try my hand at it.”

“I was lucky enough to have met UK acts (Asian Dub Foundation, Visionary Underground and UK Apache) who liked what I was doing, and supported me early on in my move.”

“And it continued when I met guys like Cilvaringz, and Damon (Albarn).”

B&B: So there were barriers in Lebanon?

EJ: “With Lebanon specifically, I think it’s a lot more exclusive that other Arab countries.”

“If you lived abroad somehow you’re considered cooler than the folks trying to do it locally.  Sadly a lot of the homegrown kids propped up the idea.”

B&B: But what do you think when young rappers play the hater role – talking trash about those making a living at hip-hop as opposed to those who are “doing it for the love of the game?”

EJ: “I say get off your fucking high-horse already. I don’t care how YOU do it!”

“If you can make money by yelling ‘Fuck the government!’ or ‘Sell drugs’ – then I say do it! What matters is what you’re doing in your life. I don’t care what you’re doing as long as you have good quality.”

“I for one have never sold out the message, I just present it in a commercial way. But the message is inherent in my album. Still, it ain’t the hardcore presentation I used to have.”

“Now I package my singles with more of the club vibe in mind. There’s no rules! Anyway! Who the hell says you’re a ‘real hip-hop artist’ if you do this or that?”

“I can guarantee any artist that is listened to, respected, loved, etc – no matter how hard core or revolutionary – they all make money. That’s how you get heard!”

“Take (New York City/New Jersey-based rapper) Immortal Technique for example. He’s helping with hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is feeding something like 20,000 kids in Africa.”

“Good on him! That’s what you gotta do, make money so you can do that!”

“Take Ziad Rahbani (son to legendary Lebanese diva Fairouz). He’s all about the message – all about the Arab cause. But how intelligent is his presentation? He’s not goin’ out wildin’ and saying ‘Fuck the government!’ But he IS saying that, if you’re listening. AND he’s making money.”

B&B: Will there be that breakout pan-Arab hip-hop album that will be listened to throughout the Arab world?

EJ: “Currently there’s two movements, which go hand and hand really. There’s the ARAP movement (started in 2004) that I think was the first pan-Arab, multi-national hip-hop movement representing Arab hip-hop specifically because it consisted of Moroccans, Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinians. (Salah Edin, Palestine, Cilvaringz, Eslam Jawaad, and Mohalim)

Now there’s the Arab League with a lot of people crossing over between the two groups. They are also pan-Arab, and have recently put out a track. [MC.Amin (Egypt), Arabian Knightz (Egypt), Wighit Nazar, The PharoZ, Malikah (Lebanon), Shadia Mansour (Palestine/UK), www.fredwreck.com/ ">Fredwreck (Palestine/USA), Solo Ltd.]

(NOTE: Eslam is affiliated with both groups, but primarily reps it for 3rap)

“But Salah Edin (pictured © Laith Majali), the Dutch-Moroccan MC has just released his third album (produced by Cilvaringz and released on Wu Tang Clan International label and distributed by Universal Music).”

“I think it’s the first proper Arab hip-hop album. From beginning to end – the production, musically. I mean, the ideas and the little sounds that you add here and there. It’s just professionally at the best quality you can get, and the message is on point.”

“It’s up there with all of the top American hip-hop you can think of. You know what I mean?”

“His flow on top of that. My only observation is that Salah’s accent is Moroccan and that limits his Arab audience. But I’ve spoken about this to him.”

B&B: You’ve listened to your album a million times, so I ask, what are your stand out tracks on ‘Mammoth Tusk?’

EJ: Phonetically, I love ‘Criminuhl.’ I also really love ‘Babba’s Shotgun’ (about resisting the French colonial police back in his grandfather’s days as a Lebanese revolutionary.)

Then there’s ‘Heave Ho’ which is actually about the second coming of Christ. I don’t know if most people is picking up on that.

B&B: Do you see yourself moving towards to the more Damon Albarn, Gorillaz-vibe or more the ARAP, Cilvaringz sound?

EJ: “Well, ARAP for sure. But, I love what’s goin’ on with Damon. I don’t like being boxed in or defined by any one movement though, or one sound.”

“I’m working on an album with a Palestinian electronic music producer in the UK, Darwish, and it’s not hip-hop.”

“I’m also doing stuff with some of these hip white boy bands like Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly – Baby Shambles – Reverend and the Makers, Magic Numbers, and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.”

“But I’m excited to see what happens with ‘Mammoth Tusk.’ It’s been such a long process.”