In late March, the MC better known as The Narcicyst released his first book. The Diatribes of a Dying Tribe is a manifesto of sorts: on bicultural identity, on globalization, on hip-hop, on hip-hop culture, on politics, on poetics, on resistance, on peace, on war, on frustration, on calm, on family, on adolescence, on Arabs in the West.
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Resistance is to be found not in one political issue but in a collective reclamation of dignity. This comes differently for each artist. The solo albums of Omar Offendum, Lowkey, KhaledM, and Arabian Knightz represent a range of identities and experiences and differ very much from each other: not just in the lyrical approaches of each artist, but in where and how each poet locates and articulates strength or pride. Offendum wraps himself in an Arabesque mystique, much of it informed by classic twentieth-century poets like Nizar Qabbani; Narcy tends towards the more ostentatiously confrontational:
“Word, I’m cocky/ the Iraqi Rocky/ Trying to shake the terror off me/ Truth I see it rarely, achi…” (from “Good Night!!!” on the self-titled album);
and Shadia Mansour, one of the most prominent female MCs in this genre, combines R&B and verse to terrific effect.
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?”Arabs and Muslims worldwide were forced to defend their stance of being. No longer were we allowed to exist without first discrediting the angst in our war-torn cities and nations, or even disassociating our thoughts from those who are less fortunate in their will to be ‘free.’”
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More here.