WEST BANK: Palestinian rap group The Black Revolution perform in concert, hoping to raise awareness of social issues through their music

Record ID: 561192

  • Title: WEST BANK: Palestinian rap group The Black Revolution perform in concert, hoping to raise awareness of social issues through their music
  • Date: 30th July 2009
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) RAJEH DANA, RAPPER, SAYING: "Honestly, I didn't expect this audience to come. We are new rap group and in our first steps, I am surprised but it was great."
  • Embargoed: 14th August 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVAEEEBVE36SL48VKG3P6FSD6Q6J
  • Story Text: The Black Revolution, a Palestinian rap group from the conservative West Bank city of Hebron, release their first single online and on CD.
    The group hope to raise more awareness of the social issues surrounding them through their rap.
    "We are singing Palestinian national songs, about Hebron and reality, social issues. We tell people about these issues in a simplified and easy way and people like these songs," said group member Rajeh Dana.
    Dana initially began performing solo in 2007 but was soon joined by Abdel Muti Yaghmour in 2008. Shortly afterwards, the group grew to have a total of three members when Wajdi Abu Sneneh joined and has remained so since.
    The groups' music focuses on the situation for Palestinians in Hebron with a particular focus on Jewish settler activities and attacks in the area.
    Dana said that when The Black Revolution first began recording, they were hesitant and worried about the reaction they may get from people in the city.
    "We began with a some fear, to begin with, our idea was to make music but between each other, just recordings. Our friends found it strange in Hebron city; as you know it is a social problem if the people accept it in Hebron," he said.
    "But thanks to God, after recording and the first concert, people liked the idea," he added.
    The group, who performed a concert in Hebron and attracted a significant audience, believe their raps are a good way to portray the suffering of the Palestinian people as well as a means of reinforcing their national identity.
    However, their raps have been criticised by some as trying to imitate Western art.
    "We use our songs as a dialogue with our society," said Yaghmour.
    "In the beginning they said we were imitating the West, but we are not imitating the West because we talk about issues in our society. It's not wrong to take good things from the West but it is wrong to take the wrong things. So we take the right things and if they need correcting, we correct them," he continued.
    With other Palestinian rap groups such as DAM and MWR already on the scene, it seems this form of expression is becoming an increasingly popular in the region.
    The Black Revolution hope to release their first album later this summer.
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