“Same Shit, Different Country”

DAM performing

Straight from the mouth of Tamer, one of the founding members of the Palestinian hip hop trio DAM.

I had the incredible opportunity of hanging with the aforementioned Tamer, one of the most famous hip hop artists in the Arab world. We got to talking about the significance of this music outside Palestine. I told him about my background, as an Indian Muslim and about the violent oppression and subjugation of my people. The second largest Muslim population the world, the largest Muslim minority by far, treated like shit.

“Same shit, different country, man….Oppressed people are oppressed everywhere.”

No joke. But it brings home an interesting point. When we look at the up-and coming hip hop artists with a decidedly political bent: MIA, K’Naan, Blue Scholars, Sons of Hagar, Narcicyst, Brother Ali, DAM to name a few–we see what is shared: the conception of art as a form of explicit political resistance. Art as a conceptualization of defiance in the face of unchecked, brutal domination. I’d like to see any of the lame-as-shit, sell out Fitty Cent imitators in this country measure to that standard.

I might not be Palestinian or Sri Lankan, but when I hear DAM’s “Born Here” or MIA’s “Paper Planes” (which, by the way, is actually a political song with a sly subtext) I feel camaraderie and inspiration, that we are all brothers and sisters of the same cause. To stand up and put into words and music what is unspeakable: genocide, oppression, violence, and every now and then: hope.

It’s entertaining, yeah–but art is pretty damn powerful when you see the message behind those beats and rhymes.