Lifestyle FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013
Arab rappers take revolts to next level S itting on the fringes of upheaval in the Middle East, Lebanon’s capital Beirut has become the scene of experimental music-making by Khat Thaleth, a group of rappers out to take the revolts that started during the Arab Spring to the next level. The collective has members from around the region-ranging from Tunisia, birthplace of the Arab uprising, to the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanonand vocalizes the realities of a new generation carrying the baggage of the past. Khat Thaleth literally means “Third Track”, a metaphor for an alternative take on the polarized societies and politics of the region, and a reference to the Hijaz Muslim pilgrimage railway which once connected the Arab world. “We’re not doing rap. This is not the same as American or French music; it has to do with our culture, our history,” said Al Sayyed Darwish, a member of the Syrian trio LaTlateh. The 24-year-old from Homs, known as the capital of the Syrian revolution, said the protests which have swept the Middle Eastern region since 2010 lit the fuse for the collaboration which he describes as “a first of its kind”. “People and the street are so far ahead of us... We need to catch up with them,” Darwish told AFP. As Syrian hip-hop developed alongside the nearly two-year-old revolt against the regime, “people started to listen... and it became more direct,” he said. On the morning of a concert in early February to plug the rappers’ album release, Darwish said he was well aware that much of the audience would be expecting the Syrian rappers to speak of the struggle in their country. “It’s a big responsibility that you have 250 people (at)
a concert,” he said. “And they are expecting you to give them something to relieve them... So it’s a big responsibility, a big pleasure and a big honour for me to be a representative for my people and my revolution.” Though the Khat Thaleth artists come from similar backgrounds, they do not shrink from belting out sharply divergent views-even on the same track. On “Souret Soureya” (Verse of Syria), El Rass, who hails from the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, goes head-to-head with Paris-based Lebanese artist Hamourabi on the Syrian revolt. “El Rass is talking about the revolution and how the rebels are moving, and Hamourabi is saying they are terrorists and it’s a conspiracy” yet “they are on the same track, and it’s great to have this diversity,” said Darwish. “We would love to show people that you don’t have to kill each other for having different points of view.” And those points of view cover some big subjects. In the song “E-stichrak” (Orientalism) — borrowing the title of the Edward Said book that said Western caricatures of Islamic culture were used to justify colonialism-El Rass and El Faraai, a Palestinian-Jordanian, bemoan a modern form of imperialism. “They brought the dumbest American to come teach me my human rights... while a Sudanese engineer gets stopped at the border and thrown in a cell,” the lyrics go. Raw poetry Darwish and veteran Palestinian rapper Tamer Naffar, meanwhile, together criticise the stale anti-Western rhetoric of Arab regimes on the track “Kursi Aatiraf” (Interrogation Chair). They rap: “Don’t keep
Lebanese hip-hop artist El Rass performs on stage during a concert for the outcome of the ‘Khat Thaleth’ project in Beirut. — AFP photos
Lebanese hip-hop artist Nusrdeen Touffar performs on stage during a concert for the outcome of the ‘Khat Thaleth’ project. telling me about the colonisers and occupiers. Look how (well) they treat each other, the ones you despise. Then look how we deal with each other and start to be jealous.” The raw poetry of the young rappers has earned them a devoted audience since the start of the project in March 2012. At the concert, fans say the artists get right to the heart of the issue. “They speak about the pulse of the street and social themes... Their goal is to better the
current situation,” said 29-year-old Hassan, a videographer. “French rap or American rap doesn’t talk to me or represent what I feel or live. But when I heard Arabic rap, it really spoke to me,” said Mira Minkara, a manager at the Beirut Arts Centre. Chef Mohammed Sayyed said he went to the concert to hear the rappers’ take on current events in the region. “They sing about our fears, about the politics, the things we always think aboutthey are the ones who say it out loud,” said the 26-year-old. As they perform “Min Al-Awwal” (From the Start), the Touffar duo from Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley warn the audience not to be complacent about change the Arab revolution has brought. “There are thieves making a living from the revolution, and other thieves waiting in line. The victory of the revolution takes two revolutions: One against the regime strangling freedom, another against those awaiting its victory to steal,” they blast. — AFP
Hollywood legend Spielberg to head Cannes jury
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teven Spielberg, named head of the Cannes Film Festival jury Wednesday, is a Hollywood legend and one of modern cinema’s most influential filmmakers-even if his awards glory has faded of late. The 66-year-old was named to the prestigious post days after his second disappointing awards season in two years, with his top-tipped drama “Lincoln” going home with only two Oscars out of 12 nominations last weekend. So it will come as a welcome honor to be selected to help choose this year’s Palme d’Or at the world’s top film festival, to be held on the French Rivieria May 15-26. Spielberg has directed more than 50 films in his five-decade career, including pop culture touchstones such as “Jaws,” “E.T.,” “Indiana Jones” and “Jurassic Park.” His movies-a canny mix of big-budget, effects-laden blockbusters and intensely personal projects-have raked in over $4 billion at the box office, according to Boxofficemojo. However, he won his last Oscar for best director 14 years ago for “Saving Private Ryan,” and
despite repeated nominations, he has fallen short of his earlier awardwinning success. Born in the eastern US state of Ohio in December 1946 and raised in Arizona, Spielberg is the oldest of four children born to a Jewish engineer and a musician mother. By the age of 12, he had made his first movie, an eight-minute Western called “The Last Gun,” which the future mogul financed with proceeds from a tree-planting business. Two years later, he had made two more films, a war movie and another in which he spliced World War II newsreel footage of planes together with film he had taken at his local airporthis first special effects. After leaving school, Spielberg went to university near Los Angeles but dropped out and began hanging around Hollywood’s Universal Studios, where he became a tour guide. After sneaking onto sets, he was spotted by a screenwriter who taught cinematic techniques, and when he was 22, Universal gave him a seven-year contract making televi-
sion shows after his short film, “Amblin,’” won a prize. He made the classic TV suspense movie “Duel” in 1971, the story of a traveling salesman being pursued by a psychopath in a truck, which was so well received that it was released in theaters. His career took off and he became a household name in 1975 with his second big-screen movie, the risky shark thriller “Jaws,” which entered into pop culture lore and launched the tradition of the summer blockbuster. A string of mega-successes followed: “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977); “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981), with Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones; “Poltergeist” and “E.T.” in 1982; and the dinosaur epic “Jurassic Park” (1993). He began producing movies with “E.T.” but came into his own in the field after he produced the 1985 blockbuster “Back to the Future,” soon becoming one of Hollywood’s richest and most powerful movie moguls. His estimated net worth is $3.2 billion, according to Forbes magazine. But alongside his
File photo shows US film director Steven Spielberg leaving after a ceremony at the National WWII Memorial in Washington, DC. —AP action-packed blockbusters, Spielberg has also made several movies that were close to his heart, including “Schindler’s List”; “The Color Purple” (1985), with Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey; “Amistad” (1997), about the slave trade; and 2005’s “Munich.” Spielberg secured his first best
director Oscar for “Schindler’s List,” based on a true story about a German businessman who protected Jews during the Holocaust. After some less successful projects, Spielberg cofounded the DreamWorks SKG studio in 1994 along with former Disney president Jeffrey Katzenberg and music producer David Geffen, a move that reversed his fortunes with a string of hits. His 2011 comic book adaptation “Tintin” won an Oscar nomination for its music. He followed that with “War Horse”-which was nominated for six Oscars but won zero-and then “Lincoln,” which lost to Ben Affleck’s “Argo” for best film and Ang Lee for best director at the 85th Academy Awards last Sunday. His upcoming projects include teaming up with Ford again on “Indiana Jones 5,” said already to be in the works, according to the IMDb industry website. Spielberg is married to actress Kate Capshaw, with whom he has five children, and he also has another child with his first wife, Amy Irving. — AFP