Converting Islamic ideals to a hip-hop flow
Caille Millner
Monday, May 11, 2009

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/10/ED9L17H9IA.DTL

To convert to Islam, a man or woman must pronounce the shahada, or testimony of
faith, either in private or in public. The convert states that there is no God
but Allah and that Muhammad is his prophet; the reason, according to the Quran,
is that followers need to understand that they may not worship anything but God.
Many converts opt to shower either before or after their declaration, to
symbolize the repenting of sins from their previous life. Nothing more is
required.

Becoming a rapper is a bit more complicated. The sheer technical skill (learning
rhythm and meter, building a vocabulary, adjusting one's voice) often requires
years of practice, and then there is the not-so-small matter of developing beats
and musical production. The convert to rap must also prepare to adjust his
lifestyle. The most successful rappers on the market focus their subject matter
and their public appearances around a small list of topics: one's previous
experiences of poverty, drugs - especially the dealing thereof - guns and/or
criminal records, fast money and loose women.

The twain shall meet, however, as I learned while watching "New Muslim Cool," a
new documentary about a Puerto Rican convert, Hamza Perez, who gave up
drug-dealing in exchange for Islam, but couldn't quit hip-hop. Perez's new life
is certainly rich with subject matter - the FBI raids his mosque without giving
a reason; he teaches prisoners in the county jail until his security clearance
is mysteriously revoked - but it's a different kind of subject matter, and he's
operating under different constraints. His ideal audience isn't the head of a
major label - it's the young men hanging out on the corner, to whom Perez offers
his albums and a new way of life. He doesn't consider there to be anything odd
about this. He considers his music to be a form of da'wa, or religious outreach.

"New Muslim Cool" will be showing on PBS on June 23, but I couldn't wait that
long to find out more. Perez's record label was originally based in the Bay Area
- where there is, apparently, a thriving Islamic hip-hop scene.

"Oh, I love being a citizen of the Bay," Tyson Amir-Mustafa told me.
Amir-Mustafa is a 29-year-old San Jose native who's released four
Islamic-influenced rap albums. "Islam is still young here. The Muslim community
is still shaping its identity here. And it's very much a Muslim-American
identity, with no question that the two things can go hand in hand."

And the "American" portion of that identity would include hip-hop. Many local
Islamic rappers have been rapping longer than they've been Muslim.

"I started writing poetry, winning poetry awards when I was 10 years old," said
Amir Abdul-Shakur, who's 26 and originally from Oakland. "Then I started honing
my rap skills in middle school." Abdul-Shakur, who raps under the name Five
Eighty, converted to Islam in 2000. There are no contradictions, he said, "but
there are a lot of things I can't talk about. There are a lot of things I just
don't do."

Those things would include: drinking alcohol, using drugs, any kind of criminal
behavior, casual sex. Both men are married. Neither wants to use his music to
evangelize.

It would seem to be hard to create lyrics around these limitations until I
realized that they both had a bigger topic than most mainstream rappers: their
own personal journeys. After all, the rap marketplace is saturated with the same
old, same old - who better to offer a different take on risk and reward than a
converted Muslim rapper?

"You're already different," Amir-Mustafa told me. "People are already looking at
you with all these associations, all these misperceptions. So why not take the
opportunity to talk about things they're not used to hearing in the music,
things like integrity? Why not talk about why you decided to go a different
way?"

Caille Millner is an editorial writer. E-mail: cmillner@....
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Youssou N'Dour film explores music and Islam
Wed Jun 17, 2009 1:50am IST

http://in.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idINIndia-40383820090616

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pop singer Youssou N'Dour's 2004 album of Islamic music
earned him a boycott by some Muslim fans, but in a new documentary about the
album, "Egypt," he says the music has encouraged a deeper appreciation for
Islam.

"Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love," a documentary by Chai Vasarhelyi that
opened in New York on Friday, contrasts the enthusiastic response the
Grammy-winning album "Egypt" got during a tour in Europe and Asia with its cold
reception in his native Senegal, where it was the subject of a boycott.

"I was frustrated. The music wasn't speaking to people," N'Dour told Reuters
about the reaction in his home country.

"When there's a break with tradition, or something changes, people can't accept
it right away. It takes a little more time," the 49-year-old singer said,
speaking in French through a translator.

"I felt that the album could be a positive contribution," he said. "My music ...
it says that Islam is tolerance and peace."

The film explores the controversy over the album, following N'Dour on tour and
after he won a Grammy for "Egypt" in 2005.

In Europe, N'Dour's performances of songs like "Allah," performed in the Wolof
language with a classical Egyptian orchestra, were met mostly with dancing and
standing ovations, and only a few complications.

At a concert in Ireland, N'Dour, who describes himself as a devout Muslim,
discovered that audience members were drinking beer. He delayed his performance
for a half hour with a plea that it be alcohol-free.

In Senegal, newspapers accused N'Dour -- who has collaborated with Bono and
Peter Gabriel, and is known for his annual all-night concerts in Paris and New
York and at his club in Dakar -- of insulting Islam, arguing that pop and
religious music should not mix.

When N'Dour joined other members of the Mouride brotherhood, a branch of African
Sufi Islam, on the annual pilgrimage to Senegal's holy city of Touba, he was
shunned.

Descendants of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, a Muslim mystic, poet and pacifist who
founded the Mouride brotherhood in the 1880s, even threatened N'Dour with a
lawsuit, though the threat was later called a misunderstanding.

The controversy was largely forgotten after N'Dour, the highest-selling African
artist, won his first Grammy for the album. N'Dour went on to perform religious
music with one of Senegal's most famous praise singers.

"It was also an opportunity to say to our community of religious singers that we
all are doing music. We can sing together," N'Dour said.


DELAYED AFTER SEPT. 11 ATTACKS

In recording "Egypt," N'Dour said he was inspired to introduce a global audience
to music that "praises the tolerance of my religion" and showcased West Africa's
contributions to Islam.

Mouridism is widely practiced in Senegal and Gambia and counts several million
adherents. It focuses on the mystical elements of Islam and emphasizes the role
of a spiritual guide, or marabout.

The album's name is a tribute to Umm Kulthum, the Egyptian singer whose music
N'Dour grew up listening to with his father, a devout Muslim and a disciple of
Bamba.

N'Dour recorded the album prior to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in the United
States, but delayed its release to avoid any association between the music and
the attacks.

"It has no relationship to 9/11, and I didn't want to release it then because I
didn't want it to be taken as something that was linked to 9/11," he said.

By 2004, he said he felt he had waited long enough.

"Music is part of everything. My religion is also part of everything," N'Dour
said.
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A Muslim music video, country-western style
June 12, 9:17 AM

http://www.examiner.com/x-8519-Detroit-Muslim-Examiner~y2009m6d12-A-Muslim-music\
-video-countrywestern-style

When you cruise the streets of the metro Detroit area you are more likely to
hear rap or Arabic music (click for two of my fave artists) coming from car
stereos rather than country music. But that doesn't mean Detroit doesn't have
her avid country fans.

Ironically, the first Muslim music video that received nation wide press and
coverage was for a country song! In December 2007, over 2,000 American Muslims
were asked what they wished they could say to the world. Their responses were
then documented and many were displayed creatively on youtube for the world to
see. Many non-Muslim Americans don't realize how similar Muslims are to
themselves; they don't realize that we are normal human beings with aspirations
and needs just like theirs. The video exhibits that fact in a clever and
wholesome manner.

Sister Lena Khan, a graduate of UCLA, decided to make a video regarding American
Muslims in which viewers would be simultaneously eductated and entertained.
Around the same time Brother Kareem Salama had released his first album which
featured a beautiful song entitled A Land Called Paradise. The song became the
background music for Lena's video which features a plethora of American Muslim
types holding up signs with personal statements on them. The statements are
serious, funny, informative, and surprisingly, they're exactly what you might
expect to hear from any given American person off the street.

You'll have to watch the video above to know what I mean. I have three favorite
statements from the video; after you see it, let me know which are yours!