Palestinian hip hop allegedly started in 1998 with Tamer Nafar

Tamer Nafar

Tamer Nafar , is a Palestinian and Arab-Israeli rap artist.Tamer was born on June 6, 1979 in the city of Lod, Israel. He began writing and making rap music in 1998 and in 2000 his brother Suhell and their friend Mahmoud Jrere joined him to start the first Palestinian-Arab or Arab Israeli rap group,...

's group DAM

DAM (band)

DAM is a Palestinian hip-hop group. Based in Lod, Israel, DAM was founded in 1999 by brothers Tamar and Suhell Nafar and their friend Mahmoud Jreri, and their songs are largely about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and poverty...

. These Palestinian youth forged the new Palestinian musical sub-genre, which blends Arabic melodies and hip hop

Hip hop

Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...

 beats. Lyrics are often sung in Arabic, Hebrew, English, and sometimes French.

Borrowing from traditional rap music that first emerged in New York in the 1970s, "young Palestinian musicians have tailored the style to express their own grievances with the social and political climate in which they live and work." Palestinian hip hop works to challenge stereotype

Stereotype

A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...

s and instigate dialogue about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...

.

Non-Hip hop musical influences

Historically, music has served as an integral accompaniment to various social and religious rituals and ceremonies in Palestinian society (Al-Taee 47). Much of the Middle-Eastern and Arabic string instruments utilized in classical Palestinian music are sampled over Hip-hop beats in both Israeli and Palestinian hip-hop as part of a joint process of localization. Just as the percussiveness of the Hebrew language is emphasized in Israeli Hip-hop, Palestinian music has always revolved around the rhythmic specificity and smooth melodic tone of Arabic. “Musically speaking, Palestinian songs are usually pure melody performed monophonically with complex vocal ornamentations and strong percussive rhythm beats”. The presence of a hand-drum in classical Palestinian music indicates a cultural esthetic conducive to the vocal, verbal and instrumental percussion which serve as the foundational elements of Hip-hop.

Themes

Many Palestinian Hip Hop artists base most of their music on the fight between Palestinian rappers who seek peace with justice. These artists, like the group, DAM, also sends messages against patriarchy, drugs , and violence. Most of these messages in Palestinian Hip-Hop directly contradict ideals in American rap. It would be simple for these Palestinians to step into a world of violence right outside their door. Instead, they attempt to spread their politically conscious messages to the world.

Media

American filmmaker Jackie Salloum's

Jackie Salloum

Jackie Salloum is an American-born filmmaker of Palestinian descent. Her work has been featured at Sundance Film Festival and the Arab Film Festival. She is the director of Slingshot Hip Hop, which is the first feature-length film about Palestinian Hip-Hop....

 2008 feature length documentary Slingshot Hip Hop

Slingshot Hip Hop

Slingshot Hip Hop is a 2008 documentary film directed by Jackie Reem Salloum which traces the history and development of Palestinian hip hop, in Palestine from the time DAM pioneered the art form in the late 1990s...

 traces the history and development of Palestinian Hip Hop in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip from the time DAM pioneered the art form in the late 1990s. DAM, Palestinian Rapperz, Mahmoud Shalabi, and female artists Arapeyat and Abeer Zinaty are all featured in the documentary. The film was screened at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival

2008 Sundance Film Festival

The 2008 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 17, 2008 to January 27 in Park City, Utah. It was the 24th iteration of the Sundance Film Festival. The opening night film was In Bruges and the closing night film was CSNY Déjà Vu.-Films:...