More Hip Hop in Israel

Last night I went to a concert in Ramle to celebrate Human Rights week held by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.



















The artists were both Palestinian and Israeli, and it was so amazing that regardless of nationality, everyone spoke and performed in Arabic and Hebrew and sometimes even English.

I finally got to meet Saz!
He's as wonderful in person as I imagined.









DAM also performed as well in addition to Israeli rappers like Sagol 59.













After the concert, we went out with a few of the performers including Saz and talked about the hip hop scene in Jerusalem. Mostly I talked with an Israeli rapper, and it was interesting because he mentioned that almost all the inter-cultural musical events were set up by Israelis, but he had never been invited to perform at a Palestinian concert though he's performed several times with Arab and Palestinian rappers, and he's a good friend of Saz.

It almost made up for the fact that I missed the European-Palestinian Hip Hop tour in Ramallah and Bethlehem.























Also, check out Shadia Mansour!

I must say, this internship is not so shabby.

From ouds to rap

On my way back home on the bus from the old city tonight, two men sitting next to me took out their ouds and had a little jam session in the back of the bus the whole way home. They were pretty good too! I love the Middle East.

I asked if it would be all right to take a picture:


Also, some other good news, I got an internship!

I'll be working under a professor at the Truman Institute with her project on Palestinian youth culture-specifically the Palestinian hip-hop and rap scene.

The professor is good friends with G-Town and Saz, and hopefully I'll get to meet them too. Look them up on myspace.com music-they're really good. Also, check out DAM, The Philistines, Sabreena da Witch (Abeer), and P.R. The Palestinian Rapperz.

Jordan, working for you was the best idea ever.