"It captures the youths' quest for exemption and a right life and gives us motivation," Hashmi said as he sat in his truck on the outskirts of the breast line city of Ajdabiya. He was listening to "Youth of the Revolution," which the rap group Music Masters wrote just days later the rebellion began in mid-February.
"Moammar, get out, get out, game over! I'm a big, big soldier!" sang 20-year-old Milad Faraway, who started Music Masters with his acquaintance and neighbor, 22-year-old Mohammed Madani, at the end of 2010.
Rather than grabbing AK-47s and aim to the breast line with former rebels to fight Gadhafi's forces, Faraway and Madani stayed in Benghazi, the de facto capital of rebel-held eastern Libya, and picked up a microphone.
"Everyone has his own way of fighting, and my arm is art," said Faraway, a geology student, during a recent recording session in a little way on the 4th level of an aging apartment building in downtown Benghazi. The board was furnished with little more than a microphone, stereo and computer.
The way was adorned with a big red, black and green rebel flag and a framed picture of the Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash. Faraway and Madani smoked cigarettes and sipped steaming glasses of sweet tea as they recorded lyrics for their latest song, a protection to cities caught up in the revolution.
The freewheeling rap scene developing in Benghazi indicates how often has changed in eastern Libya in the preceding two months. Speaking out against Gadhafi before the rebellion used to mean prison and perhaps even death. And rap, like other forms of Western culture, was hated by Gadhafi, who burned foreign musical instruments and books after he seized power in 1969.
"I ever wanted to speak about Gadhafi's mistakes and crimes, but we never had the risk for free speech," said Madani, who is the son of a notable local singer in Benghazi and works part-time in his family's cell phone and car parts shops. "All you could talk about was how good Gadhafi's revolution was."
Faraway, who like many rappers in Benghazi is known by his nickname, "Dark Man," and Madani, aka "Madani Lion," form the effect of Music Masters, but the constitution of the grouping has changed over time. One of the rappers quit just after the rebellion started because he feared being targeted by Gadhafi's thugs, Madani said. The group recently added 24-year-old Rami Raki, aka "Ram Rak," who grew up in Manchester, England.
Many of the songs that Music Masters and other groups have recorded in the preceding two months feature rapid fire lyrics reminiscent of Eminem. The lyrics ridicule Gadhafi and flog him for his treatment of the nation in the preceding 4 decades.
"Gadhafi, open your eyes full and you will see that the Libyan people just broke through the fear barrier," sang the radical Revolution Beat in their song "17 February," a citation to the so-called "Day of Passion" when protesters took to the streets in various towns and clashed with security forces.
Roughly a dozen rap songs recorded since the beginning of the revolt have been put on CDs with rebel-inspired album covers and are usable for sale in downtown Benghazi. One handle has a drawing of fighters on a captured Gadhafi tank flying the rebel flag.
Some of the songs mix Arabic and English, a will to the American origins of rap. When the rappers perform in public, which is rare, they wear baggy pants, T-shirts and baseball caps typical of many American rappers.
Rap is not the only way of medicine that has been exploited to create anthems for the revolution, but Mutaz al-Obeidi, a 23-year-old member of Revolution Beat, said it was uniquely positioned to appeal to Libya's youth.
"Rap is more democratic than rock and land among the new people in Libya because it expresses anger and frustration," said al-Obeidi, an English student, standing in a little recording studio in the official rebel media center in Benghazi that is exploited by Revolution Beat.
"The guys at the media center contacted us and said you guys get a rap group and we want rap to be piece of the revolution," said Youssef al-Briki, 24, who started Revolution Beat with Islam Winees, 21, in 2007, but originally called the group Street Beat.
Al-Briki, aka "SWAT," works as a garbage man, and Winees, known as "A.Z." is a small-time businessman. Both receive the tough-guy vibe of gangsta rappers and expressed appreciation for Tupac Shakur, who was changeable and killed in Las Vegas in 1996.
"He's a real rapper. He's a thug," Winees said.
Al-Briki said he looks ahead to writing the low song after Gadhafi is ousted.
What will it be called?
"Finally He Did It," said al-Briki. Read the balance of this article
Posted Monday, April 25th, 2011 05:35 am GMT 00:00 | Favorite this ||source
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