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| Britain |
| UK Rapper Celebrates Terror Bomb Making |
| 2006-07-22 |
| 'With a title like "All Is War (The Benefits of G-Had)" and a song about a suicide bomber, a new album by British Muslim rapper Aki Nawaz has raised eyebrows before its release, even at his own record label. The Pakistan-born rapper's group Fun-Da-Mental were set to put the new disc on sale July 17, 10 days after the first anniversary of the London bombings. But its words and themes -- another predicting US decline at the hands of Muslims -- caused two directors at Nation Records to threaten to quit if "All Is War" hit the shops. "I know what I'm doing, everything I did was intentional," a determined Nawaz told AFP. The release was held off, but Nation now says the album will come out online on August 7, then go on sale in stores on either August 14 or 21. Nawaz named the two who threatened to resign as Andrew Heath and Martin Mills, silent partners at Nation. A spokesperson for Mills's separate record label, Beggars Banquet, however said they would make no comment "at all" on the matter. For a group that has not tasted mainstream success, Fun-Da-Mental's new album has generated plenty of media coverage. On the track list are titles like "I Reject", "Electro G-Had" and "Cookbook DIY", the last the voice of a suicide bomber that -- given the timing -- brings to mind the four, home-grown bombers who killed 56 people and wounded about 700 more in last July's attacks on the London transport network. "Elements everyday chemicals at my reach; Household bleach to extract the potassium; Chlorate boiling on a hotplate with hate; recipe for disaster plastic bomb blaster... I'm strapped up cross my chest bomb belt attached; deeply satisfied with the plan I hatched." In a twist, the ambiguous rap ends by referring to a government-paid scientist with a "private room in the White House suite". Another song, "786 All is War", predicts the downfall of the United States at the hands of its citizens who call in Muslims to liberate the country. One track compares the speeches of Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara and Osama bin Laden, head of the Al-Qaeda terror network, attempting to show the two shared a similar drive to resist imperialism... |
| Posted by:Anginens Threreng8133 |
| #3 anonymous5089, I'm under the impression that American rap is mainly limited to sex and gang violence, but not religion. And there is also a Christian strand that uses the format to talk about Jesus saving the singer, and another (that black film actor who was in I,Robot most recently, for instance) that chooses to rap about striving for success and finding true love and such. Over here rap belongs to the youngsters across the spectrum. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-07-22 23:41 |
| #2 Be advised, Aki. Jihadi wannabes are even bigger pussies then actual Jihadis... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-07-22 16:30 |
| #1 Funny, french rap has a strong muslim streak too, in addition to its sexual/racist undertones (all while females are whores who long for the hunky black/arab male, while french males are wimps and pussies) even more in its underground version, with open calls for ethnic war. This was brought under scrutiny by rightwingers after the ramadan riots, and it was truly unbelievable such hate speech could be tolerated and even encouraged by big business (one famous "mainstream" group, sniper, was the artist of the month at the leftist fnac retail centers right after the riots; they were made famous by their anthem, "France is a b*tch, she betrayed us, we owe her nothing"). Is US rap, an unknown territory for me, thanks God, also marked by islam? Or is it limited to Europe and its muslim ethnic minorities? |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-07-22 14:18 |