Music and art often are places where artists can vent their frustrations in a "constructive" way. People use this term because it is better than an alternative, where people act open their pent up aggression or emotion. I found that Subliminal and DAM were venting their frustrations, but they are representative of a larger group of people and more frustrations.
The description on Channels of Rage is very interesting because it compares MC Tamer and Subliminal side by side in a very honest way. Seeing their lyrics side by side shows how passionate they both are about the conflict. Allowing the music to stand on its removes biases for the listener and viewer of the film. It allows each person to take away something different from the documentary, almost a like a choose your own adventure kind of situation (this is me projecting a bit as we haven't seen the documentary yet and I may want to retract this claim tomorrow). Combining the music and lyrics with historical background is a great way to evoke an emotion from someone regarding their personal feelings towards the conflict. I really look forward to seeing the documentary, as I think music is suc
I found interesting that in the article on the Global Post, DAM said "Rap is CNN for us, the Palestinian people...". He is more than entitled to express his opinions, but if we are to take his quote literally, that Palestinian rap acts as a news source, you be reading news with extreme biases. If people are unable to get their information from other places then they would be receiving just one side of a specific issue. There is something comforting in listening to music from a perspective that you identify with and it acts as spoken poetry about deeper feelings. His comments were intentionally inflammatory and spread like wildfire, just as he had hoped. It seemed like a quick change of heart after he had performed with Jewish artists during the early days of his career. I believe that DAM has just as much of a right to say whatever he wants, but the comments are deeply rooted. Conflicts would still exist regardless of whether or not he adds fuel to it.
In Tablet Magazine's article about Subliminal it described about his journey to fame, more so than the Global Post's article about DAM. He became known for his interactions with the media and others first and his music second. Being recognized for his personality and size only added to people's interest in his music. He is truly the famous rapper in Israel and his repertoire spans more than just songs about the conflict, giving him legitimacy that many other Israel rappers have failed to achieve, especially internationally. He has had time to change many different aspects of his image throughout his career as it has had many personal ups and downs. The article was not solely based upon the political situation involved in Subliminal's music, which was a nice change of pace, similar to the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
The stories about Subliminal and DAM reminded me of the East Coast/West Coast battle between Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G in the 1990's, that resulted in violent deaths. Their messages targeted one another and the people closest to them, but they personally did not exhibit violent behavior towards one another. They didn't always discuss the conflict between them within their music, but when they did it was a brutal and violent outburst. Many people thought and still think that rap is related to hatred and negative sentiments towards society, a specific group, or any specific thing. Through the East Coast/West Coast battle each side blamed the other for various reasons. No one knows the true beginning of the battle, but it took on a life of it's own. What happens when the lyrics aren't just lyrics anymore, but they are plans of attack on a group of people? I know that there is a lot of censorship in regards to things said on both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and maybe they can learn from other instances such as the East Coast/West Coast battle, which was minor and insignificant in comparison.
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