The Cool / Islam Hip Hop Scene

If you don't know about him already - you should. Lupe Fiasco! he is amazing. About two years ago I really got into Islamic hip hop after Tyson performed in a Saturday class I was taking ( http://www.myspace.com/tysonamir ). He has a song called Precious Girl where he personifies Islam as a girl he finds and helps him keep straight cuute. but back to Lupe, his 2nd album "the cool" came out on dec. 20 - loooved it!€ oh and how awesome is the album cover??

Here's the cool concept explained from an interview:
"I expand on the story, I introduce two other characters, the Game and the Streets. The Streets is a female. She's like the action personification of the streets, the street life, the call of the streets. The Game is the same way. The Game is the personification of the game. The pimp's game, the hustler's game, the con man's game, whatever. Then they've got supernatural characteristics. Like the Cool, his right hand is rotted away. The only thing that rotted away was his right hand. It represents the rotting away of his righteousness, of his good. And the Streets and the Cool kind of have a love affair going on. So she's represented by this locket. And the locket has a key and it's on fire. And as a gift to the Cool on his rise to fame, she gave him the key. And the key represents the key to the Streets. So she wears a locket around her neck at all times. And the way the story goes, she has given that key to tons of people throughout time. Al Capone, Alexander the Great, whatever. She's giving them the key to the Streets. Fame and fortune — but also the prices. The Game, he's represented by a stripped-down skull, a skull with dice in his eyes and smoke coming out of his mouth. The billowing smoke is actually crack smoke. It's not a full concept album; it's more spread over like five [tracks], really abstractly"

mm abstract for sure - I love personification.
alhumduillah all of these artists are so eloquent and powerful! I recommend it for iman strengthening. I feel that this description of Tyson describes all of the Islam hip hop artists well: "Like an artist he lays down melodic sketches of love, life, and struggle which have been coloured by his love for Allah and his beliefs"

Salaam

Powerful Muslim Sister - Sofia Servando Baig

My friend Supreet introduced me to the work of Sofia Servando Baig a while back. She is 19 and is a spoken word poet from Montreal, Canada - she has recited her poetry at the ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) Conference which was held in Chicago, Toronto's MuslimFest, and she also took part in the Muslim HipHop tour "HipHop4Islam". I think one of the most powerful qualities a person can have is eloquence, and this girl CAN WRITE! Here's what she said about her poetry in an interview: "All my poems are personal and are a reflection of how I feel as a Muslim, as a woman, as a sister, as a daughter, as a result of my place in society. I speak about what i know and I don't speak about what I don't know."


check out her poetry on her myspace
<-- click that.
Salaam!