Comparing the Palestinian hip hop groups RFM and D.A. to modern day Public Enemy and NWA, blogger Dion Nissenbaum reports on the first rap concert in Gaza City, Palestine, in over two years. The last such concert took place to celebrate Israel’s withdraw from Gaza. In the time since, the conservative Hamas group took control of the government and the area has plunged into turmoil again amid an international economic boycott and escalating conflict with Israel.

Palestinian rapper Tamer Nafer from the Palestinian group DAM (meaning “blood” in Arabic and Hebrew - the group are pioneers on the scene since 1998) once said that hip hop music is the “CNN of Palestine” (hmmm, another Public Enemy parallel). But amid fears of riling state authorities, this rap concert had just 100 attendees, young women came with chaperones and sat in a “family section” to the side, and was over by 9:00 p.m. For the organizers, it was a money loser, but for the rappers, it was a new beginning.

Read more in the Checkpoint Jerusalem Blog.