(from Palestine News Network, english.pnn.ps)

The European Palestinian Hip Hop Tour is in Ramallah tonight and in Bethlehem Friday. Organizer and the member of the band DAM, Sameh Zakout, speaks with PNN from his home in Ramle within the Israeli boundaries.

“The project, Hip Hop Palestine, started in the summer of 2008, 7 August, throughout the West Bank: Jenin, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Shua’fat, Jerusalem and Nablus…

It was a summer camp for younger generations of men and women, and it was a success and a huge complete work. So the second project which is connected with the first one, Hip Hop Palestine, was the Palestine European Tour, which joins Palestinian people living abroad with Palestinians living inside Palestine. We will represent several shows, four shows, at the same places that we represented at in the summer. This tour, which consists of four shows, if I am not mistaken, is considered the first rap tour that combines Palestinians from all across the world here in Palestine.

“The tour will start this month on November 11th in Jenin, November 12th in Nablus and it continues the 13th of November in Ramallah. We will finish it on the 14th of November in Bethlehem.”

Zakout said that getting the Palestinian message out to the public is of prime importance.

“It’s not just me whose doing this. I really thank the Sabreen Studio, God bless them, and all the guys and girls who work and are a part of this project, we hope for more accomplishments. But what we really hope for is to send a message not only for us but for our people, and for people outside Palestine, to tell them that there are people living here, young people, as most of the Palestinians, if you count them, are young. So the message that we want to send is that here in Palestine there are humans, a culture, a case and people who want to live and breathe. So today this is the best way to send a message to the whole world, with respect to our city, our culture, our music and our art, where young men and women prefer to hear the hip hop music, and what is really relevant to our time today is the hip hop music which, for those who don’t know, started in America in 1978 or 1979, 30 years approximately. This kind of music is a way of expressing your opinion, your thoughts and your feelings.”

PNN asked Zakout the extent to which hip hop is accepted in Palestine and how Palestinian hip hop is viewed outside.

“As someone who spent 10 years in this, as today I am a 25 year old guy, and as someone who has been doing this for 10 years, I can say that at the beginning the acceptance of hip hop was not great, not only in Palestine, but where ever we used to tell people about Arabic rap, people used to mock us or just look at us wondering to themselves what do we want!! But today I am telling you there is a huge acceptance of rap and a great thirst for it, not only among young men and women, but in all segments of society, you can feel their thirst for it. So I can tell you that the acceptance of this music today is very huge and I always feel the love and passion toward me from all segments of society. So I assure you that when an artist respect the art he is doing at performs it in a high and professional way, listeners and society will then accept this art, but if we did not take our art in a serious way and we were just acting in a spoiled and silly way and talked about subject that are not in our concern, people will not accept it for sure.

“We can say that it’s enough that the Palestinian hip hop is now known in America, Europe and in every country around the world, so if u ask people outside about the Palestinian hip hop you will find that they know it, and we are grateful for the internet which helped a great deal in spreading our music outside Palestine, so am telling u it’s a huge success, so if you enter any village or refugee camp or town in Palestine you will surly find bands, someone or more who do this kind of music, and there are bands who makes you really proud and who serve the Palestinian case and send the message in a very very beautiful way. So I somehow consider it a scream of silence or the Palestinian hip hop is the movement of the youngest from the boring everyday life that we live.”

Zakout digs through his papers and comes up with an old song about Palestinian mothers.

“Ahh…let me find something… I once wrote a song and I will soon work on completing it and producing a video clip for it, it’s called “Yumma” and it’s written for Palestinians mothers, especially my mother who used to cry a lot, so am trying to remember the chorus…it goes like this:

Mother, don’t be afraid
I am here
Mother to whom I can complain
Who is blamed?
In days, some moments were destroyed
No mother, don’t cry

That how the song goes as I remember.

He moves on to the familiar hip hop that generally addresses both the personal and the political.

“There are the quick songs or as we called it the flow, where you stay at the same rhythm. A kind of flow which I will sing to u…just a minute…you know its morning and a lot of thinks are going on in my head…

I remember it begins with me at the second grade
It was an Arabic lesson ant the teacher said you have a sudden quiz
She searched for a student to pick and she pointed at me:
Start reading! Suddenly my tongue stopped moving
I did not know what to do, I got confused
I asked the students for some rhythm
And as soon as they started I started
A sentence
after the other, I read with my hands
I could not believe myself and I got shocked
After a complete silence there was clapping
By my classmates and even the teacher
All said this kid has a talent
Keep your eyes on him
And from the chair in the class I reached the theatre
All my life I knew I would succeed
At first I was never serious, I used to joke
And by mistake I opened the door of music

.. And of course there is personal stuff that we sing about.

Thank you, bye.