American rappers have it easy. Rapping about life in the ghetto, police harassment and living in constant fear of being shot was part of daily life for N.W.A. If Dr Dre and Ice Cube needed more material, looking to the street corner and watching the police brutality was enough to fill an entire album.

They were just keeping it real.

Keeping it real, however, is not something Dubai does well.

Unless, of course, your version of real involves rotating skyscrapers and dragon-shaped shopping malls.

I used to feel a bit sorry for rappers in Dubai because they have nothing to rap about.

Until I heard Desert Heat that is. Keeping it real, they say, means being true to where you live.

So if you don’t have violence and swearing and shooting you don’t have to rap about it.

What do you do instead? Keep it desert of course!

Check out the video here:

If you like what you see and hear check out the band at Chi on Tuesday.

Read Time Out’s interview with Desert Heat here.  

The temperature in the UAE passed the magical 50 degrees Celsius mark last weekend.

As residents and tourists enjoyed Time Out’s summer survival guide (click here to see our suggestions of ways to avoid the scorching summer) weathermen in Dubai were recording the 2008 highs.

According to arabianbusiness.com the sweltering 51.4 degrees was recorded at an inland military base in the UAE.

The National Centre for Meteorology and Seismology is forecasting temperatures of about 45 degrees on Monday and Tuesday in Dubai, with Abu Dhabi likely to hit 47 degrees and Al Ain predicted to reach 48 degrees.

The Euro 2008 tournament has entered the quarter final stage and its starting to get really exciting.

We’ve already said goodbye to former champions France and Greece, seen some amazing matches (Turkey’s late victory over Croatia being the most memorable) and enjoyed the atmosphere in Dubai’s most interesting venues.

The Euro Fan park at the Madinat Arena, the luxury of the Grand Hyatt’s swimming pool and the Hawthorn Hotel in Deira have been particularly busy so far.

I’m doing spectacularly badly on Time Out’s predictor so far (click here to join in and stand a chance of winning a holiday in England) but have fared much better on this game.

Utterly pointless, but in between games it is a decent way of getting a football fix.

My top score so far is 57.

Wait a few seconds for it to load and then click on the game screen below to play.

The smell of popcorn wafting through malls, queues reaching across cinema foyers and endless celebrity interviews on television can only mean one thing: blockbuster season has struck Dubai.

Following on from recent appearances by Indiana Jones and the Kung Fu Panda comes the Incredible Hulk.

The mean, green fighting machine is back for another pop at box office success. Read Time Out’s review here and watch the trailer below.

Facing up to the Hulk can’t be easy. But big screen opposition this week has previous experience of facing down superheroes. I Could Never Be Your Woman star, Michelle Pfeiffer, played Catwoman in the 1989 movie Batman.

She will only face the Hulk in cinema foyers, however, and for lovers of romantic comedy there will only be one winner.

Read Time Out’s review here, and watch the trailer below.

The final trailer is for M Night Shyamalan’s The Happening.

This whole project was shrouded in secrecy but you can see Time Out’s review here and watch the trailer below.

Time Out has teamed up with the City Women to talk again about the entertainment highlights in Dubai this week.

Find out who Time Out’s online editor is tipping to win Euro 2008, where to go to show off your skateboarding skills and why the next generation of Hollywood star could be living in Dubai.

 

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