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.
Think that Dubai has more than enough to rap about. Rather than life in da hood, were talking about the anger one feels when one has every material pleasure, which is said to bring happiness, but still has none. One could wrap about the frustrations of growing up under the pressures of family expectation. How about rapping about working a 12 hour work day, six days a week, with limited possibilities.
Comment by Joshua — Friday, 12 September, 2008 @ 12:17