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// Shadia Mansour
© Sophie Schorr-Kon
The First Lady of Arabic Hip Hop
“The West Bank is an open prison. It’s really suffocating. You can do a show there and we’ve done that, but you can’t predict you will be able to reach those kids who regularly wake up to no water for a shower or no electricity, who have been waiting for you to arrive for hours…months! If you live on the West Bank you are surrounded. That wall is like a maze… there are thousands of checkpoints. The least we can do is put on a show and put some fun into the community. It’s depressing, it’s wrong. But it’s just another thing that that draws me closer to being Arab and rapping in Arabic – pride is all we have.” reflects London born Palestinian rapper, Shadia Mansour on the culmination of her fourth hip hop tour there.
As a digital-age Arab artist from the diaspora, 24 year old Shadia is part of a modern generation empowered by access to information. Dedicated to the cause of justice, her music, her lyrics, her voice represents the disenfranchised. She is focused on both her Palestinian and western audiences. With the former Shadia is well aware that she is a young woman not pursuing a traditional path. With the latter the most urgent quest is to bridge the divide and make them aware of what’s going on in Palestine in their name.
While Israel continues to stick two fingers up to global outrage at the new settlements being built, the brutality of the wall and the blockade of Gaza, Shadia Mansour maintains she has no place in her heart for hatred. Even after she was assaulted and pinned to the ground at gunpoint, suspected of being a suicide bomber (armed with a microphone!) she says, “I wasn’t scared. That was nothing compared to what Palestinians go through on a daily basis. All I have to say about that incident is I don’t know what they were trying to achieve. I do know they looked like a bunch of nutters. They looked so desperate. The system looked desperate. It was really quite sad.”
Though she hails from South London, Shadia Mansour is better known in New York and on the West Bank than in the UK. Through her Brooklyn based sister/manager, who has a regular hip hop radio show in NYC, Shadia made her first US stage appearance this summer. It was on the same bill as KRS1, Rakim, Marley Marl and Mos Def at the Black August Festival - an event in support of Mumia Abu Jamal, who has been on Death Row for the past 20 years. Most recently, she has been working on her debut album at the Terrordome – the studio of Public Enemy’s Chuck D – under the guidance of Johnny “Juice” Rosado.
Shadia Mansour - El Kofeyye Arabeyye
The next major event on her schedule is the Lyrical Alliance’s forthcoming performance alongside conscious NYC based hip hop don, Talib Kweli, at the Roundhouse in London. It’s a celebration of Arabic hip hop organized by Dash Arts and the lyrical starting point for those involved are the legendary Mu'Allaqat poems - written during the 6th century when the Arab region was the cultural and intellectual centre of the world.
“There are five of us – I’m the only girl!” declares Shadia, “Of the other rappers, a couple of them I’ve known of them forever and one I’ve worked with musically. It was my first time working with Samm from Jordan, Rayess Bek from Lebanon and Rabah Donquishoot from Algeria. The Mu'Allaqat poems… I thought I knew a lot about that era but after reading the poems, I learned a lot about my culture. The poems are about Bedouin life but the crazy thing is nothing much has changed… the traditions, the customs, our mannerisms… even the mentality, the conservative nature of that time is still alive in certain parts of the Arab world. To be honest, being Palestinian, being Arab and coming from a very cultural background I have taken my experience, my upbringing and what I feel and put that into all the songs we’re performing at the Roundhouse. Obviously we are all from different Arab regions and have different upbringings, but what I’ve learned from the poems is relative to how we are brought up and live as Arabs. I think it all made sense in the end.”
Top [l-r] Tamer Nafar, Shadia Mansour, DJ MK
Bottom: Rayess Bek, Samm, Rabah Donquishoot
From a hip hop perspective Shadia definitely found contemporary resonances in the characters she discovered in the Mu'Allaqat poems and it’s possible that those Arabic voices will echo into the 21st century via a microphone and a booming bass line. In fact, despite being fluent in English and Arabic, clearly feels most at home rapping, singing and writing in Arabic.
“I’m a free soul when I’m in the studio. If I’m inspired I can free style or I can write it down. It depends how I feel. Whatever happened to pen and paper? Whenever I go to the studio everyone is flinging out their Blackberrys and iPhones and when I get out my big lyric pad they all laugh at me. I’m old skool and proud of it. For the Lyrical Alliance show there is one song where I’m rappin’ in English. That was a request from Dash Arts and as I was born and raised in London it’s an opportunity to show my British side. My accent is a bit edgy, bit inconsistent… bit cockney, bit south London, bit north London, bit west London… I’m not from the streets so you’ve just got to be natural… be yourself.
“Growing up in London there was a lot to draw me away from my identity as an Arab.” adds Shadia. “I spent too long trying to fit in at school, at college. Maybe that’s what prompted me to rap in Arabic. There’s just one accent. It’s real… it’s me. I’m Arab, I look Arab, I want to bring people closer to my people, my country, my culture.”
Shadia Mansour - ‘El Kofeyye Arabeyye’ (single) is available via CD Baby
Her debut album is scheduled for release later in 2010.
Lyrical Alliance Saturday 16 October 2010 – Roundhouse, London NW1
Featuring Talib Kweli (US) with DJ MK (UK), Rabah Donquishoot (Algeria), Shadia Mansour (Palestine), Rayess Bek (Lebanon), Samm (Jordan), Tamer Nafar (Palestine) and VJ Jana Saleh (Lebanon).
Paul Bradshaw / Straight No Chaser
// ALSO
- Shadia Mansour: The First Lady of Arabic Hip Hop
- People & Things
- 80s World Music Classics
- Youssou N'Dour
- Live and direct from Bogota La 33 play COLOMBIANAMENTE Sunday 19 July
- Art Melody's futuristic African hip hop
- Darbar Festival, Darbar | Arts Culture Heritage – Book
- City sounds: Beirut, Capital of the Arab underground
- Mariachi El Bronx, Mariachi El Bronx
// ALL SHADIA MANSOUR'S INTERVIEWS
The First Lady of Arabic Hip Hop
06/10/2010
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>> Baaba Maal
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BIG HASS
07/10/2010
Shadia is one of a kind. Met her for the first time when I flew from Jeddah to Beirut to watch her perform! shes brilliant, classic
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