March Collective Collaborative Blog: Palestinian Music Feature

For our first collab blog of the year, two T&E collective members share some of their favorite music from Palestine and Palestinians across the global diaspora. From politically-charged hip hop to the revolutionary techno rave scene, we celebrate the creativity and resilience of Palestinian musicians who forge connections through their art.

Noe's Picks
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Artist: MC Abdul
Genre: Hip Hop
With strong bars and flow, MC Abdul shares the harsh reality of living under Israeli occupation in Palestine. Through his songs a fiery commitment to spread the message of his people pierces through, and really makes you join in the feelings of anger, sadness, and hope for a better world.
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Artist:  Loris
Genre: Electronic
Loris is a Mexican Palestinian DJ and producer who combines her cultures to create mystical landscapes that evoke a sense of place and memory in Palestine, as well as banging breaks and polyrhythmic percussions that can bring any dancefloor to life.
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Artist:  Nicolas Jaar
Genre: Electronic
You might not know it (I didn’t), but Nicolas Jaar is of Palestinian ancestry. The Chilean-American musician’s family emigrated from Palestine in the 1920s, and this heritage has touched on Jaar’s productions. It goes to show that the complex history and tapestry of the Palestinian diaspora has traveled across the world and touched many of our hearts.
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Radio Atheer · Christmas In Mourning

Song: Christmas in Mourning
Artist: Sary Moussa (Beirut), Abed Kobeissy (Beirut), Laurence Sammour, Greek Orthodox tenor of the Church of the Nativity (Bethlehem)
Genre: Electro Acoustic
A piece composed to be aired on Radio Alhara in solidarity with Palestinians during Christmas, Christmas in Mourning shows the rich tapestry of religious and cultural heritage in Palestine, mixing Catholic and Muslim traditions in a beautiful and devastating piece. It is one of the most impactful things I’ve heard. I listened to it live on Christmas and I couldn’t stop crying. The piece is such a poignant transmutation of the awe of Palestinian courage and culture combined with the grief of its devastation we are sadly still witnessing today.
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​Artist: Shabjeed & Al Nather
Genre: Hip Hop
Palestinian rapper Shabjeed & Al Nather team up in their latest album SULTAN. Al Nather’s crystalline beats combine dreamy Jungle, trap, drill and regional sounds, while Shabjeed skillfully and solemnly raps. This one is a certified banger, and you can buy a flag together with the album to proudly display in your pickup truck. Listen to this NTS broadcast to hear a short interview with Shabjeed before the album gets played in full. Also check out BLTNM records, the label where this album was released, for more Palestinian records.

Parisa's Picks
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Artist: Al-Bara’em
Genre: Rock 
Al-Bara'em was Palestine’s first rock and roll band. Starting as a Fairuz cover group, they decided to write original music after the Six-Day War of 1967, marking both a symbol shift towards national identity as well as a historical shift in Palestinian music history. There’s not a lot of recorded material that remains today, as so many Palestinian historical records have been destroyed by the Israeli and US military,  but this psychedelic, melancholic song above is my one of my favorites from their reissued catalog.
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Artist: Shadia Mansour
Genre: Rap
One of the first Palestinian rappers, Shadia Mansour considers her music to be “musical intifada against the occupation of Palestine, conservatism and oppression of women.” Her raps present a hard stance for Palestinian nationalism, and whether or not you translate the lyrics, her fervent passion is evident in her flows. The song above, first released in 2011 and featuring M-1 of Dead Prez, has remained an iconic anthem of the keffiyeh. 
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Artist: DAM
Genre: Hip-hop
Along with Shadia Mansour, DAM is perhaps the most popular hip hop group of Palestine. A majority of their discography is centered around Palestinian resistance, yet more recently they took a departure from the strictly political lyrics so people could see them beyond being just a political entity (a notion that I’m sure many Palestinian artists must get tired of). Their music is a high energy blend of hip hop with Arab-forward beats and electronic - the kind of hip hop that is guaranteed to make you move. 
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Artist: Jowan Safadi
Genre: Alternative
Jowan Safadi is a multi-genre encompassing artist from Haifa. His music ranges from a myriad of topics, including Palestinian freedom but also love, heartbreak, social taboos, etc. The album linked above, Ijmad, was one of my favorites of 2021. It mostly revolves about a break up and the loneliness thereafter, and showcases an impressive array of styles from alternative to bedroom pop to hip hop to experimental. Just this past month, he released a new single sung in English called “I Am the Semite” that points out the hypocrisy of people calling the pro-Palestinian movement anti-semetic (“I am the semite, I am the refugee, living in your ghetto, dying to be free”). 

Artist: Jazar Crew:
Genre: Electronic
Boiler Room did a Palestinian series about five years ago, and while it’s all worth checking out, I particularly loved this one by the Jazar Crew. They are a DIY collective of artists and musicians that “aim to provide a safe space dancefloor for the Palestinian youth” and have connected the underground music scenes throughout the country. Their mixes blend Arab music with distortion, ambient, techno and house. The segment that starts around 10 minutes in is one of my favorite Boiler Room moments ever. It’s a beautiful showcase of how dance music can weave between these headier, soft and ethereal moments with heavy bass moments, and keep your audience captivated the entire time. I also love to watch Jazar Crew sets because it is so beautiful to see the crowd and Palestinian youth in moments of joy. This is how it should always be. 

For related listening, I’d also recommend this BBC short doc about the Palestinian rave scene:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF3vE4Bunt0&t=717s
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NTS Latest · Palestinian Sound Archive 180224

Artist: Palestinian Sound Archive
Genre: various

One of my favorite recurring series on NTS is mixes from the Palestinian Sound Archive, aka Mo’min Swaitat, the founder of Majazz Project. This project works to preserve the history of Palestinian music through cassette archives. These monthly mixes hosted on NTS radio feature a mix of vintage cassettes from Palestine, from funk to jazz and rock, intertwined with field recordings. There is a lot to be said about this amazing project, but best to read it from the source himself! Here is a blog written by Swaitat about the Majazz Project and his personal history with Bedouin music: https://thisweekinpalestine.com/the-majazz-project-and-the-palestinian-sound-archive
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Artist: Zenobia
Genre: Dabke

Nothing makes me dance harder than Zenobia’s synthy bass-driven dance music. Pure, ecstatic joy. Zenobia incorporates melodies from various Arab traditions - mainly Palestinian and Syrian dabke rhythms - with elements of electronic beats and occasionally dub. Play their music at a DJ set and I promise you will get the entire room jumping. 

Their most recent album, Warriors Never Die, delves into Palestinian folk music that’s generally sung by women and explores the evolution of the music’s message. Taken from their Bandcamp: ’Tarweeda’, for example, was used by women ever since the days of the British Mandate in the 1930s, as a way of transmitting encrypted messages between political prisoners and their villages. The encryption involved permutations of letters in the lyrics.

Aside from digging into their albums, I also recommend checking out this great live session they did on a boat coasting through Golan Heights.

Artist: Sama Abdulhadi
Genre: Techno

Considered the Queen of Palestinian Techno, but in my opinion, one of the best techno DJs out there right now period. You could scourge the internet for hours and find dozens and dozens and dozens of her mixes, but this one above always stands out to me. 

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