Hip Hop Against Apartheid: Premiere Palestinian Rappers Bring Message of Freedom and Dignity to Toronto

For Immediate Release
CONTACT:
CAIA Media
(647) 531-5516
media@caiaweb.org
                                              
WHAT: Hip Hop Against Apartheid: DAM (aka Da Arabian MCs), with INVINCIBLE

WHERE: El Mocambo, 464 Spadina Avenue, TORONTO

WHEN: Thursday, May 15, 2008; doors at 8 pm, show at 9 pm

ADMISSION:  $15 (advance tickets on sale at Toronto Women's Bookstore, 73 Harbord Street

Hip Hop Against Apartheid: Premiere Palestinian Rappers Bring Message of Freedom and Dignity to Toronto

TORONTO, (April 23, 2008) Internationally-renown pioneers of Palestinian Hip Hop, DAM, will be performing live in Toronto on May 15, 2008. Featuring songs from their debut international album DEDICATION (Red Circle Music), Toronto will be the final stop on their first-ever North American tour, which opens in Austin on May 8, and includes shows in Houston, San Francisco, and New York City.

DAM – Da Arabian MCs – burst onto the international rap scene with their defiant first single "Min Irhabi?" (Who's the Terrorist?).  Hailing from the slums of Lod, a mixed town of Palestinian and Jewish Israelis about 15 kilometers from Jerusalem, brothers Tamer and Suhell Nafar and Mahmoud Jreri have been performing together since the late 1990s. Drawing on musical influences as diverse as Tupac Shakur and the traditional Lebanese singer Fairuz, DAM's music is a unique East/West fusion, which combines rap with Middle Eastern influences and rhythms, to broadcast a powerful message of dignity and freedom. The Washington Post calls DAM "one of the most powerful and popular cultural voices for the global Palestinian diaspora."

"Rap is the music of the oppressed," says Jreri, "I rap 'Don't grab a gun, grab a pen and write.' With Hip Hop we tell the world about our struggle for freedom, that we're denied equal rights because we aren't Jewish. That's more powerful than any army."

"DAM ignites audiences with its energy and exposes the oppression 1.4 million Palestinians face as second class citizens of Israel," says Rafeef Ziadah, a member of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, the host of DAM's Toronto show. Their performance will be the culmination of a week of events held across the city to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Nakba (Arabic for "catastrophe"), which refers to the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and homeland in 1948, when the state of Israel was established.

DAM will be joined in Toronto by INVINCIBLE. Repping Detroit, her spitfire wordplay has gotten her acclaim from Hip Hop fans around the world, and many know her from her work with Waajeed and the Platinum Pipers, Finale, the all-female ANOMOLIES crew, and Black Star.  "Invincible's commitment to progressive social change through music made her an obvious choice for this bill, and we are very excited that she's going to be a part of Hip Hop Against Apartheid," says Ziadah.

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DAM:
http://www.dampalestine.com
http://www.myspace.com/damrap

INVINCIBLE:
http://www.emergencemusic.net
http://www.myspace.com/invincilana