Seattle-Style Conscious Rap Bubbles Up In Saudi Arabia

Think nightlife is getting the short end of the stick in Seattle? Filled with righteous indignation over the way hiphop gets portrayed as Capitol Hill's downfall? We do, and we are, so it was a healthy shock to the system (and yet oddly familiar) to read about this Saudi hiphop group which, to the great chagrin and social shame of the guys' fathers and wives, made it onto MTV Arabia. From the MSNBC story about Dark2Men:

"There are a lot of Saudi rappers, but they're underground because of the wrong impression people have of them," Farhan told MTV's "Hip HopNa" co-host Qusai Khidr, a Saudi rapper who has lived in Florida. "We would like people to hear our words and listen to our message before they judge us."

As MSNBC points out, in Saudi Arabia it's illegal for men and women to socialize together and alcohol is not permitted, so the nightclub scene is non-existent. Hiphop without clubs? Hiphop without alcohol?!

Some things, however, are exactly the same there as they are in the decadent, tolerant West:

"If you're a rapper, people immediately assume that you are into the things they see on television. We don't want to be them, we want to create our own style. We rap about problems faced by young Saudis and we promote Islamic values," Mansour said.

That sounds suspiciously like conscious rap.

Blue Scholars' Sabzi in a 2007 MP3.com interview says it best:

"We hope and we think that we are touching on just straight human qualities that really apply to everybody. You know, I don't think there's very many people that are like, "Oh, justice, I don't care about that. I care about my ass," which is—I mean, the reason you can shake your ass is because you have the freedom to do so."

The members of Dark2Men. Photo by Faiza Ambah of the Washington Post