Author
Ytzhak
His memory is hazy, but he believes it was after the Sabra-Shatila massacre. His father and uncles planned to march to the mayor's office and, as Fredwreck recalls, "have some words with him". "I was a kid at the time thinking 'This is cool'," he says of his first involvement in political protest. "But people were driving by and throwing stuff at us and my uncles had to throw rocks back. The next day I was at school and all my friends said, 'Hey man, I saw you and your father on TV last night!'"
Putting politics back into US hip-hop
by Kris Evans in Los Angeles
Tuesday 16 August 2005 11:54 PM GMT
Fredwreck believes there is a place for political rap in the US
Thanks to MTV, there are certain expectations when entering the California home of a major rap producer: Cars with Italian names parked outside, ostentatious jewellery, giant TV screens running the latest videos.
While Fredwreck's Northridge home, about 30km northwest of Los Angeles, boasts a widescreen TV large enough to obscure one living room wall, there is also evidence that this hip-hop heavyweight has other cultural influences: Cushions positioned on the floor around a shisha (water pipe), an oud (Middle Eastern lute) and tabla (drum) resting next to the guitar rack.
To many of his big-name clients - Snoop Dogg, Xzibit and Mack 10 among them - Fredwreck is the go-to producer when preparing a new album. While most of his peers hail from South Central LA, Fredwreck's roots lie farther east.
"My father was born in the Israeli part of Jerusalem, my mother was born in Bir Zeit," says Fredwreck, born Farid Nassar. "[In Jerusalem] my father got to work in a machine shop. During those times General Motors was looking for machinists so that's how he got to come to America."
Fredwreck's father left after the 1967 Middle East war and managed to bring the rest of his family from Palestine to settle in the apartment block he had purchased in Flint, Michigan.
Fredwreck was born Farid Nassar
to Palestinian parents
The US-born Fredwreck recalls how parties back in Flint usually ended with each family member playing an instrument, his mother on the tabla, a cousin on the violin.
In those days, he says, buying a radio was beyond their budget, so music had to be made at home.
"People were always around making music and playing music. That's where I think I got it from."
Fast forward through breakdancing at high school, creating mix tapes and being a disc jockey, to the moment when Segal, Dr Dre's engineer, passed some of Fredwreck's music to that architect of West Coast hip-hop. Dre liked what he heard and Fredwreck's career took off.
Along with music, there is another recurring theme in Fredwreck's life.
Growing up political
The producer's first brush with activism was at age five when his parents came to collect him early one day from kindergarten.
His memory is hazy, but he believes it was after the Sabra-Shatila massacre. His father and uncles planned to march to the mayor's office and, as Fredwreck recalls, "have some words with him".
"I was a kid at the time thinking 'This is cool'," he says of his first involvement in political protest. "But people were driving by and throwing stuff at us and my uncles had to throw rocks back. The next day I was at school and all my friends said, 'Hey man, I saw you and your father on TV last night!'"
"After 9/11 happened and I saw they wanted to go and take out Saddam Hussein [and I thought] 'You're turning one thing into something else'"
Rap producer Fredwreck
Fredwreck's interest in politics never left him, but it was piqued by the Iraq war.
"After 9/11 happened and I saw they wanted to go and take out Saddam Hussein [and I thought] 'You're turning one thing into something else'."
His conversations with friends about the war made him realise he needed to create some music to reflect his feelings.
While socially conscious rap music may be blossoming in the Middle East, with acts emerging from Lebanon, Egypt and Palestine, the days of American hip-hop when Public Enemy urged the world to "fight the power" have been replaced by a rap movement which is more about partying than politics.
Fredwreck, himself a big fan of party jams, as he calls them, was not deterred and believes there is a place for political rap music in the United States.
Inspired by protest singers from the 1960s, he got to work.
"You see what music did in the sixties," he says. "Music is just a vehicle to send a message out. You can't tell me Bob Dylan didn't have an influence on how people thought about policy and war."
But he says that the industry is so commercially led, artists are scared of taking risks. While swearing and showing bikini-clad women is acceptable, politics is not.
Letter to president
"Dear Mr President" is Fredwreck's reaction to events in Iraq and attempts to ask questions that he thinks are not being addressed in the mainstream media.
"Everybody has got to take a bit of responsibility"
Everlast
It is a protest song of sorts, one that brings together the talents of the big-name rappers Fredwreck works with, including Cypress Hill's B-Real, Evidence from Dilated Peoples and KRS-One.
But this was no "We are the World" get-together.
Financial constraints meant that Fredwreck recorded the track one part at a time, whenever one of the rappers was passing through.
To record Mobb Deep, he took his laptop and set up a mini studio in their hotel room.
Not all the participants were that eager initially, some worrying that they might be perceived as anti-American. Fredwreck says he tried to put them at ease.
"It's not anti-American. Each person is saying what their thoughts are. Every person got to put their own message across, and all their separate messages was the message I wanted to put out there."
The track, which clocks in at over six minutes, is breezy and laid back, with the haunting refrain of "There's blood on all our hands" forming part of the chorus, courtesy of former House of Pain frontman Everlast.
Irish rapper
Everlast, whose real name is Erik Schrody, says he is not a political person but this track presented a good venue to say something about the war.
"Everybody has got to take a bit of responsibility," says Everlast. "I'm a Muslim also, so I have this whole dichotomy of things I have to deal with. ... I feel that more Muslims need to stand up and say, 'That extremist stuff ain't right.'
Everlast: Everybody must take
a bit of responsibility
"America ain't done a lot of great things lately, but it doesn't make cutting off innocent people's heads right. There's nothing in the Quran that tells me to take it (violence) to innocent people," he says.
"There's people dying," Everlast says. "They don't show us any dead soldiers at all, any dead Iraqis, because they know if the American people saw that stuff on TV it would be a mess. The average American, show them any dead baby in the street and it's going to mess with them."
Everlast and Fredwreck say their concern comes from a love of country, not a hatred of it. They are concerned about the direction their country is taking.
"The people of America aren't the government of America," says Everlast. "I think they (people in the Middle East) would be shocked about how many people really aren't down for what's going on."
New acts
Fredwreck is encouraged by the new hip-hop acts coming out of the Middle East and is already sending music - at no charge - to one group in Gaza.
"It's like 1988 all over again," says the producer. "It's NWA in Palestine. They're rapping about oppression and their message is getting out.
"And you got Israeli Jewish artists that are doing the same thing. And that's cool. That's what it's supposed to be about. Every person has a view."
You can download the S.T.O.P. Movement's free tracks at http://www.fredwreck.com/
Aljazeera
By Kris Evans in Los Angeles
You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F7BB1F5C-5A19-42C8-8616-AEC0ABDB…
see also
FRED WRECK!!!
Support the STOP Movement! STOP: Stop The Oppressive Politics!
We the people of the United States of America have gathered together to express our views against the oppression of people across the Earth by the imperialistic policy makers of our government. They want all the nations of the world to bow down and abide by rules and laws they impose behind the curtain of the United Nations, yet when those laws go against the political agenda of the administration they themselves break the law and feloniously fabricate propaganda to mislead the world and American people that Iraq has "Weapons of Mass Destruction", and will use them on America. Evidence to validate this fantasy still to this day does not exist, even after the CIA unsuccessfully tried to fabricate documents to prove so. Next we have the shameful attempt by Governor Bush and his gang to link the unfortunate events of September 11th and Osama Bin Laden to the leadership of the Iraqi Government. Proof or evidence of which also does not exist. Mr. Bush has been left with no other card in his deck to play, so he created his own, the deck of "Wanted Terrorists" within a charade of humanitarianism. The only way for him to gain any popular acceptance is to have a campaign of misleading propaganda to make us believe that he's on a self-righteous mission to liberate the Iraqi people, and that this war is a war about freedom and democracy for the people of Iraq. This is yet another delusion of grandeur by our so-called fearless leader. He will not hoodwink or deceive us! America's oppressive foreign policy, which resorts to bribery, corruption, dirty dealings, and murder assassination, will continue to produce hatred, mistrust, and animosity. This dangerous environment that our policies have bred puts us at far greater risk of being blind sided and harmed by threats unknown. This threat multiplies with each aggression toward the nations of the world. Aggression sometimes concealed behind diplomacy, which can be more dangerous than war itself. This hostile behavior must stop. If we are going to start opening the books and passing judgment on world leaders lets not hesitate to start with members of our government. Let's also call out the governments of some our so-called allies. Then we can all be playing eye-to-eye on an even field. Until then, take a stand to S.T.O.P. the oppressive politics. Stop the killing of other nation's children and bring our sons and daughters home.
Peace,
The Movement
or
http://www.rapindustry.com/fred_wreck.htm
and
In a post-9/11 world, what we are witnessing is a massive movement of Muslim artists who are networked around the world through the power of hip hop culture, constructing the notion of a hip hop nation through nation- building practices and ideologies.... Implicit in the shahada is a commitment to a way of life that is governed, regulated, and mediated by the precepts of Islam, where Muslims are taught to "fear not of man", but to fear Allah alone (as Brooklyn rapper Mos Def makes clear above).-- Hesham Samy Abdel-Alim-- "Hip hop Islam"
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/750/feature.htm
and
On 11 September 1982, Israeli Defence Minister Ariel Sharon, the architect of the invasion, announced that "2,000 terrorists" had remained inside the Palestinian refugee camps around Beirut. ...Around mid-day on Thursday 16 September 1982, a unit of approximately 150 Israeli-allied Phalangists entered the first camp. For the next 40 hours members of the Phalangist militia raped, killed, and injured a large number of unarmed civilians, mostly children, women and elderly people inside the encircled and sealed camps. The estimate of victims varies between 700 (the official Israeli figure) to 3,500. "They say 9/11 changed the world. What about September 16?"
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2004/09/30740.php
and
http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/MiddleEast/TerrorInUSA/faq/Sabr…
and
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2004/07/27773.php
or
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/647/bo1.htm
and
"Summary: “Israeli” Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, on the verge of unleashing his army against the Palestinian territories in retaliation for last week’s deadly suicide martyrdom bombing in Tel Aviv, could soon find himself standing trial for a war crime committed against Palestinian refugees 19 years ago.þ Two lawyers, a Lebanese and a Belgian, filed a law suit on Monday.. charging Sharon with responsibility for the war crime of the massacre of Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila in 1982."--
War Crimes: Case against Sharon mounts
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2005/05/41115.php
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F7BB1F5C-5A19-42C8-8616-AEC0ABDB…
You can download the S.T.O.P. Movement's free tracks at http://www.fredwreck.com/
and
Last month, the Palestinian-American hip-hop crew The Philistines announced the release of a CD dedicated to the youth of Palestine. The compilation CD, titled "Free the P," brings together over 20 hip-hop and spoken word artists. Its aim is to promote awareness about the Palestinian struggle for freedom while raising funds to support an upcoming documentary film--SlingShot Hip Hop--about hip-hop in Palestine." -- "Hip Hop: Hip-Hop for Palestine Phi-lis'tine (fi-lis'-tin)"
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/44106.php
and
see also
inspired and angered by the image of Palestinians projected by the U.S. media, the brothers elected to use the word “Philistine” to define themselves as it means “an uncultured, barbaric person.” They collectively reject the media manipulation that warps the dynamics of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
http://www.whatsupmagazine.org/articles/philistines.html
CALLING ALL PHILISTINE SOLDIERS: The P have just released a HOT new demo.
YOUR MISSION: To download, burn, and distribute as many of these babies as you can.
YOUR TARGETS: People at clubs, parties, funerals, bat mitzvahs, the car wash, school, living under illegal foreign occupation--anyone and everyone...
http://www.thephilistines.com/Music.html
ARABIFUNK (web version) - Ragtop and B-Dub on an epic Iron Shiek beat
http://www.thephilistines.com/Music/Arabifunk%20(web).mp3
see also:
born here video by DAM:
http://www.dam3rap.com/mp3/DAM_bornhere.wmv
and
http://www.dam3rap.com/mp3/DAM_men_erhabe.mp3
see also:
"Then I just get home, sit down and make the concepts in my head into reality, and watch how they never cease to change and evolve once they're out of my head, and how no idea or concept no matter how good it is, will stay completely the same in your mind. John Coltrane spoke about the same thing with regards to getting the music in his head out into the real world of sound. But anyway, technically I use my computer, I got a mixer, a nice mic, and a Korg Keyboard, two nice monitors and a compressor which doesn't work right now. It's all about what you do with it though, what's in your mind." -- yoshi
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/41736.php
and
Hip Hop: the subliminal criminal: Pick up a stone
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2005/05/40536.php
and
"Sat in the back of the class with my hand up/Two wild security guards, grabbed my man up/Threw him in detention for 5 days suspension. Cuz he said, the teacher was lyin about the Indians.I stood like a man then I questioned my teacher/Why don't we speak about the wisdom of the sages?/And how did Europe black out in the dark ages? And when they got light did they white-wash the pages? ...And why it seems that half the school is racist?" -- rza and masta killa
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2005/04/40092.php
or
and
Islamic themes and Arabic terms increasingly thread the colorful fabric that is hip hop. Self-proclaimed Muslim rap artists -- whether adhering to the Nation of Islam, the Five Percent Nation, or traditional Sunni Islam - proudly announce their faith and include "Islamic" messages of social justice in their lyrics.
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2003/05/14501.php
and
"...Because they know if the rappers get a revolutionary message, that if the rappers start to clean up their act and rap revolutionary rap, the game is over. The enemy, and those who control the distribution of rap, shut down revolutionary rap and would only fund gangster rap after [the 1992 L.A. rebellion against police brutality.] We saw an extreme rise in gangster rap and the elimination of revolutionary rap. ... I say to Brother Russell Simmons and the other rappers: Don’t let them make you believe that they have more power than you." --Malik Zulu Shabazz
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2005/03/39144.php
or
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_1858.shtml
Islam Racism And The Left
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2005/02/37745.php
or
http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2005/02/244553.shtml
and
". “As a young Muslim Black male in America I feel under attack on many fronts. I can handle being under attack, but it’s heartbreaking – at times— to feel as though I have no comrades. ..."--Amir Sulaiman
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2004/12/35705.php
or
and
How is the Islamic faith delivering the message from Allah through rap? True Believer From ages past music in some form has been used to Praise the One. In Qur'an we find "Allah is beautiful and loves beauty." Allah (swt) did not give birds their song to suppress nor did He create the winds that blow through rocks or trees to create beautiful sounds to be ignored or not copied.
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2004/10/31664.php
and
dred-i 3 track CD: "Revolutionary Crunk Muzik: The Black Panther Party Meets Soul Train".
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2004/10/31600.php
How is the Islamic faith delivering the message from Allah through rap? True Believer From ages past music in some form has been used to Praise the One. In Qur'an we find "Allah is beautiful and loves beauty." Allah (swt) did not give birds their song to suppress nor did He create the winds that blow through rocks or trees to create beautiful sounds to be ignored or not copied.
Muslim rap is big business with annual sales in excess of $1.8bn in America alone.
How is the Islamic faith delivering the message from Allah through rap?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/tx/documentaries/islamichiphop.shtml
1Xtra's Iyare talks to Muslim rappers challenging traditional views like Mecca 2 Medina, Napoleon from Tupac's Outlawz and Jurassic 5.
Why is Islamic hip hop becoming such an attraction?
and
'
You have to ask yourself is it in the best interests of the corporate elite to enlighten people truly. And I guess it's not if you want to maintain the status quo. We have billions of dollars for wars here to fight illegal immigrants and to kill people and control their natural resources....but we're always coming up short financially with education funding."
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2004/10/32953.php
or
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2004/10/32953.php
and
FRED WRECK!!!
Support the STOP Movement! STOP: Stop The Oppressive Politics!
We the people of the United States of America have gathered together to express our views against the oppression of people across the Earth by the imperialistic policy makers of our government. They want all the nations of the world to bow down and abide by rules and laws they impose behind the curtain of the United Nations, yet when those laws go against the political agenda of the administration they themselves break the law and feloniously fabricate propaganda to mislead the world and American people that Iraq has "Weapons of Mass Destruction", and will use them on America. Evidence to validate this fantasy still to this day does not exist, even after the CIA unsuccessfully tried to fabricate documents to prove so. Next we have the shameful attempt by Governor Bush and his gang to link the unfortunate events of September 11th and Osama Bin Laden to the leadership of the Iraqi Government. Proof or evidence of which also does not exist. Mr. Bush has been left with no other card in his deck to play, so he created his own, the deck of "Wanted Terrorists" within a charade of humanitarianism. The only way for him to gain any popular acceptance is to have a campaign of misleading propaganda to make us believe that he's on a self-righteous mission to liberate the Iraqi people, and that this war is a war about freedom and democracy for the people of Iraq. This is yet another delusion of grandeur by our so-called fearless leader. He will not hoodwink or deceive us! America's oppressive foreign policy, which resorts to bribery, corruption, dirty dealings, and murder assassination, will continue to produce hatred, mistrust, and animosity. This dangerous environment that our policies have bred puts us at far greater risk of being blind sided and harmed by threats unknown. This threat multiplies with each aggression toward the nations of the world. Aggression sometimes concealed behind diplomacy, which can be more dangerous than war itself. This hostile behavior must stop. If we are going to start opening the books and passing judgment on world leaders lets not hesitate to start with members of our government. Let's also call out the governments of some our so-called allies. Then we can all be playing eye-to-eye on an even field. Until then, take a stand to S.T.O.P. the oppressive politics. Stop the killing of other nation's children and bring our sons and daughters home.
Peace,
The Movement
or
http://www.rapindustry.com/fred_wreck.htm
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/750/feature.htm
and
This is a weekly summary of israeli war crimes committed in Palestine for the week ending 12 October 2005. 5mins, english
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/iwc12oct.mp3
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/44479.php
http://www.slingshothiphop.com/
Support the STOP Movement! STOP: Stop The Oppressive Politics!
We the people of the United States of America have gathered together to express our views against the oppression of people across the Earth by the imperialistic policy makers of our government. They want all the nations of the world to bow down and abide by rules and laws they impose behind the curtain of the United Nations, yet when those laws go against the political agenda of the administration they themselves break the law and feloniously fabricate propaganda to mislead the world and American people that Iraq has "Weapons of Mass Destruction", and will use them on America. Evidence to validate this fantasy still to this day does not exist, even after the CIA unsuccessfully tried to fabricate documents to prove so. Next we have the shameful attempt by Governor Bush and his gang to link the unfortunate events of September 11th and Osama Bin Laden to the leadership of the Iraqi Government. Proof or evidence of which also does not exist. Mr. Bush has been left with no other card in his deck to play, so he created his own, the deck of "Wanted Terrorists" within a charade of humanitarianism. The only way for him to gain any popular acceptance is to have a campaign of misleading propaganda to make us believe that he's on a self-righteous mission to liberate the Iraqi people, and that this war is a war about freedom and democracy for the people of Iraq. This is yet another delusion of grandeur by our so-called fearless leader. He will not hoodwink or deceive us! America's oppressive foreign policy, which resorts to bribery, corruption, dirty dealings, and murder assassination, will continue to produce hatred, mistrust, and animosity. This dangerous environment that our policies have bred puts us at far greater risk of being blind sided and harmed by threats unknown. This threat multiplies with each aggression toward the nations of the world. Aggression sometimes concealed behind diplomacy, which can be more dangerous than war itself. This hostile behavior must stop. If we are going to start opening the books and passing judgment on world leaders lets not hesitate to start with members of our government. Let's also call out the governments of some our so-called allies. Then we can all be playing eye-to-eye on an even field. Until then, take a stand to S.T.O.P. the oppressive politics. Stop the killing of other nation's children and bring our sons and daughters home.
Peace,
The Movement
E-mail