[Reader-list] Pakistani hip hop?

[francesca recchia]

Dear Paul,
Thanks for your posting!

next term i will be teaching sociology of youth and the main focus of the course will be on Islamic youth subcultures looking especially at music literature and internet platforms.
Naeem Mohaiemen's article on Dj Spooky's book is already on my reading list and will definitely show this video Paul has just posted.

If you guys have any hint or suggestions i will definitely be supergrateful!

be hugged
francesca




--- On Wed, 7/1/09, Paul Miller <anansi1 at earthlink.net> wrote:
From: Paul Miller <anansi1 at earthlink.net>
Subject: [Reader-list] Pakistani hip hop?
To: "Sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Date: Wednesday, 7 January, 2009, 1:08 AM

Gasp - I guess it's time for Sarai to start writing theses on global  
hybridity, eh?

Youtunbe:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=5RxgiLARd5I

and

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7813478.stm

Strangely moving, but weird, nonetheless...
Paul

The elder daughter of Pakistan's assassinated former Prime Minister,  
Benazir Bhutto, has written a rap song expressing grief over her death.

The song by Bakhtawar Bhutto, 18, comes a year after the assassination  
and is entitled "I would take the pain away".

It pays tribute to her mother's "crazy courage" and describes her
as  
"the epitome of benevolence".

It has been played regularly on state-run television and has been  
posted on the video-sharing website YouTube.

'Weeping'

"My mother was murdered. I don't even comprehend. Was it worth dying  
for? I'm walking through screened doors," Bakhtawar sings in English.

	
Bakhtawar Bhutto

You had beauty and intelligence, everything you did was relevant

Bakhtawar Bhutto's lyrics in "I would take the pain away"

Obituary: Benazir Bhutto
Life in pictures: Benazir Bhutto

"No comfort or ease. I'm begging you please, God bless the
deceased,"  
she laments in the song.

Praising her mother's "beauty and intelligence", the song says
that  
the "whole world is weeping" over the murder.

"Shot in the back of your ear, so young in 54th year, murdered with  
three kids left behind, a hopeless nation without you, you are in all  
their hearts," it says.

The teenager, a student at Edinburgh University, then repeats the  
chorus line "I would take the pain away".

A video to accompany the song shows footage and photographs of her  
smiling mother while election campaigning shortly before her death in  
Rawalpindi in December 2007 and of public grieving after her death.

Ms Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack on her convoy - blamed  
on Islamic militants - as it travelled through the city's Liaquat Bagh  
park. She had just finished addressing an election rally.

Information Minister Sherry Rehman - who for several years was an aide  
to Ms Bhutto - told the Reuters news agency that Bakhtawar wrote the  
lyrics and music while studying in Edinburgh.

"It's a tribute of a grieving daughter to her iconic and loving  
mother," she said.

Ms Rehman said that while music was a hobby for Bakhtawar, she had no  
plan to pursue it as a career.

The song has had mixed reviews in the British press.

"While her dirge-like rap is unlikely to secure her a Grammy, the  
seemingly heartfelt tribute might win her some fans," The Independent  
newspaper says.

The Guardian says that she uses the song to "pour out her anguish".

Ms Bhutto's widower and Bakhtawar's father, Asif Ali Zardari, became  
president of Pakistan in September.

Their son, Bilawal, 20, studies at Oxford University in the UK and  
another daughter, Aseefa, 14, also studies abroad.

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