3 Dope Songs from UK Artist Lowkey-Taking on the Obama Nation

Lowkey redOver the past few years Lowkey who hails from the UK and is of Iraqi and English descent has been making a lot of noise both with his lyrical prowess and his hard hittin’, social and political content..He had been putting out mixtapes since 2003 and caught a lot of attention with the release of his 2008 project called ‘Dear Listener‘..Songs like Alphabet Assassin and Revolution were the standout cuts there..

In 2011 he released the critically acclaimed ‘Soundtrack to the Struggle‘. It was preceded by several popular singles including “Voices of the Voiceless” featuring  Immortal Technique, ‘Long Live Palestine’, ‘Something Wonderful’ and ‘Obama Nation‘ which was arguably the song that put Lowkey on everybody’s radar especially after the song was banned on TV in the UK…

Lowkey has been outspoken both in songs and in real life about the plight of Palestinians and the oppressive nature of Zionism. In fact he is said to have coined the phrase..’Nothing is more anti-semitic than Zionism’ . This was in  reference not only to the seldom acknowledged fact that Arabs are themselves Semites but also to what he called the “identical points of view” within Zionism and anti-semitism; he argued both believe that Jewish people cannot co-exist among other people and grow into a single community.

He has also called into question US and UK foreign policy arguing who is the real terrorist as was the case in his popular song Terrorist which spawned a number of remixes. You can check for that cut HERE

Long Live Palestine has also spawned off a number of remixes which led to the inclusion of vocals from popular Palestinian artists Dam and Shadia Mansour as well as fellow Iraqi artist The Narcicyst and Iranian artists Hich Kas and Reveal.. Check for that song HERE

Needless to say Lowkey’s  political positions this has resulted in this gifted emcee  being shunned by mainstream outlets. Hence we are proud to highlight him in 3 Dope Songs

In recent days Lowkey announced that he was taking a hiatus from music so he could concentrate on other things including his studies and political activism

Below are 3 Dope Songs from  Lowkey

Lowkey Obama Nation pt1

This track was one that caught everyone’s attention primarily because he was one of the first to publicly call out Obama over his policies while noting that the president probably had little choice since he was heading what many have called an Empire…

This cut led to several remixes which featured vocals from M1 of dead prez, Lupe Fiasco, Malcolm X and 2Pac.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4OI0GUCI_A

Folks who enjoyed this song may wanna see Obama Nation pt 2 featuring M1, Lupe Fiasco, Black the Ripper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB-vYuYhdSE

The remix track featuring Malcolm X and 2Pac called Obama Nation 3 can be found HERE

Lowkey Hands on Your Gun

This is an incredible song that questions the weaponry used by armed forces, in particular drones. Its featured on the album ‘Soundtrack to the struggle‘.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBNeD57-RVg

Lowkey w/ Faith SFX  ‘Alphabet Assassin’

This was a jam that came out early in Lowkey’s career and helped establish him as a formidable emcee whose lyrical skillz are unmatched.. Faith SFX is beat boxing the entire time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToZUIdbgqjE

 

On the 10th Anniversary of the Iraq War We Recall key Anti-War Hip Hop Songs

dbanner1newparis

daveyd-raider2With the 10th anniversary of the War on Iraq upon us.. I wanted to take a look abck at antiwar songs.. Below is an article penned a few years ago for the San Jose Mercury News

Give Hip Hop Credit for Anti-War songs

by Davey D

The other night ABC News did a special report on the growing popularity of anti-war protest songs. The report focused on how all these musicians were now coming out and providing a sound track to the growing discontent many of us are having with the war in Iraq. It talked about how people are more accepting of such songs and how major record labels were loosening up in the aftermath of the Dixie Chicks who got lambasted and later boycotted for speaking out against George Bush and his policies in 2003.

The report also brought to light the impact anti-war songs had on fueling the Anti-war movement against Vietnam in the late 60s and the question was raised as to what sort of impact todays rash of songs would have.

I cant remember all the singers they profiled, but I did recall seeing country singer Merle Haggard, Rock-N-Roll icon Bruce Springstein and pop sensation Pink. What surprised me was not seeing any mention of Hip Hop especially with the exception of KRS-One, since it was artists in the rap community that up to date have released more anti-war songs and were the first to unabashedly do so right after 9-11.

The late June Jordan

The late June Jordan

If we take a short walk down memory lane, folks may recall that the day after 9-11 Bay Area Hip Hop activists from organizations like Lets Get Free, The Ella Baker Center and Minds Eye Collective put together a rally that was held in Snow Park in Oakland. Close to 500 people attended this event which focused on the loss of human life and questioned the foreign policy missteps of the Bush administration. It was at this rally that many of us heard our last poem from the late June Jordan.

We also heard an incredible song from Michael Franti & Spearhead calling for healing and peace. A couple of months later, Franti appeared on Conan O’Brian and performed the anti-war song Bomb the World to Pieces only to find that his sentiments angered producers who threatened to censor the song when the show aired. Community outrage lead to OBrian’s people eventually showing the performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA8p_BV7uD8

Early on we heard anti-war songs from acts like the Beastie Boys (World Gone Mad), Nas (Rule), Wu-Tang Affiliates Known Associates (World So Cold), Talib Kweli (the Proud), J-Live (Satisfied) and Mr Lif (home of the Brave). All in all there are more than 150 anti-war songs that have been recorded by Hip Hop artists.

Paris

Paris

The song that really made heads turn was by Bay Area artist Paris who came out of retirement and released a 6 minute missive called What Would You Do? that went into great detail about The Caryle Group, Bush’s relationship to the Bin Laden family and the hawkish action plans of the Neo-cons serving in Bushs cabinet. Paris gave the song away for free and then followed it up with an entire antiwar album called Sonic Jihad which went on to sell over 200 thousand units. Another great anti-war cut off that album was ‘Sheep to Slaughter‘.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcxkw6ChKE0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaCPUIfr8PY

Another stand out effort came from San Francisco based Freedom Fighter records who released the first anti-war compilation featuring Bay Area artists called War Times Report From the Opposition. A year later LA based Hard Knock Records followed up with a critically acclaimed anti-war compilation called What About Us. It featured stellar songs like US History By Flipsyde

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQi4BTaYLj0

The most visible anti-war effort to date came from former San Jose resident Fredwreck who has produced tracks from everyone ranging from Eminem to Snoop Dogg and Ice Cubeto name a few. Using the name STOP Movement he gathered up a number of popular artists including Mobb Deep, WC of the Westside Connection, Daz of the Dogg Pound, RBX, Defari, Soopafly, Cypress Hill, Mack 10, KRS-One and Dilated Peoples just to name a few and released two anti-war songs called Down With Us and Dear Mr. President.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKC9-9BQO5Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiBI9TJ_iQs

Fredwreck

Fredwreck

Fredwreck like Paris gave away the songs for free and even held a press conference only to find local commercial stations would not touch the record in spite of the big name artists he had assembled. In fact sources inside one popular station in LA, KKBT, noted that their deejays were instructed not to play those songs because they were too controversial. Whats even more ironic was Fred was supposed to be profiled in the ABC story. He was flown to NY but not shown in the report that I saw.

The other irony was after ABC aired the report one of the anchors decided to comment and naively noted that she never heard any of the songs from the artists they profiled on the radio therefore they must not be hits. We could do an entire column on what goes on behind the scenes and what it really takes to get records on the commercial airwaves, but suffice to say if what happened to Fredwreck is any indication of how key power brokers at radio get down, then of course we would not hear any of these songs on radio. However, it does not mean those songs or those artists are not popular or that people are not appreciative of their songs.

A couple of other songs that got overlooked was Snoop Dogg‘s Sister and Brothers and Dilated People’s War and Channel Live‘s Mr President.  There is also a powerful more recently made song from Lowkey and Immortal Technique called Voice of the Voiceless

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZO0FXMFgRY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atovUH3dCgA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-mh-oAlr9c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w6rK4OkUhs

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Fear of An Arab Planet: 5 Videos & Groups Speaking Truth to Power & Repping Hip Hop to the Fullest

Here’s some hype videos and groups from the Arab world people should be up on. I’m always amazed at how so many groups from around the world use rap as a crucial communications tool to speak truth to power and now in the digital age provide images that let us know how life is in their neck of the woods. Below you have cuts from some of my favorites including Lowkey out of Britian, Narcy out of Montreal / Iraq, Clotaire K out of Lebanan/ France, Salome out of Iran and Dam out of Israel/ Palestine.. There are lots more to peep but we’ll start folks off with this batch..

Lowkey ‘Obama nation’ (Britain)

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=z4OI0GUCI_A&feature=related

The Narcicyst P.H.A.T.W.A. (Montreal/Iraq)

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=TtoHCUMpNMY&feature=related

Clotaire KLubnan’ (Beruit)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT6AfnssdYk

Salome Scream To Let Your Voice Be Heard (Iran)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_FR23x7Nvk

Lowkey & Faith SFXAlphabet Assassin (Britain)

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=ToZUIdbgqjE&feature=related

Dam I was Born Here’ (Israel/Palestine)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIo6lyP9tTE

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