In Week 13 we looked at Islam in the West and, more specifically, at how Muslim youth use Hip Hop and Punk Rock to spread messages about Islam. Since we live in a time where Islamophobia is very prevalent in the West, many of these artists attempt to refute these negative stereotypes by spreading Islam and its positive message in their songs. A few of these people/groups include: Aki Nawaz and his group Fun-Da-Mental (England, 1990s), Transglobal Underground (United States, 1990s), and Akhenaton and his group IAM (France, 1990s). But although some artists are openly Muslim with their music, some artists use a different approach which is to spread positive messages in their mainstream music without throwing their Muslim identity directly in the face of the listeners. This allows the listeners to dissociate any negative stereotypes about the artist so that their music is perceived with a clean slate relative to other non-Muslim artists. Lupe Fiasco is the perfect example of an artist who uses the latter approach (Watch this interview if you want to hear more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnt4GlQGirs).

In response to this topic I decided to write my own hip hop/rap song about this course. At first I tried to write a rap about the misconceptions of Islam in light of the recent world events (Paris, Brussels, etc.) but I found that very challenging to do because of the sensitivity of the topic. So instead I decided to write something more fun and, in my opinion, more enjoyable for the listener (especially if they have taken AI 54). The main message of my rap is to show how AI 54 is a great class for anyone interested not only because it teaches you a lot about Islam, but it also allows you to explore a creative side of yourself that you may have never known existed, in addition to learning about yourself and the world around you. In the rap I talked about a lot of the material we covered throughout the course while trying to keep a certain flow and rhyming. A lot of what I mentioned in the rap I have also discussed in previous blog posts so I won’t go into detail about the lyrics (posted below). After listening to some Islamic hip hop in class, I was inspired to test my own hip hop abilities. This isn’t a lyrical masterpiece or anything but I still hope you enjoy it! Here it is!

Best,

Aly

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Lyrics:

 

11 am gotta hop out of bed, you know why,

Tuesday, Thursday got class in the yard, you know why,

Sever 2-1-3 at 11:30, until 1 that’s where you’ll find me,

Learn about Islam from an arts point of view,

I call that AI 54 that’s true,

If you wanna take a class that’s fun,

And opens your mind no doubt this is the one,

We talked about Quran, we talked about Muhammad (pbuh),

We talked about poetry, Mathnawis to Ghazals,

Oh man what a blast it was,

Film screenings, Wednesday nights, at Jefferson,

Sufism, you haven’t heard of it?

Mysticism? You haven’t heard of it?

Learn about yourself and the world you,

Hidden meanings and the nafs, man that’s new,

I designed a mosque, and a calligram,

Wrote a ghazal about love oh man,

Muhammad Iqbal the Pakistani poet,

Develop your khudi that’s yourself ya you know it,

Muslims in America, man that’s diversity,

30% African-American community,

Using hip hop to spread a message,

Thank you teaching staff for this class what a blessing,

it was!