"Motherland Tour Recap 2010"

During the month of January I had the pleasure of performing at seven different venues in four major cities across the Middle East - Beirut, Amman, Doha, & Dubai to be exact ... 

I was an Arab on the move!!!

BEIRUT:

01.07.10

The three members of The Human Writes Project (Mark Gonzales, Nizar Wattad aka Ragtop & myself) were invited to participate in the 3rd annual CASAR Conference at the American University of Beirut (Jan 6 - 9). Since our presentation of Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets at the same conference back in January of 2008 was such a success, we decided to follow it up by showcasing more of our actual poems / songs in a new piece entitled Mid-East | LA. Choosing several works that were relevant to this year's theme - Connections & Ruptures: American & The Middle East - we printed out a lyrics sheet for audience members to follow along & reference during the Q & A session that followed.

Unfortunately Mark missed his flight due to circumstances beyond his control, so Nizzy & I scrambled to edit our set last minute in order to make up for his absence. While we would have loved for him to be present, we had plenty of experience performing together so the show went on without a glitch ... Folks in attendance included AUB students, faculty, two deans, the provost, professors from around the world, local Lebanese hip-hoppers, ambassadors, club promoters, family, & close friends - hitting us with questions that ranged from "when did you start rapping?" to "where do you see Arab hip-hop going in the future?" ... I am proud to say that it was one of the most anticipated & subsequently well-attended presentations at the conference.

01.10.10

A few nights later, as a follow-up to the academic performance, we teamed up with DJ Lethal Skillz & the good folks of Immortal Entertainment to put together an evening of beats / rhymes at a club venue called THE BASEMENT - featuring all of the best in local lyrical talent (Malikah, RGB, Zoog, Chino, Ramsees, i-Voice) ... Also on stage that night, the legendary DJ / Photographer duo MOCHILLA - B+ & Eric Coleman - from Los Angeles, as well as Ragtop, Mark Gonzales (who was finally able to get on a plane), & of course yours sinSyrianly ... It was a night to remember, with each part of the line-up holding their own on stage & representing for Hip-Hop!

Earlier that day I also did my first arabic interview with the US-based satellite-TV station - Alhurra ... Now I'll be honest, I did cringe at the thought of being on that channel at first (& still do to some extent) given their blatant news bias during the Bush-era - but after what I felt were honest discussions with friends & various producers of the specific program I was to appear on (Al Yawm), in which I was assured they had recently taken a more realistic & unbiased approach to their content, I went ahead & did it ... The result was a brief discussion on "everything Offendum" one can possibly fit into an 8 minute segment.

Prior to leaving Beirut I also made sure to shoot the final scenes of my upcoming music video with good friend Laith Majali ... Since the song is one of the bi-lingual cuts on my record that directly highlights the difficulties of being torn between the East / West, we felt it was necessary to shoot half in the US (Los Angeles) & half back home in the Middle East. Beirut offered the perfect backdrop with its picturesque mountain / beach landscape & gritty urban feel ... Not to mention the fact that I have many a fond memory in that beautiful city, as a number of my family members & close friends live there. In fact, some of the scenes were even shot on the balcony of my mama's apartment!

AMMAN:

01.12.10

Ragtop, Mark Gonzales, & I were then flown to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to perform at two events in Amman. The night we arrived, we hit the local Safeway to stock up & were pleased to find an assortment of Masafi products to choose from ... Unfortunately, the abbreviation for "assorted" in Jordan is the first three letters of the word - which confused the hell out of Mark & I as we passed by the juice aisle...

01.13.10

The morning after our arrival, we headed for Play 99.6 to promote our upcoming shows. It was the very first station in the Middle East to show us love (back in '06), so it was nice to reconnect with some of the same folks at the station & do another interview with Amman's finest English radio-personality - the one & only Lee McGrath.

Later that day, we met up with friends on Al-Rainbow Street to have lunch at the famed Kafeteria Al-Quds - serving up the best falafel sandwiches in the whole Kingdom ...

01.14.10


Our first event in Amman was at the Royal Film Commission - a financially & administratively autonomous Jordanian government organization established with a vision to develop an internationally competitive Jordanian film industry ... We were invited to present our Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets performance-lecture, while Nizar ran some screenwriting workshops during the day.

Thanks to the hard work of our good friend & RFC employee Carla Dabis, the event was a huge success ... The setting was intimate, there was a non-smoking policy (which was a big deal for me in Amman as it is arguably the smokiest city in the Middle East), & we were able to fill up the main room with 75 eager listeners who engaged in a wonderful discussion with us afterwards.

01.15.10

The following evening we were slated to perform at Immortal Entertainment's debut event in their hometown of Amman - held in one of the premiere nightclubs in the city, a cool two-story venue called FLOW... Once again, Mochilla spun an unforgettable opening set, followed by performances from Mark Gonzales, Ragtop, Malikah, & myself ... DJ Lethal Skillz & Coleman held it down for us on the one's & two's & kept hundreds of Jordanian folk happy well into the next morning.

This video by Laith Majali shows clips from both Immortal Entertainment events in Beirut & Amman - nice job DBM...

When I sent the clip to Arab-American Comedian Dean Obediallah, he said it reminded him of a beer commercial =)

01.17.10

While I truly had a blast in Amman, the combination of smokey cafes, recycled airplane air, & constant temperature fluctuations finally caught up to me on my last day there ... 

Thankfully there was a pharmacy at Queen Alia Airport!

DOHA:

01.19.10

Our next stop was Qatar, where I performed back in November of '09 during the DTFF, & was happy to be back so soon as I have many a good friend in Doha ... Thanks to Aalaa - a fellow ISA Falcon - me & the boys were invited to perform Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets at Education City. We helped Mark Gonzales facilitate a writing workshop for some students / faculty during the early afternoon, & presented the performance-lecture in the evening at Carnegie Melon Universitiy's Majlis (seating area).

Since the good folks at the DTFF had not been able to properly film my concert during last year's festival, they offered to document this show & conduct a short interview. The result is a clip that gives viewers a sense of what this ground-breaking performance is really like ...

It also clearly illustrates what a stressed-out / pre-show Ragtop, diva-esque / clogged-nasal Offendum, & workshop-conducting / motivational-speaking Mark G look like ;)

Special thanks to Ahmed Shihab-Eldin & the DTFF crew for producing this clip!

DUBAI:

01.20.10

Our final destination was the United Arab Emirates' most populous city of Dubai, where we were booked to perform at a cool little venue in Le Meridien Airport Village called ALPHA. My buddy DJ Solo (aka Wriggly Scott) had agreed to back us up at the show, so we rushed to his place soon after we arrived to work on our set for the evening. In the process we also copped a few beats from him, for collaborations that will appear on his next record due to be released later this year.

The show at ALPHA was a success, with many familiar faces in the crowd to help welcome Ragtop & Mark Gonzales on their first Dubai visit. I was still suffering from a severe (Amman-induced) chest cold, but was thankfully able to push through the set without any awkward mid-verse coughs. 

Special thanks to The Baraka Group for putting yet another wonderful event together!

01.21.10

The Human Writes Project's last performance on this Middle East tour was at SHELTER, where I had my first Dubai show back in October of '09. It was an evening of spoken word coordinated by Hind Shoufani of The Poeticians, & featured a number of local poets & writers. Given that Dubai is such an ethnically diverse city, our global perspective was welcomed with eager ears & open minds. It was the perfect capstone to our tour, as I said good-bye to the fellas later that evening & prepared to spend the rest of the week in the UAE with family & friends.

ABU DHABI:


01.22.10


I've had relatives &  friends living in Abu-Dhabi for many years now, but never got to see it on my trips to the UAE as I usually spent most of my time in Dubai while I was there. So my sister, niece & I made the 80 mile drive down one day to visit our uncle, aunt, & cousins.

On the way back, I asked that we stop by the Sheikh Zayed Mosque, named after the founder & first President of the United Arab Emirates who is buried on the premises. It is the eighth largest mosque in the world, & the design was inspired by Arab, Mughal & Moorish architecture.

The mosque is large enough to accommodate 40,000 worshippers, & contains both the world's largest carpet (60,570 sq ft) & world's largest chandelier (49' high x 33' diameter). With no expense spared in its $545 million dollar budget, it is an awe-inspiring edifice that attracts thousands of Muslim & non-Muslim visitors annually.

DUBAI:

01.25.10


Just before heading back to the US, I had the good fortune of doing an(other) interview/studio-performance on Dubai One's hit show TWENTY SOMETHING. I was asked about my upcoming album, recent tours, & opinions as an artist who has sought to bridge the gap between "East & West" through music. The brief interview was followed by a live performance of my translation / rendition of Nizar Qabbani's "Qariat il-Finjan"... 

Click on the following link to check out the full episode: http://www.dubaimedia.ae/Media/view/54744

Props to Yara, Rema, Marwan, Annah, & the whole crew for making it come together so nicely!

- - - - - - -

Needless to say it was a very productive trip from start to finish - al7amdulillah ... I am certainly looking forward to the next Motherland Tour & hope to stop in more cities along the way if time permits.

3iiish Middle East!!!

"3iiish Day 2009"

I am officially 10220 days young today ... feeling blessed, inspired, & loved ... al7amdullilah - all praises due to the most HIGH!!!

"DTFF | 2009"

Earlier this month I was flown out to Qatar to perform at the first ever Doha Tribeca Film Festival - a joint partnership between the Qatar Museum Authority & Robert Deniro's world-famous Tribeca Film Festival. From start to finish - executive director to youngest intern - the organizers of this fabulous event did an incredible job putting every aspect of it together. I had a blast meeting Hollywood A-listers, mingling with the rising stars of Arab cinema, & reconnecting with many old friends who now call this booming Gulf city their home. Thanks to some wasta-connects on the staff who put in the recommendation, & a few Youtube clips which helped seal the deal, I was given the opportunity to do my Hip-Hop thing in front of hundreds of new faces at The W Hotel in Doha - one of my favorite hospitality chains & the very first in the Middle East!

Martin Scorcese delivered a speech at the intro luncheon ... I got a kick out of the arabic translator (standing to his left), whom rather than simply relay his sentiments in another language, took it upon herself to literally translate everything he said word for word - including all references to himself ... meaning, she would grab the mic after every other sentence and say "I Martin Scorcese am ... etc."

Sir Ben Kingsley (Ghandi!) answered some questions for a local journalist after lunch ... Apparently he & Scorcese had the same tailor - he just preferred a sim fit?

Legendary Egyptian comedic actor 3adel Imam strolled down the "red carpet" at the opening gala ... just seeing him made me crack up ... the look on his face was classic!

Fireworks lit up the sky behind the Museum of Islamic Art - designed by the one & only I. M. Pei ... The courtyard in this photo was modeled after the historic Ibn-Toloun mosque in Cairo, and provided a stunning backdrop (foredrop?) for the beautiful pyrotechnics display that evening.

On the second night of the festival, Maysoon Zayid & Dean Obeidallah did their side-splitting comedy thing on stage just before my performance (Spice Market Restaurant @ The W Hotel ) ... No better way to start the show than with two of Arab-America's funniest comics killin it for the Qatari crowd!

On the other side of the restaurant, my stage was set up between DJ Sam's (Doha's finest) turntables & the enormous open bar ... Took a few songs to warm folks up (& draw their attention away from the free booze), but once I did - it quickly became a night to remember. Shout-outs to the coolest Soori in Doha, Omar Chaikhouni in the corner of this pic ;)

"Throw ya hands in the airrr & wave em all around like you just dont carrre" ... Told you I got their attention ;)

The next evening I attended an open-air screening @ Souq Waqif of the 1969 Egyptian film "Al Momia" (The Mummy) - digitally remastered by Martin Scorcese's World Cinema Foundation. While many of the people in attendance fell asleep under the peaceful night sky, I was captivated by the struggle this film portrayed - does the protagonist allow the "effendiyah / city-people" (sound familiar?) to take the ancient sarcophagi of his ancestors ... or let his fellow tribesman rob & loot them to no end? ... I can understand why this is one of Marty's favorite flicks =)

During the last day of the DTFF, following a screening of the "Team Qatar " documentary, I was asked to participate in a mock-debate with Maysoon Zayid. We each had two local high-schoolers on our team leading the way & Dean Obeidallah served as the moderator. While the debaters on the other squad were certainly formidable opponents, they ultimately proved no match for my team (ain't that right Mr. Hubrack?) =P

On closing night, following an outdoor screening/premiere of "Cairo Time", the boys from DAM came through to rock the mic - representing for Lod & all of Palestine ... Since I recently recorded a track with Suhell about the Gaza massacre, he asked me to join him on stage to kick my verse ... I've had the good fortune of performing with these brothers several times over the past couple of years during their US tours & I can honestly say they get better & better every single time!

I had some final after-party fun with two of the best young Arab directors in the industry, Amin Matalqa (Jordan) & Ali Mostafa (UAE) ... Keep an eye out for their work on a silver screen near you!

One of my personal highlights of the festival was getting to know the beautiful & incredibly talented Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass ... Her role in the the DTFF Grand Prize Winning film "Pomegranates & Myrrh" (written/directed by the lovely Miss Najwa Najjar) was absolutely spellbinding ... She was funny, sharp, smart, strong, & caring - true to the character of most Falasteeni women I know!

Thanks again to all the hard-working folks at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival who made this first event such a success - looking forward to many more insha'Allah!

3iiish Movies!!!

"DUBAI Show @ SHELTER"

Upon departing from Beirut last month, I made my way to Dubai, the Arabian-Gulf city of life that inspired one of my previous posts.

Thanks to the hard-working folks at The Baraka Group & Showtime Arabia, I was given the opportunity to showcase my latest tracks and poetic musings at a venue called SHELTER in Al-Qouz (a warehouse district). This place is really unique in that it "is a first of its kind community workspace that allows individuals from various creative disciplines to engage in an environment that nurtures entrepreneurial small businesses." Since it isn't a typical club venue that serves alcohol, my beloved niece and nephew were able to invite their high-school friends to watch Khalo Offendum rock the mic in their hometown - without having to lie to their parents about where they were going (ain't that right Tala ;) ... Furthermore, it serves food/coffee from one of the best restaurants in the city, mOre cafe' ... so you know my fat-a**  was happy!

The show itself consisted of an opening performance by up and coming Indian comedian Nitin Mirani - whose hilariously relevant jokes and impersonations of the various accents found in this Middle Eastern melting pot were the perfect intro to my 1-hour set ... Given the number of Arab expats and International citizens in attendance, the global perspective I've been pushing with the material on SyrianamericanA was well-received ... 

This event was subsequently covered by Dubai One TV and Showtime Arabia's "Show Me More" - all you FB heads can peep the latter interview here:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=331781300200&oid=71465053272 

I also premiered my OFFENDUM logo design at this event, a new take on the classic evil-eye that I hold so dear - where two of them meet to form an "OO" that serve as both my initials and an homage to the turn-tables that make what I do possible at each and every show ... This was projected on the wall, flat screen TVs, and printed on some really cool T-Shirts that a few lucky customers got to take home that night ... In the photo below is my good friend Ernst van der Poll, whom you may remember from an earlier post I put up back in April about the local youth diving initiative known as Tawasul ...

In retrospect I realize that these shirts are perhaps not the most flattering for women to wear, so I will make it a point to design a line with a smaller logo print in the middle of the shirt =P

A few nights before I left the Emirates I also had a chance to to do a special 2-hour radio interview on DUBAI EYE - 103.8 (thanks Yara!) ... I gave listeners a taste of what to expect on the solo record, and answered some interesting questions that ranged from: 

"When are you gonna do a show in Abu Dhabi?" 

to ... 

"Why are you doing this, music is 7aram!?"

Just before departing from DXB I stopped by the duty-free music store to browse the latest Middle Eastern music releases and stumbled upon a pleasant surprise ... 

Shout-outs to Fred Wreck, Shadia Mansour, Don Legend, Murder Eyez, Rojeh, DAM, and of course the one and only - MC Amiiiiiin (ta7ya il-gumhooriyah ... il-3arabiyah ... il-Masriyah ... 100/100 ;)

3iiish CDs

"YAAA Conference"

Last month I was given the honor of presenting my music / poetry at the closing ceremony of the Yale Arab Alumni Association Conference on Urban Sustainability (October 2 - 3) at The American University of Beirut. This was a ground-breaking event in that the organizers were able to bring together some of the best & brightest from academic, architectural, entrepreneurial, environmental, & cultural circles to debate the future of the Middle Eastern city in its many forms. Each of the panel discussions were inspiring in their own way, leaving everyone who attended with a renewed sense of appreciation for where they were from, where they lived, &/or where they wanted the Arab world to be ... and what better place to host such a significant conference than the fabulous city of Beirut - where history, modernity, culture, & innovation converge in a uniquely Middle Eastern / Mediterranean way.

I may be bias, but the panel on education was of particular relevance in my opinion, since it directly addressed the future of the Arab city & how to best prepare the MENA youth for the challenges that lie ahead (remember - upwards of %60 of the population in the Arab world is under 30) ... and it featured one of the star panelists of the event - a man who was recently named one of the 500 most influential Muslims on the planet - my brother, Mohamad Abdullatif Chakaki.

My show was at a lovely little restaurant on Rue Makdissi called Walimat Wardeh - an old Lebanese house turned restaurant/pub ... A couple hundred friends/fans packed the smoke-filled, humid space as I did my thing on the mic - covering a range of topics that I felt represented the inter-disciplinary goals of the YAAA Conference.

Lea Hakim, one of the dedicated conference organizers, had this to say about my show:

"It was an honor to have the privilege of your performance in the conference party at Walimat Wardeh. Your performance and the vibe that night were electric!"

Electric ... maybe thats why they call me Ohmz =P

When I was done, I slowly slipped out of the restaurant & walked over to a shawerma spot on Rue Hamra to fill my empty belly ... Pita bread, garlic mayo, pickles, & tender slices of marinated/roasted chicken to be exact ...

Prior to leaving Beirut, I made sure to indulge in one of the most amazing culinary experiences in the city - Mayrig Restuaruant in Jemmayzeh - if you don't know, you better ask somebody ... This Armenian establishment is top-notch, & is just one more reason to love Lebanon & its diverse blend of culture/cuisine. All the dishes are prepared to perfection, & presented in small portions that are shared throughout the table - salads, fattehs, kibbehs, kiftehs, soujouks, & kebabs ... Two of my favorite dishes there are the rice kibbeh (kibbeh prepared with rice instead of bourghul), and the cherry kabob (sweet/savory gooey goodness) ... To top it all off this ice-cream lover got to taste 4 unique twists on the classic desert - marzipan, rose petal, halawah/halvah, & karawyeh (again, if you don't know - you better ask somebody!) ...

3iiish Feast!!!

"The Independent Monitor"

Recent article about yours sinsyrianly ... thanks Sarah!

3iiish & Read!!!

"Ramadan Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar)"

Ramadan Mubarak - from my President to yours ...

3iiish Fast!!!