Show Review: Kharbish Bilsanak (II) – Obros (December 23, 2009)

Alright, this is not really a “show review”, but actually more like a “yo, check this shit out!”

 I heard about this via Fareeq el Atrash and it sounded very interesting.

 Heard of pictionary? The game were a player is given a subject and must draw it (without writing or saying any words) and one or more players must guess what it is he/she is drawing.

 So here, artists were to draw subjects assigned to them, and selected individuals were to guess them.

 But this wasn’t a “Pictionary Party”, no no no. What happened here was that rappers, among which are the Fareeq MCs, Edd and Chyno, were to guess what was being drawn with… freestyle rap! They must toss away regular speech and make freestyling their sole method of communication.

 This was the creation of Karma Hamaday (bringing it here all the way from Australia). It was done once before in Zico House around July 2008 I think. This would be the second time this takes place.

 Again, this wasn’t exactly a show, but I’ll call it one regardless.

 -Before the Show: I showed up at the Obros restaurant/ bar 9:00-ish, and there wasn’t that big a crowd. The place is quite nice by the way, very modern. I paid the 10$ fee which was a wee bit steep (10,000 L.L would have been fine really), though I did get a free drink (though I like keeping myself alcohol-free, so it was just a Pepsi, and I could’ve gotten one of those anywhere else without paying the fee, but it’s my choice, so yeah…)

 The artists were sitting at the table killing time, making some incredible artwork. There was plenty of paper and markers, and the action going on at the table was being filmed by a camera, and which fed that fed into a projector, which projected the action onto a screen for all to see.

 John and Chyno of Fareeq el Atrash were there and so was their close associate DJ Stickfiggr.

 Some time passed and still not that big a turnout. Stickfiggr was getting us all fired up with some true hip hop (he played Aesop Rock. Nuff said.) Edd eventually showed up and I was happy to see Youmna Saba present too. After some chatter, jokes, and time killing, it was 10:00 and Karma decided that they had waited long enough.

 -The Show: Stickfiggr put on some instrumental beat for the rappers to rap to. It was very smooth flowing actually. Karma would give the artists their topic and they would make their sketches as quickly as they could. When they were finished, the sketches would be collected in the middle of the table for all to see clearly. The rappers would freestyle everything they had to say, even if it wasn’t an attempt at guessing the illustrated subject. They basically switched off their ability to speak without rhyme. When they were guessing, they rapped it, and when they were completely confused, they’d rap that too.

 And they couldn’t have picked funnier MCs. Chyno, who is quite the skilled freestyler, would slip in a wisecrack or two every now and then (“Everybody give it up for Stickgfiggr *crowd cheers*, no not him, the dude in the picture”). Same goes for Edd, though he doesn’t see himself as that a good a fresstyler, with his Arabic verbal craftsmanship. I didn’t believe it at first when I saw it, but John, bassist/ beatmaker John, he freestyled too. He was actually pretty good, though he said it’s been five years since he last did something like this. There were a couple other rappers too there, though I wasn’t familiar with them.

 I don’t remember every single topic that was drawn, but there was everything from “Santa Claus”, to “Grindizer”, to “Lisanoka 7isanoka”, to “Mdawwa raso”.

 Around 11:00, they took a short break and Stickfiggr played some more tunes for the crowd that actually got a bit bigger. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay till the very end, but what I saw was more than satisfactory. I was told that the previous edition of this event had a bigger turnout.

 Ramcess showed up right about then. He was earlier praised by Edd and John for his freestyle skills, so I would have liked to see him in action.

 I watched one hour of this stuff. In the first one it went on for like… 3 hours.

 -After the Show: I was actually planning on asking to be a sketcher, but watching was so much more entertaining.

 There will be a third one in the future, and I’m telling you this from now: Whether you’re an art lover, a rap lover, a comedy lover, or just a fun lover, you should definitely stop by when the third one’s going down. DO. IT… DAMMIT.

Show Review: 7keeleh Vol II – (November 20, 2009)

7keeleh is an open-mic session organized by Taste Culture and hosted by Fareeq el Atrash, where anyone is welcome to present rap, poetry, or anything else, and some pretty big names also present their work (Fareeq el Atrash, Cristobal, RGB, etc…). It is held in the Amadeus pub of the Hotel Mozart in Hamra.

 This was the second edition of these sessions. I did attend the first, but did not see any of the performances since I had to leave early. Luckily, this time around, I was able to stay for the whole thing.

 -Before the Show: I was feeling a little sick, but decided I felt well enough to go out. I was bringing along three guests (two friends and one of their cousins) who wanted to meet graffiti artist Fish, of the Lebanese graffiti crew, REK Crew. He was asked to tag the word “7keeleh” on a canvas outside. The three of them have tagged some graffiti themselves, and I’m thinking about trying it myself, will get back to you on that… The first time me and my two friends met Fish was at our school, where for some mysterious yet awesome reason, the school got him and a couple other members of the crew to come over and show us how to tag, not on walls, but on canvases, nonetheless still pretty neat. And my friend’s cousin would be Gup. If the name sounds familiar, then you’ve probably seen the walls in Hamra lately.

 Went inside, greeted all the good folks there. The first time I came, they were giving out this free CD that contained music by local acts. I liked that CD a lot, one of the reasons is for which is because it introduced me to Toffar. This time, there was no compilation CD, but instead there was Fareeq el Atrash’s pre-album (which they also had for sale at their Basement gig), as in, the pre-Chyno versions of the tracks that will appear on the upcoming album, as in, the tracks on their myspace plus never before heard tracks. All of this for the price of: as much as you feel like. I had to take a cab home, so I felt like 1,000 L.L.

 So we decide to go talk to Fish. We step outside where there is a canvas hung up and spray cans and stuff and we say hi and that we met at our school and he recognizes us, and Gup from some other place.

 After some graffiti-chat, he began with the tag, first spraying on the overlapping outlines of the letters. This helps one choose what letters to put behind what letters and what letters to put on top of what letters. He then started coloring in some green sections at the bottom of each letter, and yellow in the rest.

 Meanwhile, inside, they were about to get the ball rolling, so I went back inside and let my friends watch Fish spray. I would go on to see them intermittently for a while then not at all.

 -The Show: I will try my best to recall the correct order and not to forget about anybody.

 Edd and Goo kicked it off with Edd rapping and Goo playing electric guitar.

 This was followed by a musician named Ashraf. Armed with his trusty oud, he played it and sang some traditional Arabic songs. I’m not a huge fan of this stuff, but I gave it a chance, because seeing Rabea Beirut was the first step of a journey. The destination would be making up for my lack of Arabization. It’s a long story, but in brief: When I hear something that is a blend of several genres, I have to have an idea of each genre on its own to see how faithful it is to both genres separately, in their pure forms. One of the more popular strategies being adopted here is mixing a modern genre (hip hop, rock, electronica, etc…) with traditional Arabic music. So, I know enough about most of the modern genres, but ironically, I am slightly alienated from traditional Arabic music. Thus, it is my duty to expand what little I currently know of the music of our forefathers, just so I don’t get to the point where I find myself groping in the dark. So you remember that thing I mentioned in the Rabea Beirut review about mentally improving music that I don’t find 100% satisfactory? Well this time, FZ saved me the trouble and did it for me. He started adding vocal percussion. He wasn’t holding a mic, just standing with the crowd watching, and everyone could hear his contribution. That man can do some loud clicks dude.  

A lady read a poem after that I believe. It was a tribute to a friend, and was quite beautiful.

 Following that was a rapper by the name of Fahrass. He said that he’d do this more “storyteller” style than “rapper” style, so he took out a cell phone and read his verses revolving around two girls that each faced certain hardships as children and met one another in the present, while FZ provided some of his mouth-sculpted sound replications. Concerning the cell phone factor, I would have done the same thing myself. Actually I might have messed up a little while reading, so yeah, it’s all cool.

 I believe after him followed a poet by the name of Tina Fish. She recited two poems. One was about these “jagals”, the stereotypical Lebanese males. I share her loathing for that particular social group, so I could relate. Her style was more spoken word than poetry, releasing a sentence one time, a single word the other. She mainly spoke in English but sprinkled some Arabic here and there. The second was a response to a photography contest called “Lakom Hamrakom Wa Li Hamra2i” where photographers are encouraged to take photos of what makes Hamra special to them. She wrote a poem. It covered almost all the ingredients that blend and clash to form Hamra, which I consider my spiritual home. No seriously, this lady is something else… major kudos!

 Following her were 3/5 of Fareeq el Atrash. Edd, Chyno, and FZ. They started off with their introduction routine where FZ beatboxes then starts announcing a soccer game that the band are playing in. It was actually longer than usual this time. This routine comes with rapping by Edd and Chyno of course. After that, he treated us to another one of his Fareeq el Utrush routines, this one I had only heard once and was eager to hear once again, it was the movie trailer one! He did the whole deep voice announcer bit (fun fact: that guy’s name is Don LaFontaine. Unfortunately, he passed away last year, sigh…), where he declared “in a world, where the music industry is dominated by artists like Haifa-“Wawa!”- One band, Fareeq el Utrush, here to save the day (eh, I still haven’t memorized it). Usually this would have been it, but this time it was a revised version, which included some movie trailer-musts such as, cast list and excerpts from the actual (well, hypothetical) movie!: “Starring Edouard Abbas as, Edd”, then Edd said something, a line of his from the “movie”. “Nasser Al Shorbaji as, Chyno”, he said something that sounded like he was warning people not to mess with him. “John Imad Nasr, who isn’t here right now…”.”And Fayez Zouheiry as *vocal scratch vocal scratch* FZ!”. I don’t know how it ended, but I loved this version. Chances are the guys will read this, so I’d like to take a few moments to say: RECORD. IT. Including actual sound effects. Ooh ooh! Album intro! Album intro! ALBUM. INTRO.

 They performed some songs sans bass which included “Ana 7abib Balade'” and “Bteghlawa Ma3 L’Zikra”, as well as some other stuff. Some of the songs mentioned were performed later on, but I’m just putting it out there…

 After that, if I remember correctly, FZ beatboxed with Karim Mallak, another beatboxer, whose name I forget, but they were good together. They did a medley of songs similar to the beatbox routine that you’ve probably seen already on the web by that French-Japanese fellow on the French version of “American Idol”, as in “Beat it”, “Yeah”, etc…

 L’Fareeq went back on and performed one of the aforementioned songs.

 After them, Chyno performed some acapella rap in English.

 Following that was some more spoken word, this time by Becky Katz. She read two poems. The first was called “The Binary Serpent”. In it, she talked about a certain incident where she fell victim to social prejudice and gave us some philosophical insights, well Tina Fish did too, but Becky’s were more textbooky. She was briefly heckled by someone asking her to “read faster” whom she replied to with “leave faster”, and that was met with applause… oh those precious “bakh3a” moments…  She then read an untitled poem, a love poem dedicated to her boyfriend.

 This was followed by some Arabic rap by rapper Ramcess, which was pretty tight actually.

 Then Yassine from I-Voice also delivered some Arapic rap with FZ beatboxing and acapella too.

 I think there were a couple more rappers after that…

 That’s when it happened. FZ went on a killing spree. He did a nice kung fu movie style skit, then some more beatboxing with the beatboxer he performed with earlier that night, but then he shocked everyone by: beatboxing, and speaking, at the same time… At first they were skeptical, but he did it again slower, singing that line “if your mother ooonly knewww”. Mind boggling. As if he didn’t his beatbox prowess wasn’t established by then, he topped it all off by beatboxing and playing a pipa at the same time. The pipa in question is a little wind instrument that Edd brought FZ back all the way from Thailand. I’ve seen a guy play flute while beatboxing on the web, so seeing something similar live was nice.

 Two poets finished the night off…

 -After the Show: That was a pretty good batch of talent I’d say. Oh and by the way, this spans for like… 2 hours. While there, if not for the occasional smoking induced coughs (too much smoking going on), I had no idea I was even sick. It’s the healing power of music… It was inspiring too, seeing average people present their work, which turns out to be awesome. I might even present something myself if I have time to work on it and practice… But overall, this is a good concept and I hope it keeps going strong and people keep showing up and sharing their talents.

 -Photos:

*Personal: http://www.facebook.com/#/album.php?aid=350494&id=842365214

 -Videos:

*Personal: I have a video of FZ rocking that pipa. To be posted as soon as I can upload it.

-Links:

Tatse Culture Blog: http://tastekulcha.blogspot.com/

Artist Analysis: Fareeq el Atrash

Photo by: Tanya Traboulsi. Logo by: Omar Khoury

-Name: Fareeq el Atrash (A pun on the name of the famed Arabic musician Farid El Atrash and Arabic for “Team of the Deaf” or “Deafman’s Team” (interpret it as you like)) 

-Members: Edd (Eddourd Abbas), Chyno (Nasser Al Shorbaji), FZ (Fayez Zouheiry), John Imad Nasr, Goo (Ghassan Khayyat), DJ Stickfiggr 

-Years Active: 2006-Present 

-Genre: Arabic Hip Hop (with rock and funk touches) 

-History: The first incarnation of Fareeq el Atrash was as a live jam band that played funk, psychedelic rock, and trip hop, not having specific songs, just going with the flow. This was around late-2003. The members were John Nasr on bass, Ghassan Khayyat on guitar, Rawad Choubassy on drums, Issam Raad on percussions and beats too I think, and DJ Stickfiggr on turntables. They were sometimes joined by Fouad Zakka on saxophone. One day, while trying to come up with a name for themselves, Issam blurted out the name “Fareeq el Atrash”, probably due to the fact that next to Rawad’s house in Raouche’ was a “super night club” (*cough*WHOREHOUSE*cough*) named after the Arabic musicican and singer, Farid El Atrash, and both Issam and John were fans of his work, so they went with it. Issam tragically passed away in a car accident in 2004. DJ Lethal Skillz, who had shown interest in doing a collaboration between them, was briefly brought in as a substitute for Stickfiggr, who was abroad. 

After a successful gig in 2005 at the infamous Beirut nightclub, The Basement, the band dissolved. 

John, Goo, and Stickfiggr then attempted to reform the band, this time with Rabih Sakr on drums and Wissam Karam on trumpet. They played one show, but after that, several issues came in the way, including each member having to leave the country in pursuit of their own personal careers and the 2006 Lebanese-Israeli conflict. 

John was left to fly solo, that is until Edd came along. Edd had been working with some other groups and as a solo artist around 2001 or 2002, rapping in English then later on reverting to Arabic. John and Edd had seen one another around but never actually talked until a friend of Edd’s introduced them. John heard Edd rhyme in Arabic and was greatly impressed by his laid back and intellectual style. So John started working with Edd on making him a solo album, producing and creating beats for him. 

Eventually, John would play a bigger part in the project when he would contribute his bass playing to the songs. It was around that time when Fayez Zouheiry would come into the picture. FZ was introduced to Edd while they were in university. He was a beatboxer who used to perform with another beatboxer as a duo. He continued beatboxing solo after his partner resigned from the duo they had going on. Edd would bring FZ in while he and John were recording and he was greatly impressed by their work so he joined in. And so this project transformed from a solo rap project to an unlikely “band”. When time came for them to play a show, they were asked to give themselves a name, and they finally decided on resurrecting the name of the original band John was in, Fareeq el Atrash, FZ giving it a new spin as well. 

Around 2008, they added a new member to the roster, Chyno. Nasser Al Shorbaji, or Chyno as he is known, has been a friend of the group for a long time and has been rapping with other groups and on his own in English. Edd and John asked him to try rapping in Arabic, so he did, and adopted it alongside his English rapping. He got to work closer with Edd in a play which consisted of a series of dreams where the story is told through rap entitled “Eddem el Safara Kein el Leil Tawil”. This play would showcase the onstage interaction and stage presence of Edd and Chyno, so it was just crazy not to ask him to join. DJ Stickfiggr has also performed live with the new incarnation of the group and Goo (Ghassan Khayyat) has been brought back in. 

Both Edd and Chyno went on to appear in separate tracks on DJ Lethal Skillz’s debut album “New World Disorder”, Edd on the track “Byin7aka” and Chyno with his close associate MC Zoog on the track “Scratching Skillz”. They have collaborated with DJ Lethal Skillz live for a street performance in support of Gaza. 

Fareeq el Atrash were also asked by the Iqra’ group, which is an Arabic language center based in Beirut that teaches speaking, reading, and writing in Arabic, to make them a song in honor of Beirut being World Book Capital for the year 2009. The result was a song called “Nammi Fekrak”. 

Edd, FZ, and Chyno, along with other prominent names in the local hip hop scene, recently participated in a workshop for local hip hop talent that covered everything from stage presence to beatboxing. 

They appeared in a movie made by Siska (6K) (former member of Kita3 Beirut) on Lebanese hip hop and contributed to its soundtrack. 

They have played in events like the Iqra’ shows, The Road to Kfifan Festival, and the International Day of Peace 2009, among others. 

They have distributed a pre-album. It was supposed to be the actual album, but these were recorded before Chyno was recruited, so they decided to redo the tracks with him on them. But instead of trashing the old tracks, they gave them away as a pre-album.

They released the finished-album on June 21st 2010 as part of Fete da la Musique.

 -Sound: I classify Fareeq el Atrash as alternative hip hop, because they are more than just a rap group, they are a rap “band”. There’s instruments being played live, and I greatly value that because I like the “human” element. The fact that when there’s a certain emotion present in the music or lyrics, every instrument carries that emotion along with it to the listener and that cannot be done when you just play the music on a laptop for example. I have the same philosophy towards other forms of music, especially electronic music, which these days has been summarized to a push of a button. Music should be human. It should be “alive”, reflecting the musician’s mood and personality. On the subject of the human-instrument bond, Fareeq el Atrash have a very special instrument that I don’t see that often in bands, let alone Lebanese ones. They have a beatboxer! This is no longer an issue of the connection of the human between his/her instrument, this is a human becoming the instrument itself! FZ has a very versatile voice that is capable of great vocal feats. He is always reliable in delivering a constant drumbeat and suitable sound effects. He also adds a touch of humor with his solo beatbox skits that can be about anything from narration on a football match that the band is playing in or a movie trailer starring the band as the saviors of the Lebanese music industry. John’s bass playing is very old school. It has a distinct funk and rock flavor to it, same applies to Goo. Both guitarists are in the same musical sphere, which is expected, as they have been at it since the earliest days of the very first group. Sometimes they are joined by a trombone player live and d drummer on some occasions. Musically, they are very faithful to the roots of hip hop, and add modern touches to it. It’s not just some techno music with random rhymes rapped over it. It is in every sense alternative.

On their pre-album, they showed their abstract side, experimenting with noise and effects, as well as a jazzier side to them, employing saxophone and clarinet.

Edd has a deep voice and a very unique style of rhyming. In recordings, he sounds very laid back and gives off that air of “wisdom”, as if he’s giving a very civilized lecture, telling his own personal side of the story with a series of alliterations, puns, and metaphors. He is not desperately trying to convince you that every single word he utters is 100% undeniable truth. No, he is merely content with just getting his opinion across. However, he takes on a more assertive tone during live shows, not yelling at the top of his lungs, more like adding some extra power to his words. I think this variation in tone is appropriate because in live shows you need to keep the audience on their feet and clutch their attention. 

Chyno raps in both Arabic and English. He has a softer voice than Edd. He raps in a more traditional energetic manner, in contrast to Edd. His rhymes though are quite similar to Edd’s, very witty and elaborative, which is why them working together is very logical and produces a smooth flow of quality. 

-Links: 

-Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/futrush 

-Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#/group.php?gid=56715256086&ref=ts

-Facebook Page:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/FareeQ-el-Atrash/313398918139?ref=mf#wall

-Videos: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx5Bi8-4tOU 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN302kDX6E0 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqs3vkLBHjM 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4XRMuYy0Eo 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AufAREchU5I

Show Review: Fareeq el Atrash – Live @ Zico House (September 5, 2009)

I have not covered these guys yet, but it’s on the way. In the meantime, this should be a taste of what to expect from them.

-Before the Show: I had found out about this show on the night of the second Crate Session when Youmna Saba was performing. This performance was a fundraiser for the theater group “Zoukak”. Tickets were 20$, which is a bit of a steep price for just one group, but it’s a fundraiser after all, so the money wouldn’t be going to waste, and I got a free drink too.

I had been there the day after the Crate Session at Walimat to find the location and what I learned is that the place is an old three story house, and the guy who lives there, who goes by the name Zico, opened it to the public as a cafe, place for self-expression, or just a “hangout”. There are tables, there’s a bar, there’s a stage for musical performances, on the walls there are posters for old Arabic films, and upstairs is an exhibition room that is used by photographers or artists to display their work when they have an exhibition hosted by Zico House. Just a place to hang out and occupy yourself with whatever it is you went there for (drinking, music, art, etc…).

So I arrive early, as usual, and find the guys doing sound check. I had talked to three of them on Facebook before but this was my first time meeting them in person. I greeted those three, who were Edouard “Edd” Abbas, John Nasr, and Fayez “FZ” Zouheiry, and met the two members I had not had contact with before that, Nasser “Chyno” Al Shorbaji and their drummer Ali, whose last name I cannot recall unfortunately. I got to chat with John, Edd, and FZ for a while more throughout the night before they had to go on.

The crowd was mostly associated with Zoukak in one way or another, but there were some who came for Fareeq el Atrash, including me. I had started noticing that in these underground shows (this one and the past ones I have been to) the audience consists mostly of people who have no prior knowledge of the artist but are present for one reason or another, people who are close friends of the artist, and people who know about the artist, but have not been close friends for years and years, just “fans”, not showing up because they’re buddies with the artist and attending their show is a friendly gesture, but just going for the music. We need more fans. Then we’ll know that people are actually listening to the music and becoming, well, “fans” of it. But being a close friend of the artist doesn’t mean that immediately your fandom is rendered obsolete. I in fact encourage everyone to be friends with the musicians you are fans of. Talk to them, shake hands, crack a joke, they’re all regular people, only way cooler.

-The Show: After some waiting, it was time for the long anticipated performance, my first hip hop show (RGB was the first rapper I’d seen, but that was not entirely a hip hop show per se). They started with an introduction song. FZ kicked it off with some of his masterful beatboxing. The beatboxing is interrupted by soccer game commentary, produced by FZ himself! He commentates on an imaginary soccer match that the “Fareeq” are playing in. At that moment I learned that this was a group with a sense of humor. The African player Abbas takes the ball. Some vocal scratching cues Edd’s rap, which is backed by beatboxing from FZ. Then, the commentary fades back in. Edd passes the ball to the East-Asian player who plays better than he looks, Chyno! Vocal scratching announces Chyno’s rap, later being joined by Edd. It was during that skit that I first heard the phrase that would help me shape an opinion on what this group’s name actually means, other than it being a pun on the famous Arabic musician Farid El Atrash. That phrase was “Fareeq el Utrush, min d’dajje ntawash”. Chyno commits an error, the referee tries to stop him, but he keeps running and he scores! The rest of the players come running, and so does the bass! Now that we’re out of that imaginary game, concerning the actual performance I say: Goal!

They continue with their set which consists of the songs “Demoqrati” and “Terikhna Bi Libnen” which are to be featured on their upcoming album, as well as brand new songs not on their myspcae page. One song I refer to as “Byin7aka”, another is “Min Awwal Ma Shifta”, a love song! Finally! Lebanese rappers have been saying for years that in this state they’re living in there’s no time to write love songs, but spreading love with Arabic rap is just as important as spreading a political message, because one of the solutions to our predicament is to simply love one another, and this song is not all “7abibi b7ebbak”, it’s sophisticated poetry. Kudos! Also included was a song about the 2009 Lebanese elections, which again showcases the groups edgy sense of humor that stands somewhere between innocent mockery and hard-hitting social commentary when FZ would comically say “W’Ssama zar2a”, the Tayyar L’Mostaqbal (Movement of the Future) slogan. Another song briefly sampled the tune from Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”, so you can really get a good idea of how deep their hip hop knowledge goes, even paying homage to the old-schoolers. For all those songs, John did the bass and the drums were produced by Ali along with FZ doing beatboxed drums and vocal effects.

Their set was officially over, but the crowd wanted more. So FZ did another of his vocal skits, this time taking us to the movies! He declared in a deep voice: “In a world, where the Lebanese music industry is dominated by artists like Haifa-“, interrupting himself to let out a Haifa-esque “Wawa!”, “one group, Fareeq el Atrash, here to save the day” (something along those lines). Epic beatboxing followed. Then Chyno took over the mic being accompanied by a guest, Khaled Yassine, playing a strange box-like percussion instrument for Chyno to rap to, along with FZ doing drums and vocal effects. Finally, a guest rapper whose name I am not quite familiar with, joined Edd doing what they said was an old rap song they have done together before.

-After the Show: With that, the performance ended, I congratulated the guys on a job well done, and asked for one last thing; A photo. Lucky for us, Christophe Katrib A.K.A Cristobal was there to lend us his photographic expertise, as he is a photographer. In the spur of the moment John suggested I cover my ears, being “deafened” by Fareeq el Atrash (Team of the Deaf, you can say). After some trouble with the camera (memory, battery, you name it) we finally got the shot. Today, I use an edited version of that photo as a profile picture in several places.

Also present was Ziad Nawfal who had a DJ set right after the guys. I said hello, and went off to get that free drink I was promised; Just a Pepsi, no alcohol for me.

That was it, my first hip hop show, and it was one of the best yet. I noticed that Edd raps more agressively live than on the recorded tracks on their myspace. If the sound was more agressive I’d have compared them to Rage Against The Machine. I planned on heading back there two days later for Zeid Hamdan and his mysterious project that seemed to have come out of nowhere, “Three Little Pigs”.

-Photos:

*Personal:

 -The photo I took with them: http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs236.snc1/8333_271420210214_842365214_8814356_3960827_n.jpg

–http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs236.snc1/8333_271414100214_842365214_8814259_5632676_n.jpg

–http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs216.snc1/8333_271414110214_842365214_8814260_2979713_n.jpg

–http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs216.snc1/8333_271414115214_842365214_8814261_2683219_n.jpg

–http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs216.snc1/8333_271414120214_842365214_8814262_5611273_n.jpg

–http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs216.snc1/8333_271414135214_842365214_8814263_6584081_n.jpg

–http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs236.snc1/8333_271420180214_842365214_8814354_5136995_n.jpg

–http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs236.snc1/8333_271420190214_842365214_8814355_6843784_n.jpg

-Videos:

*Personal:

-Introduction Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN302kDX6E0

-Demoqrati: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqs3vkLBHjM

-Terikhna Bi Libnen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4XRMuYy0Eo

-Chyno’s Encore: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AufAREchU5I

I will not inform you on Fareeq el Atrash right now (muahahaha!), because you’ll know all what you need to know when I analyze them. Be patient. For information on Zico House and its events go here:  http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=22820230933&ref=ts 

 And just if you’re curious, here is Zoukak’s website: http://www.zoukak.org/