The Great Escape

Iranian rapper Bahram Nouraei’s rhymes made him loyal fans and powerful enemies in Tehran. Having faced persecution and prison, he’s on the verge of a new life

By Julie Ashcraft

Bahram Nouraei’s earliest memory is of ghame-wielding taxi drivers fighting each other on the street in his East Tehran neighborhood. Twenty-three-year-old Bahram (formerly known as Bahram Divar) used to love a scrap himself, but these days he uses words as his weapons.

Inspired by Western rap and Persian poetry (he’s a fan of both Tupac and Hafiz), Bahram began writing his own material over 10 years ago. Rapping, he says, makes him feel calm. The reaction to his work is anything but.

Bahram has become a star among Iran’s youth for his poignant critique of the country, “Inja Iran” (Here Is Iran), which compounded the scathing indictment he addressed to President Ahmadinejad in “Namei Be Rais Jomhoor” (Letter to the President), which included the lines “I swear that the holy Quran on your niche of your room must be dust/You just say mottos and do nothing.”

Bahram’s determination to speak his mind is consistent with his aboriginal Lors ancestry. Lors have a reputation in Iran for being forthright no matter how dire the consequences. And the regime’s reaction to Bahram’s popularity, predictably, has been harsh.

I first tried to meet bahram in Tehran’s beautiful Laleh Park in the days leading up to Iran’s 2009 presidential election. The previous year, Tehran-based underground label Divar Records had released Bahram’s sixth album, 24 Sa’at (24 Hours), which highlighted his stunningly precise Persian flow, and I had become a fan. But Ettela’at (Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and National Security – a long-winded way of saying secret police) was monitoring him so closely that being seen with me – a foreign woman – could have endangered us both.

Within weeks, Iran’s jails were filled with thousands of post-election protesters. And still the regime persisted in threatening Bahram and his former producer, Atour, founder of Divar Records, with years in prison for their allegedly criminal hip-hop work – a threat Bahram had also addressed in “Namei Be Rais Jomhoor.” “You must know that even if I am turned into an animal in prison,” he rapped. “My pen will still be dancing on my leaf strongly – even in jail.”

By the time of the election, Bahram had already been imprisoned for his art. Ettela’at had begun gathering “evidence” against Bahram and Atour as early as 2006, when the independent Amsterdam-based Persian-language station Radio Zamaneh broadcast an interview with the rapper, recorded without regime permission in Tehran as part of the Radio Divar show organized by Divar Records. The police eventually came for Bahram in the front yard of his home as he was leaving for university classes on the morning of March 9th, 2009. Atour was simultaneously arrested at Divar Studio. Recognizing the pair’s influence over Iranian youth, the regime tried to silence their potent free speech by seizing their papers, computers and recording equipment. Ettela’at also put a “polomp” (sealed) wire on the door of Divar Studio, threatening anyone who entered with arrest.

Bahram and Atour were taken to Intelligence Ministry Ward 209 in Evin Prison – famous for its political prisoners, and infamous for torture – where they were each placed in solitary confinement. In his tiny green-walled cell, Bahram says, the overhead light was on 24 hours a day. The room contained a Quran, a copy of a religious book Mafatih al-Jinan (Keys to Heavens) and a threadbare carpet. There was no bed, no pillow, and no sheets. “I heard too many horrible sounds: the sound of crying and hard wails,” says Bahram of his time in solitary. “It was so far away, but clear. And the prisoner in the cell next to mine was crying a lot. In addition, there was the sound of an old ventilator turning on and off every few hours, and the sound of a big metal wheel rotating on the ground. I don’t remember sleeping at all while I was in solitary.” Still, the situation would become worse. “After three days, I was put into a one-by-two meter single cell with two additional prisoners,” Bahram recalls. “The only way we could lie down was on our sides, squashed together to fit between the walls. The place was too small for three people – a single cell, but three people.”

Bahram faced accusations of “Action against national security; Publishing lies; Deviating the people’s minds; Illegal cultural activities; Using swearwords in lyrics; Contribution with foreigners against Islamic Revolution; and Advertisements for anti-Islamic Revolution’s groups.” Essentially though, it’s worth reiterating, he was arrested and imprisoned for writing poems, recording songs and giving an interview. It’s also worth mentioning that his work is recognized for its philosophical portrayals of society and economics – not for any calls to arms.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of Rolling Stone Middle East, available at over 200 outlets in the UAE and GCC.

Source: Rolling stone Middle East

انقلاب تونس و هیپ هاپ تونس، ترکیبی کوبنده و ضربآگین!

اِلژنرال یا "حمدا بن امور" 22 سال دارد و در سال 2011 میلادی در نشریۀ "تایمز" به عنوان یکی از صد نفر انسان تاثیر گذار در جهان معرفی شده است. زمانی که برای اولین بار رپاهنگ "رئیس لبلد" یا همان "رئیس جمهور" را از "اِلژنرال" شنیدم و اینکه این رپاهنگ چنان تاثیری را بر روی مردم تونس گذاشته است که بنوعی این قطعه سرود قیام مردم شده است بسیار تحت تاثیر قرار گرفتم. البته همزمان بیاد رپآهنگ قدیمی "بهرام" خودمان هم افتادم که رپآهنگی با نام مشابه چندین سال پیش منتشر کرده بود. رپآهنگ "نامه ای به رئیس جمهور"!

به هر صورت چندی پیش موسسۀ تئاتر ملی سوئد از این رپ خوان تونسی برای چند اجرا در سوئد دعوت کرده بود و این موقعیتی شد تا  در سایت "بشکن" برای اولین بار در رسانه های ایرانی با این جوان هنرمند و متعهد گفتگوی کوتاهی داشته باشم که در زیر می خوانید. امیدواریم  این گونه گفتگوها پل ارتباطی شود میان هنرمندان هیپ هاپ ایران، خاورمیانه و شمال آفریقا.

نصیر مشکوری: رپآهنگ "رئیس جمهور" بنوعی در جریان قیام مردم تونس علیه "بِن علی" نقش متن آهنگ یا سرود انقلاب تونس رو بازی کرد. گفته می شه حتی زمانی که مردم مصر در اوج انقلابشون در میدان طهریر تحصن کرده بودند به این رپآهنگ گوش می کردند و زمزمه می کردند. این آهنگ چطور شروع شد؟

TUNIS, (AFP — Once banned from the airwaves under the Tunisian regime, rap artists are taking their revolutionary lyrics to the big stage for the first time on Saturday at a concert and political rally in the capital.

The star of the show is 21-year-old Hamada Ben Amor - better known as "El General" - who was arrested for whipping up public anger during the wave of protests that ended president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali's 23-year rule.

The songs that helped inspire the Arab world's first popular revolution in recent history were circulated widely among thousands of Tunisian Facebook users but have never been heard live by the public until now.

El General's most famous song is a direct address to Ben Ali. "We live in suffering/ Like dogs/ Half the poulation is oppressed and living in misery/ President of the Country/ Your people are dead," he sings. During his days of detention, El General told AFP in an interview ahead of the concert that the police "told me to drop political subjects."

The concert at the 10,000-seater La Cupole stadium has been organized by the Popular Democratic Party (PDP), a former opposition group that has joined Tunisia's new govermnent, and will be followed by a PDP rally. The performance was "in honor of the blood of our martyrs and our great popular revolution," the PDP said in a statement."We want to call for urgent measures against poverty," it added.

Starting time is a little early for a rap concert - 1:00 pm (1200 GMT) - because of a curfew that is still in place following recent unrest.So far artists like Ben Amor are little known to the outside world despite their Internet fame among many Tunisians -- but that may be about to change.Ben Amor says he has already received offers from international labels. Some of his songs have already been played on Tunisian television following Ben Ali's ouster - leaving some commentators shocked at their content. "A Bad Use of Liberty" read an editorial in Le Quotidien daily that condemned "the broadcasting of a rap song with swearwords." "Entire families watch television together to see the latest news. We have to respect viewers and not force them to hear extremely base words," he said.

Also billed for Saturday's show is another performer whose fame is so far only virtual, the more inflammatory Islamist Mohammed Jandoubi, alias Psyco-M, who was voted Tunisia's number one Internet rapper last year. Twenty-four-year old Jandoubi's songs slam the secular regime enforced by Ben Ali and question the morals of Tunisian celebrities. He says his first video is going to be shot outside the long-feared interior ministry, which enforced Ben Ali's authoritarian regime.

Source:aawsat