Fundamental

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Fun-Da-Mental is a British Hip-Hop -Electro-Fusion- Qawwali -group, which mainly combines influences from Western, Indian and Afro-Caribbean music. The multiethnic group has political, often aggressive, texts that often deal with the life and problems of Asian and Afro-Caribbean immigrants to the UK.

The group attracts particular attention because it sees itself as Islamic and propagates this aggressively in texts and interviews. She caused national discussions in the United Kingdom with her album All is War (The Benefits of G-Had) , which deals in a provocative manner with suicide bombings , Osama bin Laden and the relationship between the West and the Islamic world .

founding

Core members of the group are Aki Nawaz (aka Propa-Ghandi ), who grew up as the son of Pakistani immigrants in Bradford , and Dave Watts ( Impi-D ), son of Afro-Caribbean immigrants, who performed with numerous guest musicians from various Western, Asian and Afro-Caribbean musical styles collaborate.

Nawaz, who was the drummer for the goth punk band The Southern Death Cult in the early 1980s , founded the Nation Records label in 1991 to produce music by migrants in the UK. He saw his mission as political from the start, but unlike academics, for example, he wanted to reach people on the street. Fun-Da-Mental came about when Nation Records gave him the opportunity to perform with an Asian-British band at the Notting Hill Carnival in August 1991. Within five days he managed to recruit more band members (Man-Tharoo, DJ Obeah and Bad-Sha Lallaman) and to put together a preliminary set of six or seven tracks. After the performance he decided to keep the band, but changed the line-up completely. Then came Amir Ali, Inder Matharu, Count Dubulab and Watt, while the founding members except Nawaz left them again. Before the first album release in 1995, MC Mushtaq and Hot Dog Dennis joined the band.

approach

While music critics often compared Fun-Da-Mental with Public Enemy , the British were on the one hand much more open to influences from the rest of the world, but on the other hand, especially at the beginning, they were also oriented towards Bradford and the United Kingdom. By its very existence, Fun-Da-Mental opposed the previous leaders of the Islamic community in Bradford and in Great Britain in general, who in the late 1980s / early 1990s were still against any form of pop music or dance. With their clearly exhibited pride in Islam, they hit a nerve with Asian-British youths who had grown up with Western pop music and were successful in the scene.

Nawaz often appeared in photos with a star and a crescent moon, the symbols of Islam. Fun-Da-Mental often integrated Quran quotes into their lyrics on early records , which earned them both the aversion of the established Islamic community in the UK and that of many Islamic opponents. They emphasized the importance of religion for their lives, spoke out against alcohol or other drug consumption in the lyrics, but also defended themselves against the fact that Islam is seen as a macho religion and rapped about important and important Indian women. Overall, there was a clear Indian-Pakistani note in the propagated form of Islam, which, for example, clearly set Fun-Da-Mental apart from many US rap groups with an Islamic background, which does not prevent the band from targeting specific American Islam -Variant of the Nation of Islam to refer positively and to integrate numerous samples of Louis Farrakhan and Malcolm X into their music.

Musically, the band has shown strong influences from the music of the Middle East and especially the Qawwali since its inception . They were always directly politically active. They supported the protests against the Criminal Justice and Order Act of 1994 by appearing at numerous demonstrations and gatherings of anti-racist and anti-imperialist groups.

The basic political stance of the band is also reflected in the approach to the albums. Nawaz and Watts contact numerous musicians of widely divergent styles and usually quickly start a political discussion. Only when an interesting mix has developed do they and the guest musicians ask themselves how this can be integrated into the music. Watts emphasizes that, contrary to what it might seem, the group and its members are by no means aggressive, but rather are interested in deep political discussions and try to generate them by putting themselves in the shoes of other people, including them Playing and provoking the advocate diaboli . Nawaz himself describes the implementation of this strategy as deliberately very provocative, very confrontational and uncompromising. Musically, the band is broadly positioned. For Watts, for example, hip-hop came from the USA, but now its important parts consist more of bands such as Cannibal Arts , Company Flow , Anti-Pop Consortium etc.

Controversy over All is War (The Benefits of G-had)

The band was very provocative from the start. She always aggressively propagated the Palestinian struggle against Israel and praised the first female airplane hijacker, Leila Chaled, in a tribute song to strong women as a freedom fighter in an earlier album . The 2006 album All is War (The Benefits of G-had) caused intense discussions even before it was released. The album is obviously aimed at provocation, the cover already shows the Statue of Liberty in the cloak of an Abu Ghuraib prisoner , but triggered reactions that went far beyond the envisaged extent.

The discussion began with a full-page 3-page story in the Guardian , in which the Guardian criticized the album in light of the one-year anniversary of the London bombings . In particular, the discussion focused on the songs I Reject , which criticizes the hypocrisy and immorality of the western world, Che Bin , which compares Osama bin Laden to Che Guevara , and Cookbook DIY , which tells his lyrics from the point of view of a suicide bomber and communicates them with scientists in the Equates service of the US military. The Sun then described Propa-Ghandi as a suicide bomber rapper , several tabloids printed his picture next to that of Osama bin Laden, while members of the House of Commons such as Andrew Dinsmore (Labor) demanded his arrest. Virgin and HMV record stores refused to include records from Fun-Da-Mental in their program.

The left-liberal Observer, on the other hand, found that without all the fuss, the album is a careful compilation that provokes not only a reaction, but also thoughts and debate. The album does not just try to equate people or to praise suicide bombings, but on the contrary would represent different widespread views of the world and even suggest thoughts on the extent to which a suicide bomber, an unscrupulous scientist who sells to the highest bidder and an official US atomic bomb researcher resembled himself and also differentiated. Nawraz himself pointed out that he wanted to use the texts to solve the terrorism problem from a one-sided condemnation and to reopen a political debate about the causes, as well as to give the non-western parts of the world a voice. In Latin America or Asia, for example, it is a widespread attitude to compare Osama bin Laden with Che Guevara. In addition to the tracks that sparked the discussion, the album also contains, for example, mourning for the dead in Afghanistan and Srebrenica , the latter sung in Bosnian, or a reminder of protests in apartheid South Africa. Musically, the record enters a broad field and, in addition to rap texts and samples, also uses Zulu chants, delta blues or punk guitars.

Because of the lyrics there were also problems with the management of Nation Records where the album was supposed to be released. Managers Martin Mills and Andrew Heath, who sit on the Nation Records board for Beggars Banquet, threatened to resign if it were to appear. On August 7, 2006 it was finally released as a download album, while the physical release came later on Five Uncivilized Tribes .

Discography

Albums

  • 1994: Seize the Time ( Mammoth Records )
  • 1995: With Intent to Pervert the Cause of Injustice
  • 1998: Erotic Terrorism ( Beggars Banquet Records )
  • 1999: Why America Will Go to Hell
  • 2001: There Shall Be Love!
  • 2003: Voice of Mass Destruction
  • 2006: All Is War (The Benefits of G-Had) (Five Uncivilized Tribes)

Singles

  • 1992: Janaam
  • 1992: Gandhi's Revenge
  • 1993: Wrath of the Blackman
  • 1993: Countryman
  • 1994: Dog Tribe
  • 1994: Cointelpro (only for doctoral purposes )
  • 1994: Gold Burger
  • 1995: Mother India
  • 1996: Goddevil
  • 1997: Yes Sha Taan
  • 1998: Demonized Soul
  • 2001: The Last Gospel

Remarks

  1. ↑ Sweden Burg, p. 57
  2. ↑ a b c Interview with Aki Nawaz and Dave Watts on asianvibrations.com ( Memento of the original from October 22, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / asianvibrations.com
  3. ↑ Sweden Burg, p. 57
  4. ↑ Swedenburg, pp. 58f.
  5. ↑ Swedenburg, p. 61.
  6. ↑ Swedenburg pp. 58f.
  7. ^ Swedenburg, p. 60.
  8. ↑ Anindya Bhattacharyya: Aki Nawaz from Fun-Da-Mental talks about imperialism and his album All Is War . In: Socialist Workers online, August 5, 2006.
  9. ↑ a b Mark Brown, Luc Torres: G-had and suicide bombers: the rapper who likens Bin Laden to Che Guevara . In: The Guardian , June 28, 2006.
  10. ^ A b c Rosalind Miles: Radical singer takes to stage . In: Oxford Mail, August 14, 2006.
  11. ↑ " Suicide bomb rapper "
  12. ↑ a b Chris Campion: Fun-Da-Mental, All is War . In: The Observer , July 16, 2006.
  13. ↑ " trip away the outrage, then, and what's left is an album pieced together with great consideration. To provoke not just a reaction but thought and debate. ", Chris Campion: Fun-Da-Mental, All is War , in: The Observer, July 16, 2006.
  14. ↑ G-Had In the UK ( Memento of the original from October 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on redpepper.com.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.redpepper.org.uk

literature

  • Ted Swedenburg: Islamic Hip-Hop versus Islamophobia: Aki Nawaz, Natacha Atlas, Akhenaton . In: Tony Mitchell: Global Noise: Rap and Hip-hop Outside the USA . Wesleyean University Press, 2001, ISBN 0819565024 , pp. 57-85.

Web links