Dispossession, Fibber’s
Recently, Fibbers played host to one of the more original gigs that York has seen in years; a fundraiser hosting upcoming Palestinian rap crew DAM – recently the subject of a feature-length article in Rolling Stone magazine – alongside The Unpeople, a London-based act who are swiftly making a name for themselves.
Up first, The Unpeople are led by a sprightly-looking MC Paracat. Technically proficient, his rhymes of poverty, racism and war relentlessly drove his music forward. While tackling complex subjects, he always found just the right line or riff to hold the band’s sound together – though admittedly when he tried to tackle dialectical materialism you got the feeling he’d reached his limit!
Paracat is an extraordinary talent but in many ways his performance was somewhat lacklustre. Obviously nervous, he could hardly have been more distanced from the crowd despite the notable quality of the music.
Fortunately, what The Unpeople lacked in confidence, DAM more than made up for in sheer flamboyance. Entering the stage possessing the energy of a coiled spring, the sheer passion of their performance said simply everything the audience needed to know about their act. They filled the stage in every sense, bounding their way through a rip-roaring set. Their music was a distinctive fusion of the modern, urban sounds of contemporary Western-style rap coupled with traditional Arabic beats.
Although they sang in Arabic, language was no barrier to their message. Their lyrics focused on the social marginalisation that they face daily – the band’s members all being Palestinians living inside Israeli borders. Intense and political, this was rap as it really ought to be – coming up from the streets with something to say, not from some millionaire’s mansion.
DAM showed all the passion and audacity of a band who believe that their time has come. In the past, protest songs and the stories of the dispossessed have been taken up and relayed to British audiences through Western performers. Bands like DAM completely shatter this mould – their experiences and stories are intimate and personal and are relayed to the audience in the first person, and with style and confidence.
The authentic "voice of the voiceless" is an enigma within modern music – bands like DAM are probably the closest we’ll get to it.
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