Even MORE Disturbing than Busta Rhymes “A-rab Money”

By Maytha

Self-neo-orientatlizing hip hop artist/producer Noose remixes Busta Rhymes’ offensive song by “arabizing” it and the accompanying music video to the song.

Wonder what I mean by “arabizing” the song and hip hop culture? This is done by: wearing a kuffiyah (Arab gangsta cred), driving a benz (hip hop materialism cred), “brought up in the Jersey slums” (rags-to-riches/ghetto uplift cred) and inserting Arabic words from “massari” to “bab al Hara”(Arab culture cred).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMPTCd4HjxA]

My hyper critical self cannot see this as more than a cheap appropriation of hip hop gangsta posturing with a superficial “arab” twist.

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Tags: Arab influence, arab-americans, hip hop, Maytha, may\'s inRANTations, orientalism

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 13th, 2008 at 9:05 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Comments to “Even MORE Disturbing than Busta Rhymes “A-rab Money””

Yasser

November 13, 2008 at 10:02 am

I’m sorry May, but I really love this!

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#20

American Muslim Girl

November 13, 2008 at 10:36 am

Well, I agree with what you are saying. Perhaps though, hopefully, this breakthrough into popular culture in a less negative way (compared to say, True Lies and Chuck Norris movies) is an indication of parallel advancements in the spread of information…

It will be a long road, bumps on the road, etc…

I hope what this is not is an attempt to co-opt the new large Arab American population into the new drug dealers, the new objectifiers of women, the new “it” culture that forgets the past and true history in favor of empty “this is for Palestine” slogans.

The African Americans seem to be surviving and overcoming this, although the road has been long and much worse than that which other minorities face.

Inshallah the same for Arabs.

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#19

Maytha

November 13, 2008 at 12:19 pm

but there is no innovation! Just wackified swaggerjacking!

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#18

Programmer Buydatti

November 13, 2008 at 2:01 pm

Disgraceful fake ass shit. His style ain’t even original…

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#17

Yasser

November 13, 2008 at 2:06 pm

PB, are you serious? The song is good…I give this kid props. Stop hating…

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#16

Maytha

November 13, 2008 at 2:15 pm

I never thought I would say this in my life, but, I agree with PB. The song and wannabe mafiosa intro are both weak!

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#15

Programmer Buydatti

November 13, 2008 at 3:35 pm

Yasser, Noose is a straight up poser. There’s nothing Mafioso or gangsta about this whack ass dude. He’s so fake he makes DJ Khaled seem real. He sounds like every other gangsta wannabe rapper out there. There’s nothing original or substantive about his music. If you want to hear real original Arabic hip hop, pick up a copy of DAM’s latest album, our very own Excentric, or the Free the P compilation. Those guys bring something new to the table.

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#14

Yasser

November 13, 2008 at 4:23 pm

PB,

First of all, DJ Khaled is the Best, who? He is the best. How dare you disrespect the only Arab American mainstream successful Hip Hop personality ever! I’ve heard DAM, et. al., and love them to death and respect what they do…but not everyone is a poet/philosopher/intellectual/activist…

There’s room for everyone…and I’m happy that this young guy, Noose is doing his thing…more power to him – its good for us…not all Arabs have to be activists.

In any event, you took it too far calling out DJ Khaled like that…how can you not respect this guy hustle??? and the fact that he’s come up so far in the Hip Hop food chain?

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#13

Anonymous

November 13, 2008 at 5:58 pm

This crap is worse than 9/11. I’d rather be affiliated with terrorism than this low level bullshit.

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#12

American Muslim Girl

November 13, 2008 at 6:33 pm

Is material popular culture supposed to be about innovation?

I thought it was about money… arab money apparently…

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#11

matt

November 13, 2008 at 8:34 pm

don’t fuck wit noose. he’s a g. bs he shoulda told busta he aint gettin no 3rab money!

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#10

Programmer Buydatti

November 13, 2008 at 8:59 pm

Yasser, 95% of those “hustlin” the “game” are all posers looking to make a dollar off no beat shit laced with nonsense lyrics.

I agree with you that not every Arab hip hop artist needs to write politically charged music. I’m not criticizing Noose and Khaled from that perspective. But what I am saying is that their style (especially Noose) is highly derivative of other artists. There’s no originality to it.

With few exceptions, the last 10 years of mainstream hip hop have been plagued with a ton of artists who all look and sound the same. True, you’ve got your Nas, Tupac, Common, Lupe, etc who’ve all got their own style… but the vast maturity of artists have done nothing but milk whatever fad happened to be big at the moment.

And are you serious defending DJ Khaled? He ain’t the “best” at anything. He’s a humiliation to our community. I mean seriously, have you seen any interviews that he’s done lately? He can’t string 3 words together without sounding like an uneducated baboon. It makes me cringe to think kids in our community look up to him as a role model.

And Noose? May is right, this whole video is 100% unadulterated orientalist bullshit.

Just because an Arab-American strikes it big doesn’t mean he/she is automatically deserving of our respect. Let Khaled or Noose do something worth giving props to first…

For now, I’m unimpressed at best.

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#9

Will

November 18, 2008 at 1:10 pm

I finally got around to watching this video. I loved it. I’m going to back up Yasser and poop on Maytha and PB.

Noose rocks. From giving love to real Arab female thickness to buying off the black cop and waving him away to his intro as an activist, he’s rocking the identity proudly.

BTW, the end shot where he’s smoking shisha in his apartment shows he’s fantasizing about all that.

Will

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#8

Bena $had

November 24, 2008 at 6:38 pm

what I think you need to do is chill out..yes it is a fact that we arab-americans dont all grown up with mothers and fathers and family stuctures with solidarity and protection….were americans-were the youth-were the voice of a generation-and hip hop has always been the outlet of the afflicted so dont knock em-be appreciative that he is investing his time and resources into something productive as opposed to self-distructive-and otherwize. a critc is just that- a critic-always making commments from the outside in…get a life.

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#7

Bena $had

November 24, 2008 at 6:49 pm

“And are you serious defending DJ Khaled? He ain’t the “best” at anything. He’s a humiliation to our community. I mean seriously, have you seen any interviews that he’s done lately? He can’t string 3 words together without sounding like an uneducated baboon.”

Ey Programmer-your an asshole-self absorbed. Who are you to judge, to set the standard, to be the high priest of what is sufficient and whats not-whats art and whats not-what real and whats not-whether your christian or muslum-do as the word says and walk with this man….carry this mans burdons…love your neighbor as yourself….U think the world is fucked up cause of rap music and watered down commercial bullshit? NO! the world is bullshit because of people like you….people who have nothing better to do with their time then to hate on somebody else. How dare you knock Khaled, how dare you knock anyone whose strived for success through the midst of hardship….your too educated for yourself with no f’n common sense. I cant stand people like you, and because of people like you I grow more and more apt to have a discontentment with my people-but no, its not a new ideal that arabs are critical and judgemental of one another real khalil gibran’s my counrty men and he’ll tell you…and you think your breaking the mold…haaa! lol

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#6

laker

December 10, 2008 at 5:21 pm

Guys I really HOPE some of you are joking…. This is the fakest… most wannabe crap EVER. For the love of God dude… ya Allah SOMEONE tell these dudes they’re not hood and claiming to be a mafioso by using a Godfather voice in the beginning of your video is just NOT down.

Meanwhile, who wears a keffiyeh like that? On their head… not tied… just sitting there? Is this guy a nun or a thug?

May’s right – this isn’t original – not innovative – nothing.

Re: Busta’s joint / video to go with it: If you’re gonna take our sh*t you better LEARN about it first you f-k!

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#5

Anonymous

December 21, 2008 at 9:42 am

I always wondered what a minstrel show in arabic would look like. Disgraceful.

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#4

fofo

November 18, 2009 at 6:57 pm

but there is no innovation

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