Bombs under Baghdad

Taste the noble IED, taste it, taste it

See its terrifying blast, taste it, taste it

Taste it and feel its pain

And see what my fire can do, taste it, taste it

From a violent Sadrist hand

Taste it, taste it

The above is apparently just one of the hot Sadr jams punctuating explosions in Baghdad this season. That NPR piece posits that "it's hard not to draw parallels to the aggressive, testosterone-driven lyrics of some American rap songs," which seems too easy: misogyny is no more resistant to formalization than any other act, and like daddy issues in the superhero movie, macho swagger is now a hip-hop genre convention. Sexism doesn't become harmless in the signifying hands of a gifted musician, but nor does your typical MC earnestly extol pimping women as a career path. Conversely, Ali Delfi actually is agitating for Iraqis to blow up American convoys for real. Sure, the Sadr City scene uses drum machines and sampled Kalashnikovs (maybe they dig M.I.A.?) but militant politics or overt nationalism only rarely intersect with rap's creative zenith these days. To me, this stations the bombers' bangers - with their near-total reliance on rhythm plus massed chorus - in that undying genre of war chants and marching songs. The playlist clicked onto an old Ex single this morning:

They cannot just sit and talk, they need a revolution
Guerrilla-war is not the problem, it’s the bloody solution

War is over if you want it: weapons for El Salvador
War is over if you want it: weapons for El Salvador

Pacifism is bullshit talk, destroy the way the fascists walk
Guerrilla-war is not for fun, the only way to get things done

War is over if you want it: weapons for El Salvador
War is over if you want it: weapons for El Salvador

I doubt they would identify with the radical resistance this time around, when American policymakers are using their own innocent grunts to shield a weak government with dubious support from the decidedly conservative head of a popular movement rather than farming out the job to murderous death squads. And Maliki hasn't helped himself by making like Tipper Gore. As with most problems in Iraq, this one would probably be easier for all parties to solve if the occupiers left, local mixtape scene be damned.

(Via)