Syria Feature: Finding a Hip-Hop Voice Amid the Conflict (Mohajer/Rajput)

LaTlatehSamer Mohajer and Fay Rajput report for the BBC:

"To be honest, I don't really like hip hop. I don't like the music."

My apparently unenthusiastic neighbour at a concert given by Syrian hip hop group LaTlateh in Beirut seemed to be in good company.

Crammed into a tiny, smoky concert hall, most of the unsmiling crowd was sitting at tables, and not a single person was dancing.

This was not a typical hip-hop concert.

A Western observer might put the limp atmosphere down to the fact that the culture of hip-hop is still fledgling in the Arab world, its development stunted by its incompatibility with some Arab regimes.

In fact, hip-hop has never been so popular in the Middle East.

Music and revolution have always gone hand-in-hand and the Arab Spring is no exception.

The Syrian uprising is providing optimum conditions for straight-talking rap to flourish, and one particular Syrian band, LaTlateh, are articulating the feelings of a nation.

"I don't like the music, but I like the words. I am Syrian. I feel the words. The lyrics really express my feelings. We aren't dancing because we are listening to the lyrics," my neighbour said.

LaTlateh is a Damascus-based three-piece hip-hop outfit comprising Al Sayyed Darwish, Watar and Abu Koulthoum. They perform alongside producer Dab Snakkr, whose music documents the day-to-day struggle of the Syrian uprising.

"The situation in Syria is what motivates us to write. How can we sit by and watch all the pain and suffering that is going on around us and not speak out?"

In the first few months of the revolution, so much of Syria's cultural elite left the country, either hounded by the regime or in search of better working conditions.

LaTlateh has garnered a huge following across the region because they remained in their base in Damascus, travelling between the embattled capital and Lebanon. They write lyrics about Syrians, for a Syrian audience.

The boys, along with a wider group of Arab musicians, are contributing peacefully to the popular uprising through a movement called The Third Line.

The Third Line advocates a third alternative to the existing pro- and anti-regime dichotomy, and aims to uphold the truth and serve Syria's national interests.

"Everybody has a view but there is hypocrisy on all sides. We are trying to find the truth. The third line is about breaking down divisions because each party is only benefiting from its own side," Dab Snakkr said.

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