From Syria to Paris,Music Provides Haven For'refugees of Rap'
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SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 2017 Sheeran to close Glastonbury Festival d Sheeran is to close this year's Glastonbury Festival, headlining the final Enight, the giant British music event said Thursday. The singer-songwriter, who is domi- nating the British charts by holding a record 16 singles in the top 20, has performed at the festi- val before but this time is topping the bill. "Ed Sheeran is Glastonbury's third 2017 headliner! Members of the He's gone from the Croissant Neuf tent in Palestinian-Syrian hip hop 2011 to topping the bill on the Pyramid Stage," band “Refugees of Rap”, said the world's biggest greenfield festival. brothers Yaser (left) and Radiohead will headline the first night and Foo Mohamed Jamous, pose in Fighters the second. Sheeran described his slot Paris. — AFP as "awesome". This year's festival, held between June 21 and June 25 in Somerset, southwest England, is expected to attract around 170,000 people. — AFP From Syria to Paris, music Ed Sheeran provides haven for 'Refugees of Rap' Blues harmonica pioneer taccato lyrics may be no match for in the Country". They had completed eight Bashar Al-Assad's military firepower, but tracks for the second album when they began Stwo brothers, who fled to Paris from Syria receiving anonymous threats on social media. James Cotton dead at 81 and perform as "Refugees of Rap", find sniping with words a liberating experience. Having Got touring grown up officially stateless in a Palestinian "We received two or three messages on eading blues harmonica player James harmonica, a partnership that Cotton credited refugee camp in Syria, Yaser and Mohamed Facebook," Yaser, 29, said. "The messages Cotton, who rose from poverty to intro- with giving him a window to white audiences. Jamous rap in Arabic about the war they have said 'We know you're preparing an album Lduce his instrument to the rock world, Cotton had grown up laboring on a planta- fled and their new life in France. "We chose the and if you don't stop... it's over for you. We're died Thursday. He was 81. The Grammy-win- tion in Mississippi and was orphaned by age name because for us, rap represents a country going to destroy your studio, we're going to ning artist, who toured for more than 60 years nine. But his mother had already introduced where we can say what we think," Mohamed, stop you. We're going to kill you.' " It was not even as throat cancer in the 1990s made him him to harmonica, using a cheap version to 28, told AFP. the only hurdle they faced. During fighting give up singing, died of pneumonia at a hos- imitate the sounds of chickens and train. He "And we're seeking asylum there." Over a in Yarmuk in 2012, the group's recording pital in Austin, Texas, his publicist said in a had heard pioneering blues harmonica player pounding beat, solemn music blending high studio was destroyed in bombings. Their statement. Cotton made his name in Chicago Sonny Boy Williamson II on the radio and was piano keys and low violin tones, the brothers younger brother was then jailed for 40 days as part of the Muddy Waters Band and by the taken by an uncle to see the master, who took "spit", or speak, the chorus in unison: "We have for an unknown reason. "When he was 1960s his harmonica piqued the curiosity of him under his wing. to wake up, stop dreaming. The time for released, he was in a horrible state," recalled the hippies who sought to explore the blues Cotton later told the Chicago Tribune that silence is long gone, swept away by words." Mohamed, who now works in a hotel. "He'd roots of rock. He opened concerts for Janis Williamson taught him "how to chase women, The lyrics are from their 2011 song "The Age of been tortured." Joplin and the Grateful Dead and collaborat- how to drink and how to play the blues." Silence", one of the last they sung before flee- Shortly afterwards, they decided to leave ed with Led Zeppelin. "Anything he played today, I learned it tomor- ing Syria via Lebanon. Syria. They were granted refugee status in The Dead had "never seen a man play the row. He never said anything," Cotton said. Performing their hip-hop at a Paris com- France, with the mention "nationality undeter- harp like that," he said of his harmonica. "And Cotton, who lived his final years in Austin, munity center, the brothers said the song had mined, Palestinian origin" a few months later. there was nobody playin' music like they were released his last album in 2013, "Cotton been the "first time we dared speak up openly "When we got here, there was no housing... no playin'. It was a bit too loud for me, but I Mouth Man," a semi-autobiographical look at against the (Assad) regime" despite the risk in aid," Yaser said. "You had to wait for months to enjoyed it," he told the Montreal Gazette in his roots. — AFP doing so. "One word, and you got 20 years (in get set up, so we chose to book some concert 2015. He became a mentor to Paul Butterfield, prison) or death. Here, we wanted to say that dates and get to work." They toured in one of the most prominent rockers to play the time for silence is over." The duo were Denmark, Sweden and France, where they born and raised in the Yarmuk camp for completed "The Age of Silence" and released Palestinian refugees on the outskirts of the album in 2014. Damascus, which was once home to 160,000 people-including Syrians-but has been rav- 'Not from nowhere' aged by fighting. Their grandfather fled to "In Syria, people understand (Arabic)," Yaser Syria from Haifa in 1948 when the state of said. "That's what we miss here." The brothers Israel was created. Yaser and Mohamed left work on their language skills by listening to Syria in early 2013 as fighting for control of French rappers. But on stage, they get around the camp intensified. The rest of their family the language barrier by reading translated also fled and is in Sweden. lyrics and then leading the audience in chants of the Arabic chorus before each track. For Inspiration in revolt their upcoming third album, the group will The brothers created "Refugees of Rap" in "tell the story of our time here in France, our 2007 with two friends, an Algerian and a exile," said Yaser, who now works in a souvenir Syrian, and were one of the first such groups to shop. But they have not forgotten Syria. They emerge out of Syria. It now comprises just the have little hope of returning but "in exile, the two of them-the Syrian member refused to future is never clear," said Yaser. "We are exiles leave and the Algerian went to Germany. everywhere but we're not from nowhere," said Released in 2010, their first album recounts liv- Mohamed. "We are proud to be Palestinian ing in the overcrowded camp, as they advo- because it's our history, and in Syria, we were cate for the Palestinian cause. Then, after 2011, made to feel like we were Palestinians. "But we the revolt provided inspiration. They penned also grew up feeling Syrian because we were "The Age of Silence", "Haram" ("Forbidden"), raised there. Now, we feel Parisian." — AFP which is about the horrors of the war, "Aysheen" meaning "We Live", and "Corruption In this file photo, blues legend James Cotton ferociously plays the harmonica as he entertains the crowd at the WC. — AP.