They are three, young black Muslim-Americans who are in a religious rap group called Native Deen, based in a suburb of Washington, D.C. — and they’re part of a growing trend of singing or rapping about Islam.
They rap about growing up, being teased by other kids, saying no to drugs, doing well in school and praying.
But one figure is mentioned over and over again in their songs … Allah. [Story]
I must admit that I have always thought that any musical group that relies more on “message” than “music” has just manufactured a polite way of admitting to themselves that they suck, and they can’t hold a regular job. “If we went ‘mainstream'” they all say, “we would be popular. But we won’t sell out”.
Well, as it turns out, this actually has some truth—if the majority of these message bands were to go mainstream, then kill themselves and hire new musicians and/or a group of rock ’em sock ’em robots to replace them and their self-righteous message, they might have a chance at creating some decent music.
So, naturally, when Native Deen poked its Islamic head into my foxnews this morning, I was a little predisposed to assume failure. But, let me assure you, my opinion turned 360° when I experienced the lyrical onslaught that is Native Deen:
“What’s with the scarf girl, rapped up like a mummy.
They all made jokes and they said that you look funny.
You ran into the bathroom and your friends began to scoff.
After that encounter you had planned to take it off.
But then you thought how much Allah likes how your dressin’.
Pleasin’ him was top priority to you no question.”
Well, at least they didn’t take lame poetry they wrote for a 3rd grade writing assignment, laid down a bass track and called it rap, then expected people to take them seriously.
Wait a minute.
Update: Resident staffer NHDJ1 has just informed me that Fox News had the “toned-down” image of Native Deen on their website (which I shamelessly lifted rather than pull one from my personal collection). To quell the jitters in your pants after hearing that, I present the “original” hardcore image of the holy rap trio, compliments of NHDJ1:
werd.