Mohammed’s BioWhat do you get when you mix the melodic and hypnotic sounds of Middle Eastern traditional music with the hip hop rhythm and pulsating base of Western beats? You get the sound of a new generation’s peaceful push for freedom and awareness of their situation. You get a new generation of young minds sharing with their words the everyday lives of their people under occupation and bringing a message of freedom to the world. One of these messengers of hope and freedom is Mohammed Al Farra.
Raised in Khan Yunis, Gaza, Palestine, Mohammed Al Farra has seen daily the struggles of his people in Palestine. He quickly turned to music as a release and began listening to the likes of Tupac Shukar. What he heard in hip hop was something he related to and a way to elicit his feelings on what was happening outside his front door. With the situation worsening in Gaza, his family relocated in 2002 to Gaza City. This move would wind up being the beginning of a movement for Al Farra. While in school in Gaza City, he met Mezo and after sharing their ideas for using hip hop music as a way of expressing their struggle, they began to form Gaza’s first hip hop group, The Palestinian Rapperz, comprised of Al Farra, Mezo, Kan’aan, and Ayman. They soon began writing together and recorded their first song in 2003. Their powerful lyrics deliver strong messages about their life in Gaza and the life of Palestinians living under occupation. The group has performed all around Palestine to people of all ages.
In 2005, Al Farra took a brief hiatus from the group and began working on solo material. It took him six months to finish his debut solo album and in May of 2006 he released, “Ana Jeet,†meaning “I have Arrived.†This explosive album is comprised of 17 songs revealing the daily life in Palestine on the Gaza Strip and Arabic society, mixed in with some lighter subject matter such as “Hookah†featuring Tamer Nafar from DAM. The album also features Mahmoud Jrere and Suhell Nafar from DAM, Ragtop from the PHILISTINES, A.K the Arabian Knights from Egypt, Raqeeb, and Marwaan from the Denmark group Pimp A Lot. He has travelled the world doing shows in Gaza, Egypt, Ireland, the West Bank, and within the United States in Utah, Texas and Lousiana.
Al Farra and the Palestinian Rapperz are featured in the official selection of the Sundance Film Festival documentary Slingshot Hip Hop
(www.slingshothiphop.com) directed by Jackie Salloum. The documentary opens the world of Arabic hip hop and features other barrier breaking artists DAM, Abeer, Mahmood Shalabi, and Arapyat. The film has been received well by audiences everywhere and has moved on to screen at several festivals around the United States, including California, New York, Texas and Chicago, and will have its Palestine premiere in July of 2008.
Al Farra hopes to spread the message of Palestinians so that people around the world will get a chance to see into the life of occupation. He strives to educate with his music and to open people’s minds to break negative stereotypes of Palestinians and to introduce what is really happening in his country. He is now working on new material with his group The Palestinian Rapperz in the continuance of hope for peace.
To listen to music and learn more about the Palestinian Rapperz please visit:
www.myspace.com/palrapperz
