Palestinian rappers live to the beat of conflict

GAZA, Sep 22 (Reuters) With their baggy clothes, stylised gesticulations on stage, and love of heavy bass rhythms, they look and sound like rappers the world over. But Mohammed al-Fara and his band live to a uniquely Palestinian beat.

Introducing hip-hop to the conservative Gaza Strip was no easy feat for the ''PR: Palestinian Rap'' quartet. Yet having weathered ridicule and violent assaults, PR is giving a new voice to Palestinian protest, and hopes it will be heard abroad.

''The world knows little about Gaza. We wanted to use this unusual musical style to get the message out -- about the people, the (Israeli) occupation and the community,'' Fara, 21, told Reuters during a recording session in a Gaza City studio.

One of PR's break-out hits was ''Nakba'', or ''Catastrophe'', which deplored the 1948 war in which Israel was carved out of British-mandated Palestine. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced, many fleeing to camps in cramped, coastal Gaza.

''I see my land laid waste before my eyes, by a cancer named the Sons of Zion,'' the song says.

While many of PR's themes deal with the fight against Israel, others voiced criticism over internal Palestinian problems such as crime and corruption.

Fara said PR was inspired by rap music's origins as a means for disaffected African-American youths to vent frustration.

''It spoke about the discrimination between blacks and whites. We also have a discrimination from the side of Israeli occupation,'' he said.

Israel captured Gaza in the 1967 West Asia war, but withdrew troops and Jewish settlers last year after battling two Palestinian uprisings. The violence prompted Gazan artists to embrace themes of nationalism and hatred of the Jewish state.

GRIM BEGINNINGS Still, it took a few years for PR's style to be appreciated by fellow Palestinians in Gaza, where Islamist mores are prevalent and music is generally performed by austere soloists or choirs accompanied by traditional Arab string orchestras.

During an early PR concert, in the southern Gazan town of Khan Younis, the rappers were stoned and beaten by locals who took offence at their pelvis-thrusting antics on stage. The performance was deemed insulting to the women in the audience.

''They were fanatics and they did not understand,'' said band-member Ayman Maghames, 20, a student of English literature.

He also recalled how a Gazan youth who wanted to join PR was abducted by unidentified gunmen and threatened with death.

The would-be rapper gave up his ambitions, but PR responded with a new song about his ordeal entitled ''An Execution Stage''.

''The future of our nation lies on the palm of a demon's hand, fear and horror reside in people's hearts,'' the song says.

Founded in 2003, the power of PR's messages had finally been understood. While their CDs have not sold very briskly, they have been invited to perform at events in town and abroad.

Yet, religious and nationalistic songs took the lead, they have been played by radio stations and at weddings, political rallies and even the occasional funeral march.

''It was a matter of getting people to be attracted to what we had to say,'' Maghames recalled.

Recently, Fara says, PR have been invited to perform in the occupied West Bank, another territory where Palestinians seek statehood, as well as Israeli Arab towns and British venues.

REUTERS DKA VV1541