similar stuff happening in Russia as well, artist who speak against current russian situation getting arrested and tortured, some run away and get their citizenship stripped, some haunted abroad and “die by (probably assisted) suicide”…
for example one of the most famous pop stars Alla Pugacheva (huge star, like Celine Dion famous in russia and CIS countries) recently fled russia to avoid being arrested.
the world is crazy and with the access of internet to global news we get a real close look at it…
yep, and his friends and Zemfira and lots of others… freedom of speech is truly a luxury that many people cannot afford.
my grandfather grew up in post WW2 USSR was a part of the Communist Party, he never wanted to be any part of it but there was no option, if one wanted to have a job and a some normal life they had to play the game.
Long after USSR broke he was still afraid to speak freely about government or anything politically related over the phone with his friends and family in fear that “someone was listening and you never know who”, he was afraid that someone (agents) will arrive any minute and send him to somewhere east to camps / prison.
imagine living all your life in fear of saying one wrong thing and spending the rest of your life away from everyone you know working some labor job in the middle of nowhere…
and it’s crazy to see nowadays that little has changed…
Three more Iranian rappers. These three are all living outside of Iran. They must, they would be arrested in Iran.
Salome MC
Justina ( Farima Habashizadehasl )
Bahram Nouraei
Rap is a music of revolution in Iran. They do not hold anything back, they speak with courage — as do all the young ( and old ) that are resisting in Iran !
Man FUCK that government! I cry for the beautiful people of Iran and it sickens me seeing the footage and news coming from the streets of Iran. I inform my students about whats happening in hopes that they spread the word to their friends and family. These peoples strength during struggle is harrowing.
I get that but in this particular thread I’m focusing my disdain towardd the Iranian government. I’m well aware of the sub-par performances of the majority of this planets governments.
Not rap — but this song shows the power of the word. The song has been taken up as a anthem to the protests in Iran. The singer and creator of this is Shervin Hajipour. The words to the song Baraye are composed from the tweets of protesters in Iran.
This video has the English translation below it.
After the video went viral in Iran, Shervin was arrested, held, forced to repudiate the song, and has now been released pending his trial.
This is history, but it needs to be remembered. This is Portugal not so many years ago, and a guy with guts, and an amazing amount of talent. This is also central to the story of free jazz.
Charlie Haden ( bassist ) is a musical hero of mine. I didn’t realize what all that heroism entailed.
I decided to not queue this video, to give the story context. It’s five and a half minutes long but you could move ahead to 50 seconds. German subtitles.
Music : Lonely Woman with Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins.
All said Charlie could have faced far worse.
ADDED : The Carnation Revolution was just 50 years ago.
It always amazes me the arrogance and idiocy of theocracies and other purely ideological regimes, and their easy ability to devalue human beings and real art.
I recently reread a biography of Gyorgy Ligeti and the experience of trying to live in the changing landscape of Nazism into Communism of eastern Europe sounded utterly harrowing, never mind trying to create something under those conditions.
“First, the Nazis wanted to kill me because I was Jewish. Then the Hungarian fascists came, and they also wanted to kill me because I was Jewish. After them, the Communists came, and they wanted to shoot me because I was considered a reactionary bourgeois. Finally, the Stalinists came, and they also wanted to kill me because I was considered a subversive element.” (György Ligeti)
