Desert Heat: Emirati hip-hop gets no swing

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If these people can't get a 20-minute gig in a club, who can be said to be really on their side

If you're an Emirati with a regular job then you're probably not having such hard time. If you're a struggling artist, then you can probably find someone and tell them: "Hey, I'm a struggling artist, why don't you support this project I'm working on?" If you're a struggling Emirati artist, everyone looks at you and thinks you're a sensitive brat that chooses not to work for a bank and buy freehold property. I had lunch with Desert Heat a few weeks ago. Desert Heat is a local hip-hop group comprising Salim and Abdullah Dahman. Salim is a married 27-year-old employee at Dubai airport. Abdullah is a 22-year-old who works for Standard Chartered and studies finance at the University of Brussels (EHSAL) at the Knowledge Village. Salim just had a baby girl and named her Malak. The brothers have just spent Dh140,000 making an album, When The Desert Speaks, which is released on June 22. You can do the arithmetic and try to figure out how significant these funds are relative to their combined income. I stumbled upon them on You Tube while looking for some desert dune bashing videos. Desert Heat are not your usual hip-hop crew. They don't swear, they don't want to sleep with different women at parties, and they definitely don't want to shoot you dead in a drive-by. They also don't wear diamond rings or drive Rolls-Royce Phantoms. And they are not from "the projects". They speak about things like the beauty of the UAE, the social issues that are arising here, and the contributions that the Arab and Muslim world have made to global civilisation. In short Salim and Abdullah are law abiding, hard working citizens of the UAE who love hip-hop music and use it as a medium to communicate their feelings and opinions. Their lyrics are a mixture of Arabic and English. When I met them for lunch they told me how hard it has been for them to receive recognition, let alone support. I heard several stories about sponsors backing out, television stations rescheduling them, and gigs getting cancelled. I thought I could help; I thought I must be more connected than them. So after I left them, I spoke to some friends who knew the owner of a leading night club in Dubai that plays a lot of hip-hop in an effort to try to arrange for them to have a 20-minute gig on a weekend. In my mind, I thought it would be cool and that it would really excite the crowd to see someone free-styling live for a while. The reply came back: "The owner is uncomfortable to show local hip-hop musicians in the club." If these people can't even get a 20-minute gig in a club, who can be said to be really on their side? To expand this a little more, beyond the UAE's megasuccessful auction-material artists for example: why are we unable to see a rough diamond's cutting potential? Why won't we take a chance on our own people? We must incubate and cultivate. We must become patrons. This is Renaissance Florence, but where are our many Medicis? The Government is doing well and has plans to do much more, but it is the private sector that is so disappointing. Their lack of initiative is distressing. They have grown phenomenally over the last 15 years with the UAE's astounding growth. Yet, even when it comes to charity - a much more pressing and serious matter - Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid had to call upon them himself to help out. Is it too much to expect that with culture and the arts, businesses would not require a call from His Highness but to actually take the initiative? It is time to give back. One per cent of what Dubai Cares was able to raise is a good start. One per cent will rejuvenate artists of all sorts. One per cent will plant the seeds of the "scene" we fashionably fantasise about so often. One per cent can be the beginning of a change in attitude to local content creation. One per cent will show us that looking inward may be more exciting than looking outward. "We created algebra Al Jabir means algebra Al Khawarizmi is algorithm Introduced the zero, to start the number system We took the flight before the Wright Brothers Ibn Firnas Jumped heights that was a fly brother He turned stones into glass, that's hot brother Made the parachute, just so he'd glide further We started the rap battles and stories Tribes exchanged verses in Arabic poetry A thousand years ago, wisdom was glory Not swing swords only, because peace is holy Did you know? That we flow so original How would you know? That our style's so traditional Now did you know? I didn't know How would you know? How would I know? You didn't know, I didn't either Well man now we do" I would like to say that I have been inspired to write this piece following Sheikh Sultan Al Qassimi's piece titled "Heroes of the Emirates". Salim and Abdullah Dahman are my Heroes of the Emirates. www.desertheatarabia.com Mishaal Al Gergawi is a graduate of the American University in Dubai and CERAM European School of Business. He is the CFO of Emrock Aggregate and Mining

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