July 19, 2014 A revival of the Nation of Islam connection—if it avoids repeating some of the errors of the past—could signal a new era of consciousness in commercial hip-hop. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, a wave of commercial hip-hop artists, like Public Enemy, Poor Righteous Teachers, Brand Nubian, Eric B. & Rakim,…
March 20, 2013 Issam Mrini, aka Lama Islam, was born in Morocco and raised in Bologna, where, from an early age, he was exposed to the hip hop culture. Today, thirty years, Lama Islam is a well-known rapperand known throughout the Italian underground scene. In 2002 Lama Islam opened a hip hop clothing store in…
October 8 The president of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution Hans-Georg Maaßen has warned the public against activists of the German Salafi movement. Since its legal banning, members of the organization Millatu Ibrahim allegedly left Germany and went to Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa in order to…
Lupe Fiasco has no filter. It’s pretty damn refreshing in an industry bursting at the seams with image-conscious rappers and manufactured pop divas. A practicing Muslim, he’s called President Obama “a terrorist,” does not vote in U.S. elections, was a regular fixture at Occupy Wall Street, and had an infamous on-air tussle with the irascible…
As French rapper Diam’s (born Mélanie Georgiades) releases her fourth album, S.O.S., new questions emerge around her conversion to Islam following the release of photos of the young musician leaving a mosque wearing a headscarf in French tabloid, Paris Match. She has refused to answer questions about her private life in the promotion of her…
