OFFENDUM X POETS of PROTEST (Oo vs PP) is an experimental juxtaposition of some of the Arab World's most notable poetic voices layered &amp; scratched by Filipino-American DJ Boo over a mix of sample-based Hip-Hop instrumentals from Omar Offendum's beat catalogue. 

The four poets sampled were Mazen Maarouf (Palestine), Manal Al Sheikh (Iraq), Ahmed Fouad Negm (Egypt) &amp; Hala Mohammad (Syria) - as seen/heard on the Aljazeera Artscape series 'Poets of Protest' released a little over one year ago (Sep 2012). After listening to this short mix (16:15), we encourage you to watch the full documentary series which includes two more poets (Yehia Jaber of Lebanon &amp; Al Khadra of Algeria / Sahara), as well as translations of all their verses &amp; links to more of their inspiring work &gt;&gt;

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/poetsofprotest/

It is our hope that this project can serve as a bridge between lovers of poetry & hip-hop - between America & the Arab World - between generations, languages, cultures & continents . . . Please share this mix with your friends, family, parents & professors!

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For more on DJ Boo, visit: http://www.facebook.com/boo.jenkins & Twitter: @Boo515 

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Sinsyrianly

- Oo

OO vs PP

This track is from the album Syrianamericana and is available for purchase on CD Baby here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/OmarOffendum

Damascus

Destiny

Hustle On

DC Guide

Straight Street

Majnoon Layla

Superhero

Father's Day

The Arab Speaks of Rivers

Mother's Day

Finjan

New Orient

Syrianamericana

Lyrics by Omar Offendum:

I wrote this verse at 30,000 feet 
En route to Austin 
Next week Chicago 
Last week exhausting 
Speaking about my people & what 6 years cost them 
Syrian bodies strewn ashore 
Families who've lost them 
Brutality the likes of which 
A child should never see 
Let alone be subjected to 
Lonely, poor & destitute 
Realities the likes of which 
Our voices never free 
Freedom marches 
Across the harshest seas 
Only to be rejected too 

I'm appealing to the best of you 
If my mama didn't raise me right 
I wouldn't be addressing you 
I'd be on my knees begging you 
These babies deserve better 
Than blurbs in newsletters 
Or decisions about their futures 
That help arms dealers earn better 
In addition to the smugglers & the looters 
Oil barons & air polluters 
Killer telecommuters 
Shooting bombs off drones 
Offices close enough to home 
To be dozing off by 8pm with little trauma signs shown 

Pundits adding to the drama 
One that flaunts a devil's thumbprint 
But that index pulling triggers isn't charged 
When the body it's connected to is in uniformed garb 
Ain't that something? 
Trust me, they don't hate your freedom 
It's the lies they find repugnant 
It's the wars & the coups 
The propping up of dictators 
Short-term memory 
Long-range missile radius 
& the craziest election rhetoric imaginable 
How we would claim a moral high ground 
Just isn't fathomable ... 

The fact that #BlackLivesMatter 
Has to even be said is telling 
Back in '08 
It was 'Hope & Change' selling 
Eight years later 
Some Great Lakes waters were strange smelling 
And Syrian lives shattered 
From a barrel bomb shelling 
On an hourly basis 
While our cowardly faces 
Stared at a camera phone reflection 
Drowned away in disgrace 
Hundreds of thousands 
Were plundered by thundering rounds 
Of obliterating agony 
World leaders would rather lead us to believe 
They were being liberated 
Actually ... 

The older I get 
I find the meaning of 'freedom' is relative 
It doesn't even mean the same 
To me & my relatives 
Democracy on a high horse 
Or high off of sedatives? 
Keeping up with the Jones' 
That ain't being competitive 
Now I'm no longer in debt 
But still feel like I'm getting it 
The misuse of my tax dollars 
Getting repetitive 
Meditative retreats 
Were all that kept me from losing it 
Now I look in my son's eyes 
To find what is relevant ... 
Jibran, the best medicine 
But if we had tried to immigrate today 
They wouldn't let us in 
That's unsettling ... 
Yeah ... that's unsettling.

Eye Know Faces

Years (Prod. Saüd)

Nizar Qabbani poetic recitation: 

زيديني عِشقاً.. زيديني 

يا أحلى نوباتِ جُنوني 

Omar Offendum - Chorus: 

More love ... More love 
I want more love ... 

Can you love me in the morning? 
Love me in the afternoon? 
Love me in the evening? 
I need more love ... More love 

Omar Offendum - Verse 1: 

She is the bow ... I am the arrow 
We are target bound together 
Hardest times are never more 
Than spring boards to a better 
Place for us 
See, nothing is a waste for us 
As long as there is love 
for Allah's sake 
There's always ways for us 
To learn from 
Speed bumps & sharp turns 
Weed slumps & heart burns 
You're my teacher 
You're my healer 
You're my comforter, tranquility 
سكينة ... 
Felt in each embrace 
No higher height is reached in faith 
Than that which lovers find together 
When committed to the race 
Towards an ever better place 
Than what we've found 
on mother Earth's sur- 
Face the map & trace her beauty back to you. 
The love is true. 

Nizar Qabbani poetic recitation: 

جِسمُكِ خارطتي 

ما عادت خارطةُ العالمِ تعنيني 

أنا أقدمُ عاصمةٍ للحزن 

وجُرحي نقشٌ فرعوني 

وجعي .. يمتدُّ كبقعةِ زيتٍ 

من بيروتَ .. إلى الصِّينِ 

عصفورةَ قلبي، نيساني 

يا رَمل البحرِ، ويا غاباتِ الزيتونِ 

يا طعمَ الثلج، وطعمَ النار 

ونكهةَ كفري ويقيني 

أشعُرُ بالخوف فضُميني 


Omar Offendum - Chorus: 

More love ... More love 
I want more love ... 

Can you love me in the morning? 
Love me in the afternoon? 
Love me in the evening? 
I need more love ... More love 

Omar Offendum - Verse 2: 

We're feeding from Her bountiful bosom 
Creatures rarely asking why 
Intergalactic insemination 
Of heavenly vegetation 
Remember & forget equations 
But the spirits never die 
Flagella flapping to the vibrations of 
Gene mapping 
Feet tapping 
Speech rapping 
Heat packing 
Combustible 
The life force 
Adjustable 
New tricks 
Old dogs 
Kubricks 
Mozarts 
When most art is a bunch a bull... 
I put my trust in you 
As one should do 
For so far, I've learned the hard way 
That no love is an odd way 
But your love is the God way 
So give me more love 
زيديني عشقاً 
as Nizar say 

Omar Offendum - Chorus: 

More love ... More love 
I want more love ... 

Can you love me in the morning? 
Love me in the afternoon? 
Love me in the evening? 
I need more love ... More love 

Nizar Qabbani poetic recitation: 

يا أحلى نوباتِ جُنوني 

يا سِفرَ الخَنجَرِ في خاطرتي 

يا غَلغَلةَ السِّكِّينِ 

زيديني غرقاً يا سيِّدتي 

إن البحرَ يناديني 

زيديني موتاً 

علَّ الموت، إذا يقتلني، يحييني

More Love (Ft. Nizar Qabbani)

More Love Ft. Nizar Qabbani (Prod. Saüd)

Lyrics by Omar Offendum:

Verse 1: 

I know I'm corny to some 
I know I'm threatening to others 
I might be boring to sons 
But I'm important to mothers 
Look I ain't trippin in any case 
I'm more into hovering 
Still I'm deeper than shoveling 
Better yet, people in submarines 
Can I get a piece of my motherland? 
Or just peace in my motherland? 
Mr Kiefer of Sutherland 
Why my features are troubling? 
Why I keep on discovering 
All the evils of government 
Why y'all feathers gets ruffled 
When you be seeing a brother that's this fly? 

Chorus 

I wanna know x 5 
How you can propagate them lies 
But can't even look me in my eyes 
I wanna know x 5 
What it would take to make you see 
That all that hate won't set you free 

Verse 2: 

Afraid of us because we teach our children 
Not to be afraid of them 
The truth offends 
I guess they'd rather play pretend 
Then make amends & dead that hatred slowly eating them within 
A foolish trend unfortunately oft a symptom of decision-making men 
Powerful simpletons 
Blinded by ignorance they claim to end 
Getting high off an inflated sense of exceptionalism & revisionist histories 
Privileged parents been giving them 
Unconventional wisdoms 
Fake news forgives them 
As they blame the victims 

I wanna know x 5 
How you can propagate them lies 
But can't even look me in my eyes 
I wanna know x 5 
What it would take to make you see 
That all that hate won't set you free 

Verse 3: 

("Faces" by Kahlil Gibran) 

"I have seen a face with a thousand countenances, and a face that was but a single countenance as if held in a mould. 

I have seen a face whose sheen I could look through to the ugliness beneath, and a face whose sheen I had to lift to see how beautiful it was. 

I have seen an old face much lined with nothing, and a smooth face in which all things were graven. 

I know faces, because I look through the fabric my own eye weaves, and behold the reality beneath."

Faces (Ft. Gazu)

Faces Ft. Gazu (Prod. Saüd)

Lyrics by Omar Offendum:

Verse 1: 

I'm like the palm trees in LA 
Twice removed from Sham... 
But when I was growing up 
Nobody knew where I was from 
I'd tell them that I'm Syrian 
They stood there looking curious 
Started speaking to me in Spanish 
Some would even speak in tongues 
I wasn't offended ... Never am 
Couldn't have an agenda 
Well aware of the privileges a new blue passport rendered 
Nose clean 
No angel, but no fiend 
No playboy, but no chump 
No label could own me 
If only 

Chorus : 

(Excerpts from Kahlil Gibran's "My Friend") 

"My friend, I am not what I seem. Seeming is but a garment I wear—a care-woven garment that protects me from thy questionings and thee from my negligence. 

The “I” in me, my friend, dwells in the house of silence, and therein it shall remain for ever more, unperceived, unapproachable." 

So don't f*ck with me... 

Verse 2: 

If only I'd swear more & say I don't care more 
But those who know me know that isn't me so I'm here more 
Showing up for my fam 
Being present when I can 
Recognizing it's a blessing 
To caress my mother's hand 
Or be handed a microphone 
To address another man 
& remind him I'm no lesser of a man. 
Older I get, the more Ive come to comprehend that some of you rappers I'll just never understand 
Oh well ... 

Chorus: 

(Excerpts from Kahlil Gibran's "My Friend") 

"My friend, thou art good and cautious and wise; nay, thou art perfect—and I, too, speak with thee wisely and cautiously. And yet I am mad. But I mask my madness. I would be mad alone. 

My friend, thou art not my friend, but how shall I make thee understand? My path is not thy path, yet together we walk, hand in hand." 

Yella ...

My Friend

My Friend (Prod. Saüd)

Lyrics by Omar Offendum:

Ay man where you from? 

I'm from a place where 
revolutions slowly suffocate from sarin gas & selfishness 
& freedom's a mirage my people stared up at with helplessness 
When SOS alerts were sent, nobody got the messages 
& soulless men then learned to turn a profit from the recklessness 
Aware of just how short a span humanity's attention is 
If the White House is ambivalent 
That doesn't mean the Kremlin is 
Hindsight is 20/20 
Divine right's been claimed by many 
And they still don't know Aleppo, let alone what a White Helmet is... 

Let's keep it moving 
Like Obama with the red lines 
Or Trump with the headlines & hairlines 
I swear, I'm a rare kind of dude 
Like the term for worms in Arabic 
Unearth my buried heritage 
From cities turning derelict 

All that time I had before 
I just wish I cherished it 

All I can remember now is war 
Bilad Al-Sham she perishes 

I wish, I wish, I wish I met you at a different time 
Suffice it to say, I could've come up with a different rhyme 
But glory days are often figments of a stricken mind 
Coping mechanisms for whom History hath left behind... 
But hey it didn't have to be this way 
These songs of freedom ain't naïveté 
They were sourced from truths as credible 
As regime change is inevitable 
I just hope I live to see the day

I Wish

I Wish (Prod. Saüd)

"Close My Eyes" is a lyrical / visual reflection on immigration, fatherhood, mortality, Syria, America & Mother Nature.

Music Video  👁 https://youtu.be/_o4hVgPnFpE 

Lyrics / Vocals :: Omar Offendum 
Instrumental Beat :: Sandhill 
Bass :: Mark Haynes 
Qanun :: Sarouna 
Mix :: Prof. H

All Rights Reserved © Cosher Ink, LLC | 2018

Lyrics :: 

Bet you thought that I'd forget 
Ill admit I've often tried 
Ever since the day you left 
I've been feeling lost inside 
Waiting here with baited breath 
Patiently I recollect 
One foot in the grave 
Foolish step to take 
Now wait a sec 
I heard about it all before 
Read it in the ancient texts 
Messages delivered from the best of us 
To save the rest of us 
From grief, stress, and a weak chest 
Speechless 
One tongue - Two eardrums 
So speak less, and yes 
The meek blessed 
With inheriting this earth 
But until then I worry for children 
Who perish first 
Carrying thirst 
Walking miles for polluted water 
Buried in turf 
Lost smiles and a slew of martyrs 
Is this the type of life we're meant to be living? 
Where history is repeated 
Tragedies we're reliving 
These were the kinds of conversations 
That we used to have but 
Now that you're gone 
I just speak to you in song 

You have a knack for showing up 
Soon as I close my eyelids 
The world is black 
But sure enough 
Your luminance is shining 
They say no man's an island 
And to me you were a continent 
Constantly reminding me 
To elevate my consciousness 
Back when I was growing up 
You told me to keep smiling that 
No matter what the obstacle 
Nothing was impossible 
Timeless 
Wisdom in your silence 
A language all it's own 
Find a place our children's children love 
Go on & call it home 
Plant roots 
Watch that family tree grow to bear fruit 
Can't let the pride in ye grow 
Set aside your ego 
In the eyes of people 
We share truth 
Clear through 
Windows to a soul's center 
Find an equal 
Whom you love being alone with 
To get you through that cold winter 
This type of guidance you provided me was priceless 
I can almost see you smiling while I write this 
At night I just . . . Close My Eyes 

Now I know 
Grieving isn't easy 
But the tears breed patience 
Believing isn't easy 
But the fears feed faith in that 
Infinite uncertainty 
Of certain situations 
Recognize you're immortal 
Your demise is but a portal 
To surprises unpredicted 
By the limits of a mind 
So finite 
That only in hindsight 
Does it ever find 
What's right in what was wrong 
This is more than just a song 
Sometimes your heart 
Must skip a beat 
So you'll appreciate it more 
Now keep calm 
Carry on 
You want to knock on heaven's door? 
Im not so sure brother 
The line is very long 
Since his very dawn 
Mankind has never been 
Benevolent 
Enough to get along 
At least not on a global scale 
So please begin at home 
I pray we're not a total fail but 
Indeed, the good die young 
Yet deep inside I know 
We'll be united very soon 
That's why I say 
إنا لله وإنا اليه راجعون  
(To The One We Belong & To The One We All Return) 

- Omar Offendum

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