Some people say there is no protest music anymore.
The truth is a bit different though. All around the world, there are so many people hurting, anywhere you look, and this seemingly never changes. But, there are also so many artists using their creative minds to start positive conversations about how things can change for the better. This can easily be seen by checking out the curated Shouts playlist and other protest music playlists.
How can there be a lack of protest music in a world like this? If one digs under the most upper layer of mainstream surfaces one can easily find a plethora of music by artists who are sick and tired of the lack of empathy in this world and who use their talents to be a part of a more compassionate world.
Uriya Rosenman is a rapper. He was born on the spot of this planet that now is called Israel.
Sameh Zakout is a rapper. He was born on the spot of this planet that now is called Palestine.
The two spent some time together. They talked. The argued. They became friends. Because in the end, we are all the same. We all poo. We all pee. We all breathe oxygen. And we all just want to live a kind life without nonsense and violence.
This is just one song of so many that are trying to make the world a better place.
The conflict that has been going between Palestine and Israel has quite a long story. Opinions about it are diverse and the whole thing is complicated.
At the end of the day, there are people living in these war zones. Each and every day their lives are affected by the nonsense decisions of a few people. No one should have to live like this. Not Palestinians. Not Israelis. No one.
MC Abdul (real name Abdalrahman Alshantti) is a 12 year old artist from Palestine who decided to put his pained thoughts into lyrics and try to reach the outside world and show how life can be in this terrible place.
“I’m exhausted Last night I couldn’t sleep And when I did I could hear bombs in my dreams nightmare situation how could they be so evil making martyrs out of children and innocent people”
It’s fair to say that this young person is doing quite a good job at using his voice to change and affect the world through his art. MC Abdul already has a record deal with Empire, a label and distribution company founded by Palestinian-American Ghazi Shamiand, whose headquarters are in San Francisco, USA.
Hopefully the world can keep learning more about the situation in this part of the world through the beautiful art of this young man.
System Of A Down have always been political and always used their voice and talent to shed light on the injustice they see around them in . After 15 years of absence from releasing new music they are now back. All four members of the band have Armenian roots and according to Wikipedia the band’s first official recording was a song that was featured on a collection album “called Hye Enk (“we’re Armenian” in English), an Armenian Genocide recognition compilation in 1997.”
War between Armenia and Azerbaijan has been brewing for decades and in recent days and weeks fighting has commenced again on a larger scale, so it is no wonder that the band chose this time in history to release new music in support of their people.
Furthermore the band will donate all royalties from the release to a US based fund supporting those suffering from the violence in Artsakh and Armenia.
“We realize that for many of you, there are more convenient ways you like listening to music, so please consider the opportunity to download these songs as an act of charity above all else. Think of the list price for the downloads as a minimum donation, and if you have the ability and can be more generous with your donation, every single member of System Of A Down will be even more grateful for your benevolence. Band royalties from this initiative will be donated to Armenia Fund, a US based charity organization instrumental in providing those in need in Artsakh and Armenia with supplies needed for their basic survival.”
As somewhat of an unusual thing for a band of this size they seem to have created an official Bandcamp page where the two newly released songs are available along with a statement from the band explaining why this is important:
“Because over 30 years ago in 1988, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh (which at the time was an Autonomous Oblast within the USSR), were tired of being treated as second class citizens and decided to declare their rightful independence from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic whose borders engulfed their own. This ultimately led to a war of self determination by Armenians in Karabakh against Azerbaijan that ended in a cease fire in 1994, with Armenians retaining control of their ancestral homelands and maintaining their independence to the present day. Our people have lived there for millennia, and for most families there, it’s the only home they and their forefathers and mothers have ever known. They just want to live in peace as they have for centuries.
“This is not the time to turn a blind eye.”
The current corrupt regimes of Aliyev in Azerbaijan and Erdogan in Turkey now want to not only claim these lands as their own, but are committing genocidal acts with impunity on humanity and wildlife to achieve their mission. They are banking on the world being too distracted with COVID, elections and civil unrest to call out their atrocities. They have the bankroll, the resources and have recruited massive public relations firms to spin the truth and conceal their barbaric objective of genocide. This is not the time to turn a blind eye.
There is an immediate need for global citizens to urge their respective governments to not only condemn the actions of these crooked dictators, but to also insist world leaders act with urgency to bring peace to the region and rightfully recognize Artsakh as the independent nation it is.”
