I thought that an
interview with the talented Kurdish rapper Serhado
would be a good choice to start off blogging with.
I’ve added an online player with which you can
listen to his new single “Lexe Lexe”. A zip-file
with the song has also been added for your
convenience.
21-year-old Serhado, was born in the Swedish capital
of Stockholm with a blood-line originating from
Midyat in the Merdin province of northern Kurdistan.
He grew up with his mother, his older brother and
younger sister in the segregated suburb of
Sollentuna in Stockholm, not seeing much of his
father during his childhood as his father was
working for the Kurdish TV channel MED-TV in
Belgium.
Serhado calls himself “the black sheep of his
family” and is also known among his friends for
doing pretty much as he likes: a black sheep with a
free spirit. After a couple of messy years in his
childhood, Serhado got “back in track”, now studying
an academic preparation year at the Sodertorn
University in Stockholm and working part-time at a
recreation centre. “My main aim is to open up a
music studio for all the youth in my area”, Serhado
says. |
Serhado, a Kurdish rapper
Photo:Dozame.org |
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– How does it come that you began with rap, and
not any traditional form of singing?
When I was about eight years old I started listening
to hip hop music. Actually the first CD I got was a
hip hop CD by “Kriss Kross”. We didn’t even have a
CD player at that time. (Laughs) Hip hop is a
lifestyle and I started living my life in that
particular style. At that time the style was very
odd, all my clothes were too big and Kurdish people
all laughed at me. But now, look around, you can see
a lot of our young people dress and live like that.
So clearly at the age of thirteen hip hop was the
natural form for me to express all of my thoughts
and feelings.
– What does your family think about you rapping?
At first they didn’t like it, they told me that I
should instead use my “valuable time” for studies.
But after a couple of years, when they saw one of my
performances, they were thrilled. And now my proud
mother kind of works as my manager. (Laughs)
– Kind of works as your manager? How do you mean?
Does she warn you to not be naive or something?
Not really… But she is personally involved in
promoting me.. to all her friends. (Laughs) She can
sometimes negotiate with organizers about my name’s
location on the posters and such.. (Laughs again)
– Rap, which is one of the four elements in hip
hop, started as a way to communicate social and
political problems. But if one look at how rap has
developed one can see that many famous rappers sing
about women, cars, money etc. Why do you think that
rap developed to become a style where most people
rap about material things?
First of all, it’s a very sad development. I mean
sad because it’s killing the art form. Just like you
said, hip hop started out being the voice of
ordinary people against the corporations and
politicians. Today, it is those wealthy people who
own all of the record companies. Today, most of the
known rappers are those wealthy people. The same
people killed the original art form because they saw
how big it was getting. A rapper that was rapping
for all of his people is now only rapping for
himself and rapping so that he can earn more of the
same materialistic stuff he raps about. But there
are still many ambitious rappers who don’t want that
and it’s from those rappers I get my inspiration.
– How do you think that Kurdish rap music will
develop in the future?
Hip hop and traditional Kurdish music have alot of
similarities. They both are used as a voice of
awaking. It is the music of those who are opressed,
and so, I believe that this music form will be well
respected even by conservative Kurds. Not to talk
about all the Kurdish youth who already listen to
all of the different rappers in the world. They are
waiting for the Kurdish hip hop culture to erupt and
some can’t wait to start rapping themselves. That is
a really good thing but I hope that all of the new
rappers don’t forget that there is more to hip hop
than what is shown on TV today. I believe that if we
use the original art form of hip hop it will grow
large in Kurdistan. We need to use it for what it
was made for and start from the beginning again.
This time I hope it doesn’t end up like it ended up
in USA.
– When will you release your first album?
There have been some problems finding a producer to
collaborate with. But for this album, I’ve decided
to work together with one of my old producers,
Karwan Z, who is also a Kurd and with whom I’m
comfortable working with. I can not say when the
album will be released because we are still in the
first phase. But hopefully it will be released in
the near future.
www.dozame.org
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