HIP-HOP

Kenaareh Zaayandeh Rood do chesham baaz shod
Shesh maah ghozasht o hejrat aaghaaz shod

[I opened my eyes to the world next to Zayandeh Rood
Within 6 months my pilgrimage around the world had begun]

-- Erfan, "Jahangard"

Any Iranian record released with a moderate amount of hype, will almost invariably owe its success to irresponsible critics whose ideas of "good" and "bad" have been irreparably damaged by years of exposure to loads of mainstream music. The music, the songs, the lyrics and the videos have all been at the same level until recently. A new generation of Iranian artists are striving for the mutation of our music. For those who have been waiting for a change, the time is now and there is a new wave of talented Rock and Hip-Hop artists reaching out to us.

This goes a long way toward explaining the large majority of our Iranian pop music culture. However, every once in a while an album will make its way past reviewer after reviewer and deservedly earn high marks with nary a scratch. I believe this will be the story with Iran’s hip-hop messiah, Erfan, and his debut Album, “Az Khaneh ta Goor”. [See video]

In a sea of lousy burnt-out critics and rapper wannabe’s, why should you believe me? Let me cut it short right here and say: “There are always exceptions to the rule and Erfan brings it raw and solid”.

If you have heard some of his previous outings on tracks such as “Nemitarsam”, “Sad Ghasam” or “Shosteshoo”, you know what I mean. Those of us with a little progressive outlook on Iranian music probably saw this coming a longtime ago. If you haven’t, it's clearly time for you to put away your “Danbooli Kosak” music. The cookie cutter approach to making Iranian music has created scores of boring and monotonic records, and we all want something new. It’s time to join the repented among us and get with the new. Artists like Erfan, come around once in a life time, with a power arsenal of rhymes and strong Farsi poetry that has not seen the light of day in recent decades. He is bound to become one of the most profound lyricists in this industry. Let’s go over one of his poems.

Erfan starts his poem “Sad Ghasam”, later recorded as a single for his album with:

(Intro)
Emshab chand ta ghasam daram /
har ki midooneh chi migam /
bedoon hamsafareh yeh rahim.

[I have a few promises (to make) tonight/
whoever knows what I mean/
has to know that we are on the same road to enlightenment.]

Chorus
Emshab mikhoram sad ta ghasam

[I will make a hundred promises tonight]

Zendash mikonam ba rangeh ghalam

[I will bring them to life/make them happen with my pen]

Emshab mikhoram sad ta ghasam

[I will make a hundred promises tonight]

Zendash mikonam ba rangeh ghalam (X2)

[I will bring to to life/make it happen with my pen ]

(Verse 1)
Chon nadoonesti bedoon maa khoda sereshtim

[since you don’t know, recognize that im godly]

Yeki do dasti bekhoon ma cheha neveshtim

[read what I have written with my hands]

Ghollaab be gooshet mesleh langar be darya

[I have a hook on your ear, like an anchor to the ocean]

Hafezeh roohet mesleh sangar too janga

[my poems are your souls protector like a rifle pit in a war]

Hosseineh teshnam vali teshneyeh khoonam

[I’m like a thirsty Hossein, but thirsty for blood]

Nemisham seeraab ta ke ye rooz bekhoonam

[my thirst wont be quenched till the day that I scream(rap)]

Az rooyeh kaghaz az tooyeh hanjereh

[from my lyrics sheet, from my larynx]

Sedaam boland sheh ta ke khoord sheh panjereh

[till my voice get loud enough to shatter the barrier glass]

Bokonam parvaaz be ojeh kooh soffeh

[till I fly to the peak of the Soffeh mountain(a famous mountain in Isfahan)]

Ba do paa mosafereh darbando darakeh

[till I travel with my feet to Darband and darakeh (famous climbing and hang out for the youth in Tehran)]

Nafasam tangeh vaaseh nasimeh khezer shahr

[my breathing is tight/having a hard time breathing for the breeze of khezer shahr (famous resort in Shomal in the north of iran)]

Too delam jangeh haalam che vakhimeh emshab.

[there’s an ongoing war inside my heart, the way that I feel tonight]

(Poem and song: Sad Ghasam)

Erfan is generally known for the complexity and poetry of his songs, which rely on wordplay, lyricism, and philosophical inquiry which inevitably result from influences of the classical Iranian poets such as Omar Khayyam, Molana Rumi and Saadi Shirazi, obviously with the current day spin. For those of us who know a little about Khayyam and his poetry, you know that they are occasional verses which were and still are extemporaneously recited by all classes of people; they were used both to express a sort of hedonistic appreciation of life and also everyday experiences adding a touch of humorous skepticism and wit and what better name to umbrella these skills under but “Erfan”.

We are entering a new era of Iranian Music, more specifically Iranian Hip-Hop. Think about it, when was the last time you heard an Iranian musician drop lines such as:

Az eshg bazi ba sokhan, johareh ghalam dar miyad

[from making love to the pen, the ink starts to pour
(he is referring to the pen having an orgasm, referring to writing poetry)]

Tooyeh Ojeh hessam, poshteh sareh ham miyad

[I’m at the peak of inspiration, so it keeps on pouring]

Az Sooyeh zojeh fekram va zogheh nevashtan miyad

[it's rooted in the union of my thoughts and my passion for writing]

Az khooyeh mojeh ghessam, shosteh delam dar miyad

[from the mood of the wave of my story,
my heart comes out clean when I’m writing]

(Poem and song name: Nemitarsam)

Or yet when he calls out the untalented writers of most of today’s popular Iranian pop songs in his song called “The OD Track”:

Paak shodi mesleh sher ke baa medaadeh,
khaak shodi mesleh bam bad az havaades

[You were erased like a poem written with a pencil,
your were buried alive like the events that happened at Bam
(city in Iran that had a major earth quake)]

shodin beest (20) gongeh naashi bi estefaadeh,
bedoon neest jomleh saazi yek kaareh saadeh

[You’ve become a group of 20 useless people
that have nothing to say, you have to know
that building meaningful sentences is not an easy task]

Zekrhaaye har kaseh sedaayeh azmesh/
ekraaheh az deleh ghazaayeh nafeseh

[Your deeds/words are the sounds of your intentions/
Reluctance to speak from your heart is the trouble/problem with your soul]

Tekrareh badeh ke khataayeh nafseh/
efshaeh marg, majarayeh ghatleh

[Repeating your mistakes multiple times is the sin (talking to bad writters)/
revealing the story of death, is the truth behind the murder]

Mesraa man, baaz fadaayeh hagheh/
enshaeh marekeh balaayeh makreh

[I dedicate my hemistich to a just and true cause/
writings about quarrel is the calamity of deceit]

Eshghaaleh nafteh ke barayey mahfel/
meyaar-oh va mabhas ebteday gharneh Ghableh/
vali montagheld be gharneh haazer/
sabki monhaser be ghalbeh shaaer

[Occupation (military control) for oil
is the standard criteria for assembly
since the beginning of the last century
I belong to the last Century
but I believe in the new one,
I have a style that is unique to me and my heart]

Roozi az dast khodameh ke be dast miyaad
roozi az dast khodameh ke be sar biyaay

[Sustenance comes from my own hard work,
sustenance you are in my control and it ends when I want it to]

(Poem and song name: “The OD Track”)

When was the last time you got your hands on a fresh CD which you couldn’t stop replaying over and over again and every song has a purpose. This has been my story ever since I got my hands on a copy of “Az Khaneh Ta Goor”, Erfan’s debut Album. When was the last time you heard someone talk to his generation of youth both on the outside and inside of Iran in their own colloquial speech? When was the last time you heard a hip-hopper sing competently over amazing beats about the youth not doing enough for their future (Song Title: “Maayeeh”)? Or end a song appropriately with a “rage against the machine” style and sense of rebellion (Song Title: “Koor”), that makes every single hair on your body stand up and makes you realize the immense power and beauty of your native tongue?

Erfan does it all—he opens the Album by setting the tone for his entire Album in the intro for “Az Khaneh Ta Goor” (Intro to the album). The album covers many serious socio-political issues while remaining positive and affirmative from start to finish and coming in and out with a few club banger tracks such as “Khatteh Man” and “Bia Bia”.

Inspiring? Hell Ya. The current state of Iranian independent rock could stand to learn a thing or two from this. Harmonious melodies and rhymes by a lyrical giant. He ends the CD with a bonus track, “Jazebeh Remix”, done masterfully by the L.A based Production team “M-Style Productions” by A-PLUS.

True, “Az Khaneh Ta Goor” isn’t flawless. If you don't like solid Hip-Hop beats from the Persian inspired to classic American rock samples, you may have a more difficult time getting into this. But let me end this here for all you avid readers, when the beat drops and Erfan starts spitting out his meticulously crafted lyrics, you realize it's entirely possible that he truly is prophetic-- that he was meant for speaking the rhymes and that we were meant to listen. If you ask Erfan about his music, he says he is a poet before a rapper, and a musician before an artist and after listening to his album repeatedly, I concur. I hear a new and learn new words and ideas each time I listen to them.

If you never listened to Hip-Hop because you think you have nothing in common with it, you should give it a try and hear the poems that Erfan narrates on top of musical beats in what has become labeled as Iranian hip-hop. It is defiantly not the music your dad calls “musikeh siah poosta”.