Hip Hop music has typically been associated with the promotion of controversial issues such as violence, promiscuity, drug use and misogyny, but until only recently, with the establishment of groups such as Native Deen and Seven8six, the popular music genre has been used to communicate another choice, the message of Islam.
Consisting of Naeem Muhammed, Joshua Salaam, and Abdul-Malik Ahmad, the Sunni Muslim-born guys of Native Deen have known each other for over 15 years, meeting at youth programs sponsored by the Muslim Youth of North American (MYNA) and officially starting the group in 2000. The name “Native Deen” draws from the mixture of English and Arabic in demonstrating the group’s traditional background combined with growing up Muslim in the United States.
The music known as Hip Hop, first made its debut in The Bronx, a borough of New York City, in the United States, during the mid-1970s quickly becoming a large part of modern pop culture during the 1980s. Hip Hop was first inspired as a cultural movement initiated by inner-city youth of African American and Latino nationalities resulting in rapidly becoming a trendsetter for fashion and teen attitudes nationwide.
“We didn’t CHOOSE Hip Hop,” said Salaam. “It was the language of our culture growing up in the inner city. When we expressed ourselves that is what naturally came out,” he added.
“It was the music everyone was listening to. So, just as the Prophets (peace be upon them) in the past spread the message in the language of their people, we naturally used Hip Hop as our language to the youth,” said Ahmad.
The popularity of Native Deen and Islamic music has been spreading not only in the US but, around the globe taking the group to perform in over 22 countries such as the UK, Turkey, and Nigeria. The group also recently featured in “The Arts in Religion” program that was aired on US television station CBS. “The Arts in Religion” is an interfaith program aimed at educating Americans in accepting and understanding the changing cultural traditions and religious practices that are becoming prevalent in the US. During the television special, clips of the Native Deen song “Small Deeds” was broadcasted accompanied by video clips of the groups performances.
“It’s an honor of course. It’s good to know that our music is being listened to by so many people that CBS decided to give us a call,” Salaam said, reacting to the group’s appearance on the US television station. “We hope that this will allow more people to listen to our music and hear the beautiful and peaceful message of Islam,” added Ahmed
Another group taking the Islamic music scene to a whole new level is Seven8six, which is made up of Shahaab, Zafar, Omar, Saad and Saeed, who grew up together in Michigan before meeting again by chance to sing together at a friend’s wedding.
“When we sang, we got such an amazing response and thought we’d take it to the next level and make our own music...Islamic music,” Shahaab, the band’s creator told Arab News, commenting on how the group first took shape.
The group’s name is derived from a numerical system developed during the Abbasid Caliphate in which a number value was given to each letter in the Arabic alphabet. “So if you added up the sentence ‘Bismallah hir’ you get 786, by no means is this a replacement to Bismallah. We thought this was a cool way of linking us back to our roots as Muslims without making our name too exclusive,” Omar said. Seven8six has done shows in the UK, Sweden, Dubai, and Canada with plans that are to take them to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and Australia. With the extensive list of locations visited by the group, Arab News asked if they had ever been targets of hate crimes or experienced negative attitudes associated with being Muslims and spreading Islamic values vocally.
“Alhumdulilah, we have never experienced any type of negative response from non-Muslims. They actually have been very receptive to what we have to say,” said Saeed. “Many of them have brought our album and support what we are doing.
With their music having been labeled by listeners as Pop, R&B, Hip Hop, and Soul, it is more appropriately described as a blend of five different guys with five different sounds.
“But the style of music we end up with is what the youth want to hear,” Shahaab added. “We want that because, we are trying to reach that audience and tell a story. If our music is more one way or the other, then we risk not reaching our listeners. We do songs in a traditional way too. Our goal is to reach all age groups and all different groups of Muslims… young, old, Arab Indian, Black and white,” he said.
With hip hop music traditionally being the medium of telling stories of struggle, prejudice, and strife, mixed with the current situation of oppression brought about by negative stereotypes against Islam, hip hop seems to the musical remedy for a lot of what is ailing the globe’s youth. Shahaab added, “Whether Islamic music will break into the mainstream, remains to be seen.”
