So I just watched this documentary on Iranian Rap featuring one of the most prominent Iranian rappers of today, Yas. See it here. There are some things about the video and the interview that I liked and disliked at the same time. First, I liked how he spoke about the origins of rap in the US. I hope he stays true to those origins and doesn’t commercialize his rap like other Iranian rappers. If he does, then he loses the right to talk about the origins of rap in my opinion. I disliked, however, how he said that he’s proud to be Iranian because of this and that which occurred 10 billion years ago in Iranian history. I’m sick and tired of people glorifying Iran’s past. Also, I disliked even more how he said that there’s something special about Iranians because you can see specific Iranians doing big things in the world. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing special about that. It does not speak volumes about Iranians but about those specific individuals. Indeed, there are people within different nations and ethnicities doing big things. To say that there is something special about Iranians because of people like Christiane Amanpour demonstrates a little ignorance about the wider world and a little self-aggrandizing… or maybe a lot. I DID like the fact that he also said that we should not just focus on the past but look to the present and the future as well. The documentary ends with a clip of him rapping in LA and one of the lyrics made me a bit feel a little like throwing up. He said something about how Iran is “khak-e Aryiai” (Aryan land). Ugh. What does that mean? Did he interview the dirt and have it say to him: “I’m Aryan” or are ALL the inhabitants of that land “Aryan”? No, they are not, and for those “Persians” who claim to be “Aryan” in race, get over it. There’s been so much assimilation in the region that that no longer means anything and if it did, who cares. There is ABSOLUTELY nothing special about belonging to any ridiculous conception of race, especially Aryanism. That’s it, good night.
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“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.”
Meta
“I’m sick and tired of people glorifying Iran’s past.”
I’m a Jew and I have more admiration for Iran’s past than this supposed “Iranian” Pouya. How sad. How sad that there are “Iranians” like you, Pouya.
Iran did have a glorious past. The Islamic Golden Age in the Arab world is portrayed as some sort of Arab accomplishment, when in fact most of the great scholars of that era were Persians with Arabized names. That’s just one example of Arab/Islamic distortion of Iranian history and culture. Arabs calling the Gulf the Arabian Gulf is another atrocity. Don’t you see that Arab/Islamic culture has hurt Iran ever since those folks took over your land?
No, you’re too busy being pro-Palestinian.
Iran in the last 200 years never been most powerful than now, that is not rap that is crap. more power and glory are comming get ready those days of monachy are gone.
LOL… Hahahahah.. yeah sure Iran is doing great right now…
High unemployment, hyperinflation, economic misery, a population dependent on opium, and a regime who’s ideology is crumbling… you call that powerful? HA!
Iran will be powerful when it sheds this Islamic regime.
Good post Pouya.
JZ, did you learn about Iranian history too when you were in Israel? Notice JZ has absolutely no idea of the “fatwas” that the fanatic Zoroastrian clergy used to issue against Jews and Christians and the violence committed against them in pre Islamic Iran. Very “glorious”.
JZ, please, you embarass yourself on every single post.
Smiley Face, JZ went on a tour of a Zoroastrian fire temple… therefore he knows everything about the history of the religion, of course. Don’t challenge him (bc he goes on field trips).
Does this apply to documentaries too Pouya? Bc I saw a documentary of Che Guevara on Al Jazeera and man, I just feel like I know everything about Latin American communism now.
Why does JZ run away EVERY single time he posts? Do you just come here to embarass yourself? Put up a fight!
Well “Iran” does come from the Middle Persian “Eran-Shahr” which was in Old Persian and Avestan writings “Aryanam=vaejah” (Land of the Aryans)…but unlike many kooky chauvinist opposition types I realize that Iran was even since ancient times a multi-ethnic and mixed society (and I think that’s great)…talk of old Persian glory and Aryan origins has more to do with the culture/psyche of old Iran rather than anything racial. Aryan by the way is not really a designated racial group, it’s really an old term for a family of languages, most scholars just call it Indo-European now though. Regarding the mentions of Zoroastrianism above, the “fatwas” against Jews and Christians were only during a brief stint, the career of the High Priest Kerdir who served a few early Sassanian rulers. He was basically a Zoroastrian Khomeini and had the nerve to make his own inscription next to those of Shapur in Naqsh-e-Rajab…kind of like Ayatollahs pollute the scenery with their pictures/slogans today. Most of Iranian history while it was Zoroastrian was NOT like that, the Achaemenids especially were known to be irreligious themselves and so tolerant of others faiths…in fact whenever the rulers entered new territories they would worship that people’s gods (meaning they didnt even take their own religion that seriously), Zoroastrianism didnt really become established till the end in the Sassanian dynasty. The real lesson is that whenever ANY religion is allowed ANY political power, kookiness will ensue. Iranians would have learned from that and moved on but because they embraced a totally new religion, had to kind of start over, take this new religion way too seriously, have this new religion’s clerics in power (now), and again regret it.
Thank you. A serious post. See what that looks like fatty Arash and JZ?
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