{"id":512,"date":"2009-05-06T15:34:34","date_gmt":"2009-05-06T19:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=512"},"modified":"2009-05-06T15:34:34","modified_gmt":"2009-05-06T19:34:34","slug":"a-sufi-rapper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=512","title":{"rendered":"A Sufi Rapper?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>France has ghettos, there are projects in France.  I know it sounds ridiculous to say that, as if you didn\u2019t know.  Here\u2019s the thing, until the riots in Paris a few years back, I was totally unaware of this fact.  Press reports would say the people involved were from the \u201cdeprived Paris suburbs\u201d, but it\u2019s true, that in that moment I realized that Paris is a large city and like most large cities, there is probably some equivalent of what Americans call the \u201cprojects\u201d.  It was also during this time that I learned that France has a vibrant rap scene.  Oddly, the concept of French rap was less shocking than coming to grips with the idea that Paris had \u201cdeprived suburbs\u201d.  Want to learn more?<\/p>\n<p><a href='https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/sufi-rapper.jpg'><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/sufi-rapper.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"sufi-rapper\" width=\"141\" height=\"212\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-513\" \/><\/a>Then I would highly recommend the book \u201cSufi Rapper\u201d by Abd Al Malik.  This book is a great read.  It follows the spiritual journey of the author from his beginnings as an aspiring criminal in Neuhof, described as a \u201cdifficult\u201d quarter, into becoming a leader in the French hip hop community, and through his discovery and evolution within the Muslim faith.  \u201cSufi Rapper\u201d gives the reader a look at the life of a street hustler and a musician, a history of rap music from the French perspective, and an introduction to many Islamic paths.  It\u2019s like he wrote the book for me!<\/p>\n<p>Abd Al Malik\u2019s writing has a lyrical, enchanting quality to it.  It shouldn\u2019t be so surprising, coming from a lyricist.  Seriously though\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite everything, I cannot help but feel affection toward this father-child.  No doubt he also served me as an anti-role model, with his fickleness and libertine habits, whose consequences we suffered.  But I have never been able to nurture the slightest feelings of bitterness toward him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2026.if I could write like that I wouldn\u2019t be here blogging to you people, I\u2019d be published and an Oprah pick!<\/p>\n<p>As much as I enjoyed the glimpse into the art of crime and learning about the French hip hop scene, the most fascinating part of \u201cSufi Rapper\u201d is Abd Al Malik\u2019s evolution into, for lack of a better descriptor, a Sufi rapper.  Any person who has been on a spiritual journey, or struggled with finding a place in their faith, will see themselves reflected in this story.  Or, if you\u2019re like me, and just nosey about how people practice their faith, you\u2019ll like it too!<\/p>\n<p>Crime, music, religion\u2026.I love this book!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>France has ghettos, there are projects in France.  I know it sounds ridiculous to say that, as if you didn&#8217;t know.  Here&#8217;s the thing, until the riots in Paris a few years back, I was totally unaware of this fact.  Press reports would say the people involved were from the &#8220;deprived Paris suburbs&#8221;, but it&#8217;s true, that in that moment I realized that Paris is a large city and like most large cities, there is probably some equivalent of what Americans call the &#8220;projects&#8221;.  It was also during this time that I learned that France has a vibrant rap scene.  Oddly, the concept of French rap was less shocking than coming to grips with the idea that Paris had &#8220;deprived suburbs&#8221;.  Want to learn more?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,14,26,27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}