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Palestinian-Canadian Rapper Belly Surprise-Drops ’96 Miles From Bethlehem,’ Album Inspired by War in Gaza
Rapper Belly surprise-dropped '96 Miles From Bethlehem,' an album about 'the gift, curse, and fate of being Palestinian.'
The 40-year-old artist, whose real name is Ahmad Balshe, was born in the Palestinian city of Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank — which is located 96 miles from Bethlehem, as the album’s title says — but relocated to Canada with his family when he was 7. The brief, nine-song album is, not surprisingly, a dark listen, with his rapping style (which is often reminiscent of early Kanye West) jarring against the ominous rhythms of many of the songs, which also feature spoken segments in Arabic and occasional Middle Eastern melodies. “Mirages of olive branches,that never extend to truth,Lining the Orwellian orchard of forgotten souls,and martyred youth, generations of teardrops watering trees that once grew” (“The Gift, the Curse and the Fate”).
Or read this on Variety
