PALESTINIAN ARTISTS DAM TO PLAY BENEFIT SHOW FOR OLYMPIA-RAFAH SOLIDARITY MURAL PROJECT

OLYMPIA, WA — DAM, a leading Palestinian hip hop group and local artists Xperience and DJ Sweetelite, will play the Capitol Theater, 206 5th Avenue SE, in Olympia, April 21st at 7:00pm. Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Advance tickets can be purchased at Rainy Day Records or online through Buyolympia. Proceeds will benefit the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural Project.

DAM is the first and leading Palestinian hip hop group. It is composed of Tamer Nafar, 27, his younger brother Suhell, 23, and Mahmoud Jreri, 24. All three members of the group were born and grew up in the slums of Lod, a mixed town of Arabs and Jews, twenty kilometers from Jerusalem.

DAM’s music is a unique fusion of East and West, combining Arabic percussion rhythms, Middle Eastern melodies and urban hip hop.

The lyrics of DAM are influenced by the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as by the Palestinian struggle for freedom and equality. DAM also draw their influence from such controversial issues as terrorism, drugs and women’s rights.

DAM was featured in the film Slingshot Hip Hop, released in 2008, which braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel as they discover hip hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty.