Rest in peace to Euphrates crew member Nofy Fannan, who, like many great talents ahead of him, passed before watching the world embrace his finest work.  This may be a strange gesture with which to begin a music review, but it’s the only conceivable way to respect the fallen architect of the most politically poignant hip-hop album in recent history.

The Euphrates DNA is not only unique in structure – two producers and one mc, but also in descent – all three are Iraqi Canadians.  Since 1998, biological brothers Nofy and Habillis, who unite as SandhiLL, have fused Arabic folk music with hip-hop aesthetics to bend soundscapes around The Narcicyst’s unapologetic consciousness.  Their compositions are fairly unprecedented, but are also more organized and accessible than most underground acts of their artistic caliber.

Stereotypes Incorporated is the follow up to the 2003 debut, A Bend in the River, for which Euphrates received international attention from both rap critics and mainstream media.  The new album is conceptually divided between “East” and “West,” which Narcicyst says is “because we don’t really have (just) one point of view.”  As Arab émigrés with roots and relatives in the Middle East, Euphrates delivers didactic feats from sociopolitically relative, yet undeniably subjective, perspectives.  And while the tribe primarily serves to positively combat cultural misconceptions about their religion and nationality, their angst toward U.S. foreign policy has a dominant presence throughout.                 

Narcicyst isn’t your everyday anti-Bush babble rouser strapped with a pen and pad.  A graduate student with a foundation in poly sci and communications, he plans to submit his next album as a Master’s thesis.  About his lyrical content, he says, “I don’t really see it as me being political.  This is just me being.  Our nature is politicized as a people right now so you can’t run away from it.”  Narcy’s verses aren’t catered for ignorant listeners, who might misinterpret his sentiments if they could ever grasp his poetics.  He says the integral reason for his layered flow is so “if I go out there and spit a verse and cats are like, “what the fuck is he talking about” – it’s better than them saying, “that motherfucker hates the states,”” which is not the case.  

On “Spiderhole,” a guitar-driven grievance about what they’ve punned Iraqnophobia, Narcicyst spits, “All of a sudden, you’re told you’re a victim / Then believe you’re stepping to heaven like Led Zeppelin since September 11^th / My brethren are lessened then questioned right next to a weapon.”  Even in socially liberal Canada, racial profiling is epidemic, making it possible for a lyricist to be mistaken for a terrorist.  In what might be the most ironic Canadian event since Alanis Morisette’s success, last year all three members of Euphrates were blackballed at the New York border en route to perform at an anti-discrimination rally at Wesleyan University.  Neither their immigration papers nor the show contract could outweigh the perceived threat of three Arab rappers armed with vinyl and microphones.   

Though Stereotypes has some apolitical highlights, like “Aim at Rebuilding,” with Montreal affiliates Apokalyptik and Loe Pesci, and “Flow Addicts,” featuring Boston sensei Virtuoso and Canadian powerhouse Rugged Intellect, the bulk of the album serves as a testament against the assault on Iraq.  “Halliburton” attacks the U.N. as well as war profiteers, and “Creep Up” adopts the viewpoint of a soldier to address how “We all feel the same about our youth going to other countries and getting killed.” 

Euphrates has only just begun their pillage of bringing clarity to sinister realities that oppress their homeland.  The musical and spiritual loss of Nofy Fannan in a November car crash is devastating, but Narcicyst says, “We’re going to continue for him and make sure his name gets out there.”  The first single, “Commodore 64,” is dropping globally on Expertism Productions, a Montreal label managed by producer affiliate Adam Sampler, who produced the melodramatic “Mundane Sunday” on Stereotypes Incorporated.  And as far as pushing southward, SandhiLL recently worked on Harlem revolutionary Immortal Technique’s forthcoming album, and word about www.euphrates.ca has rumbled through the U.S. underground.        

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I’m not concerned about the ghost of hip-hop past.  Nor do I care about when or where it began, or the degenerative path that much of it is headed down.  Right now I’m hooked on three Iraqi activists from Quebec, who are collectively responsible for the LP that best summarizes the frustrations of a generation at war.  And while I might suggest that Stereotypes be used to catalyze genuine progress in the way people see the world, I’m fairly sure that anyone who does not already share their views would never understand what the fuck these Arabs were talking about anyway.