Felakat is part of a thriving underground music scene, wh…
(04-16) 04:00 PDT Tehran – —
In a cozy soundproof recording studio housed in a decrepit downtown building, the rap musician known as Felakat lounged on a chair, surrounded by sound mixers and other sleek recording equipment. Sporting a tousled black shirt, a slick fur-lined jacket and spiky hairstyle. the Iranian rapper might well pass for an Western punk singer.
“I devoted my life to rap when I was just 15,” said the 27-year-old Felakat, which means “miserable” in Farsi. “Rap is my god.”
Felakat is well aware that such remarks are considered blasphemy by the nation’s religious leaders. Rap music is forbidden in Iran.
Nevertheless, Felakat and numerous other rap musicians are part of a thriving underground music scene. Like their American counterparts, they use obscene lyrics and often use female lead or background voices – all jarring symbols of Western decadence to the ears of Iranian authorities, who blame such music for luring the nation’s youth away from Islamic culture.
In Iran, all music – except that with religious lyrics – was outlawed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the political and spiritual leader of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, which toppled the Shah of Iran. The cleric said music was “intoxicating,” and he promised to end the “invasion” of Western culture under the shah and promote Islamic values. But as years passed, radio and television stations began playing classical Persian music – mostly with religious themes.
Felakat, who has a considerable following in a nation where 70 percent of the population is under 30, is part of an underground scene where songs are recorded in clandestine studios, burned onto CDs and distributed via a flourishing black market to stores selling religious music and vetted videos. If caught by authorities, stores can be closed, and their owners imprisoned and fined.
