DAM (band)

(1979–1999) Beginning and Tamer’s solo career

Tamer Nafar, Suhell Nafar and Mahmoud Jreri were born and raised in Lod, Israel. Tamer and Suhel were born to Fayez Nafar and Nadia Awadi. Fayez had been disabled for most of Tamer and Suhel’s lives due to a car accident. Mahmood Jreri was born to Ibrahim Jreri and Shadia Hassuneh. Tamer, Suhel and Mahmoud all grew up in poverty, neighborhoods they call "ghettos" in their music, that were full of drive by’s and drug dealing. In 1996, when he was 17 years old, Tamer discovered Hip Hop through Tupac Amaru Shakur's songs, and started to learn English while memorizing Tupac's lyrics and translating them into Arabic using an English-Arabic dictionary. Tamer recorded his first single "Untouchable," a reference to "The Untouchables” movie. In 1998, Tamer released his first EP "Stop Selling Drugs," featuring his younger brother, Suhell Nafar . The two met Mahmoud at a private show that they organized and together they decided to form DAM in late 1999.

(1999–2000) Formation and development

DAM started recording songs on their home computer, and most of their songs back then where recorded over known Hip Hop instrumentals. At the time, the Hip-Hop scene in Israel was developing largely in Jewish clubs, and DAM in particular got their start performing in clubs in Tel Aviv. As a result, most of their earlier music was performed in Hebrew. In the beginning of the group's history, DAM's music and lyrics focused mostly around every day life, performing, and emotions; not containing many political references. But this changed with time. On September 3rd, 2000, Tamer's friend Booba (Hussam Abu Gazazae) was shot down and killed during a drive by, an incident that drove Tamer to record his first protest song with a political reference, despite the fact that his friend was killed by an Arab. A cover of Abd al Majeed Abdalla's song "Ya Tayeb al Galb", the song was called "Booba" and featured Ibraheem Sakallah in the hook.

(2000-2001) Innocent Criminals, Who Is The Terrorist, and Channels of Rage

In the outbreak of the Second Intifada in October, 2000, Tamer and Mahmood decided to write their first direct political song "Posheem Hapim me Peshaa' – Innocent Criminals." It was recorded over an instrumental of "Hail Mary" by Tupac, and featured inciting lines such as "When Jews protest, the cops use clubs / When Arabs protest, the cops takes their souls" and "If it is a democracy how come I'm not mentioned in your Anthem" followed by the chorus "Before you judge me, before you understand me, walk in my shoes and you will hurt your feet, because we are criminal, innocent criminals." The song created controversy in the Israeli media, and it put DAM in conflict with some of their fellow Israeli rappers such as Subliminal, with much of the subsequent fall-out being recorded in the documentary Channels of Rage. Despite the controversy, the song was later remixed by the Israeli rock musician Aviv Geffen, with American-Israeli director Udi Aloni making a music video for the song in 2003.

Around that time, and after listening to the Algerian French Hip Hop CD "MBS – Micro Brise le Silence" Tamer got convinced to give it a shot in Arabic, after a few experiences he released his first official single "Min al Ta lal Alef lal M E R – From the T to the A to the M E R" over the R. Kelly's instrumental feat Nas "Have you ever thought" the song hit number one charts in all of the Arab radios bringing DAM to the Palestinian mainstream and making them the group with the largest following and to a non stop shows in the years 2000 till 2003, a lot of Rappers and Hip Hop bands started their career after that single, the whole Palestinian Hip Hop scene started to spread, studios were opened and workshops for self-expression though rhymes started around. Around 2001, after a Palestinian suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, a few Extremist Israelis gathered around the Hassan Beck mosque in Yafa throwing stones at it and screaming Death to the Arabs, and Terrorists, DAM released their breakthrough single "Meen Erhabi? – Who is the terrorist?" the song opens with the screaming of the Israelis in front of the mosque, then over the Atmosphere instrumental "If I was Santa" they rap their verses. the song created an International buzz and was downloaded more than a million time in one month, The French magazine The Rolling Stone made a big article about the song and released a compilation with that magazine that featured DAM's Meen Erhabi and other International artists such as Manu Chao and Zibda, at that same time, Udi Aloni released his second documentary "Local Angel" that also featured DAM and they toured around Europe with the film, the tour included France, Germany and Belgium and it was the beginning of DAM's international career. Later on a video clip of the song was made by Palestinian/Syrian director Jackie Salloum.

In 2003 Anat Halachmi an Israeli film director released the documentary Channels of Rage. The film follows Tamer Nafar and DAM on one side and on the other side the right wing Zionist rapper Kobi Shimoni (Subliminal and the Shadow). Anat followed them for almost 3 years. The film shows their relations and beefs through Hip Hop, the film won the Volgin Award for the best documentary in the Jerusalem film festival 2003.

(2004) The Born Here campaign

In 2004 the group was invited by Shateel organization to do a song that talks about the discrimination in the mixed cities in Israel, the Arab neighborhoods suffering from poverty, unemployment and house demolitions by the Israeli government, in Lyd the main entrance to the Arab neighborhoods is through 8 train tracks that you must cross them by walking and as a result of that more than 10 Arabs were killed by the train. The group featured a local Arab R&B singer Abir al Zinati and they created a song called "Kan Noladti – Born Here" as a reference to a known Israeli song by "Dats and Datsa" that said "I was born here, my children were born here and this is where we built our houses with our hands", DAM changed it to "I was born here, my grandparents were born here and this is where you destroyed our houses with your hands". The song was followed by a video clip by the late Juliano Mer Khamis (An Israeli Jewish actor).

The Born Here Campaign also featured a bus tour for Israel’s top celebrities in the Arab neighborhoods in Israel. The campaign created a huge local media outrage. Many artists joined the ride among which were: Moni Moshonov, Aviv Geffen, Ha Yehudim, Yoav Kutner, Gila Almagor and many more. As a result of the video clip and the tour the Israeli government was forced to build bridges above the train tracks and ever since no one was killed by the train. "When we say Hip Hop is a bridge, we mean it metaphorically and Literary" said Tamer on his TEDEX speech at 2012, Nazareth. Tamer maintained to make political and historical tours after that, for schools, local and foreign groups, and for International artists such as Erykah Badu, Ezra Koenig from the American Rock band - Vampire's Weekend, Michael Franti, Gbenga Akinnagbe actor on the TV show The Wire,

The Born Here Campaign with DAM also toured Israel to spread awareness for the campaign, but Abir Zinati did not join the tour due to a threat she got from her cousins and family members claiming that the tour is a disgrace the honor of the family the day before the show. Tamer and Abir’s lives were threatened and thus they decided to cancel Abir’s participation in the tour. Tamer declares now that the incident was the first time that he felt the discrimination against women closely, and that DAM’s message was missing something, and that is women's rights.

(2006) First official album "Ihdaa' – Dedication" – DAM’s international career

After touring the world and releasing number one singles in the Arab Radios, DAM signed with the British Label "RCM – Red Circle Music" to market the album in Europe and gave the licensing to EMI Arabia to distribute the album in the Arab countries, they also signed with the French booking agency 3D Family to tour in the biggest music festivals around the world. Such as Sundance's film festival, Womad, Doha DIFF (Doha International film festival), Dubai Film Festival, Trinity International HipHop Festival USA, Vine Rock, Taybeh Beer Festival Palestine, Casa Festival (Morocco) and it got them to share stages with many worldwide artists such as: GZA of the Wutang Clan, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Dead Prez, Chuck D of Public Enemy, Pharaoh Monch, Rachid Taha, Ahmad al khoushry, Immortal Technique and many more. The album included 15 tracks, and some number one hits.

(2008) Slingshot Hip Hop

In 2008 Slingshot Hip Hop – the official film about the Palestinian Hip Hop by Jackie Salloum was released. First screening was at the Sundance film festival; and featured guest appearances by Chuck D from Public Enemy and Africa Bambataa. The film covers the Palestinian Hip Hop scene in general and DAM in particular. DAM members attended and performed at Sundance and held a Q&A conference at the festival . The Film and its self-titled soundtrack features other Palestinian artists such as: Mahmoud Shalabi, Abir al Zinati (Sabreena the Witch), WE7, PR, Arapeyat, and Khalifa E . The soundtrack was mostly recorded at Sabreen Studio, East Jerusalem; the album had songs such "Who is the terrorist" by DAM, "Tzakar" by PR, "Blinded Freedom" by Shalabi "The witch's Uprising" by Abeer and Suhell Nafar and “Sot el Samt” by WE7. Following the film’s success, DAM started touring the USA, holding around 60 shows a year.

(2009) Wanted: An Arab without a Memory

In 2009, Israeli government started to advertise their campaign for the Israel’s Arabs citizens to serve in the National Service instead of the Army, the campaign was fought back by all of the Palestinian organizations and activists. Baladna organization started a campaign against the National Service and have asked DAM to write and record a theme song for the campaign, the song was produced by Rimon Haddad and became the theme of the Palestinian agenda that refused to serve the occupation by any means, the campaign led into a large tour in all of the Palestinian cities in Israel, the artists that participated in it were : DAM, Amer Hlehel, Ayman Nahas, Hanna Shammas, Tarez Suliman and many more. 2010 Targeted Citizen DAM were asked by Adaleh's organization to participate in a short film that describes the Israeli legal discrimination towards the Palestinians, DAM were offered to meet with Adaleh's lawyers, ask questions and regarding the answer they will go to the studio followed by the camera and record a song about it. DAM came out with the song "Muwaten Mustahdaf – Targeted Citizen", the directors liked the title of the song so they ended up using it for the title of the whole film and the campaign. The song was produced by Anan Kusseim from WE7 at the Underground Studio (That Ardi) and the inrtod was recorded by the Director Firas Khoushry.

(2011) A Letter from the Cell

After 5 years of performing and touring and participating in other Artists' projects, DAM decided to release the first single from their future album "Nudbok Al Amar – Dabka on the Moon". The name of the first single is "Risale min Zinzane - A Letter from the Cell", they featured in the song Trio Joubran and Bachar Marcell Khalifa. During the writing process of the song, DAM met with Addameer organization a few times to collect information, personal stories and letters so they can create three fictional characters that will be based on true stories. The song was supposed to be released with the album but after the Palestinians prisoners hunger strike DAM decided to release the unfinished version to support the prisoners. Other unofficial singles where released to the Internet by fans, songs from shows such as their first English song "Mama, I fell in love with a Jew" a funny story about an Arab guy who get stocked in the elevator with a beautiful Jewish girl and they fell in love, the difference is that in the elevator the girl was going up and the Arab guy was going down, a sarcastic view on the Co Existence that Israel is trying to promote, the massage of the song is Existence before Co Existence . Another song of the upcoming album is "Shi'r al Share' – Street Poetry" a club song with an Arabic pop sound composed and arranged by the Danish producer Billy Beautiful, the song is canceling the politicians and giving the leader role to the Artist, the true voice of the streets.