Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Larry Mizell, Jr., host of The Afternoon Show on KEXP, is "Hada Yid’ie Sitna" by DAM, from the 2019 album Ben Haana Wa Maana on Cooking Vinyl.
Formed in the late '90s, DAM have been called "the first Palestinian hip hop crew and among the first to rap in Arabic." Since the very beginning, the group have used their lyrics to speak out about the trials of being Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. On their third and most recent release, Ben Haana Wa Maana (which translates to "Between Both Worlds"), DAM explore the subject of self-love.
“We know that we had hit hard times. We always talked about the darkness we live in,” founding member Tamer Nafar said in a press release. “But this time we changed our attitude. As we say in one of our songs 'Hada Yidi’e Sitna'; This is not a darkness of a tomb, we are in a darkness of a womb.”
In an interview with The National, they explain that today's Song of the Day is "the story of kids fighting on the streets before somebody calls their mothers." Songwriter and rapper Maysa Daw (who joined the collective in 2012) explains, "In that song, we’re calling for women to take the leadership and guide us in a better way."
