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June 13, 2005
Required listening for the 101st Keyboard Division
Assuming those who support the war are ready to hear how it's going. Like a lot of good rap albums, Live from Iraq has raw emotions, deep insights, and irrational dreams of violence. The bad part is that you know the violence is real. The good part is that you get an idea what it is really like for soldiers on the ground. The soldiers' politics vary, but their message is the same: War is hell. It's also pretty clear they see all Iraqis as the enemy, too. Which is disturbing, but probably inevitable ever since Bush made the occupation an American one.
Twenty minutes worth of samples are free at CDBaby.com:
4th25Live from Iraq
1. the deployment
2. live from iraq
3. lace your boots
4. holdin my breath
5. 24 hours
6. behind the screens
7. matter of time
8. fuckem
9. integrity
10. the anthem
11. dirty
12. I ride
13. reality check
14. testament of a soldier
15. pussy
Saunders planned to put his musical aspirations on hold while he was deployed, but soon after arriving at Camp War Eagle near the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, he came up with the idea for the album."I'd been trying to find my angle my whole life as an artist," he said. "If I can't take this opportunity and have anything to say about probably the most influential year of my life then I could never really consider myself to be an artist."
Many soldiers answered his call for participants, but most lost interest when they heard what he had in mind.
"Everybody wanted to do their own thing," Saunders said. "And when I gave them the guidance and said, 'This isn't gonna be about 23-inch rims when you're over here riding a Humvee' ... they didn't like it."
Staves said some people actually laughed at the group and told them no one would buy a rap album about Iraq.
"I told them it's not about the money. It's about the music," he said.
Newsweek has a music video, too.
Posted by Mike at June 13, 2005 10:25 AM
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