aljazeera | Overseas the moustacheless, bushy beard is not so identifiably hip-hop
and has caused considerable controversy, with security officials in
Europe and the Middle East mistaking the Philly for a jihadi beard. In
February 2014, for instance, Lebanese police arrested Hussein
Sharaffedine (aka Double A the Preacherman), 32, a Shia rapper and
frontman for a local funk band. Internal Security Forces mistook him
for a Salafi militant and handcuffed and detained him for 24 hours. In
Europe hip-hop heads such as French rapper Médine — a Black Powerite
who wears a fierce beard that he calls “the Afro beneath my jaw” —
complain of police harassment. French fashion magazines joke now
crudely about "hipsterrorisme." European journalists are descending on
Philadelphia to trace the roots of what they call la barbe sunnah and
Salafi hipsterism.
But there is more to the story than these superficial inquiries. The
synergy between Islam and black music in Philadelphia has a long
history. As such, the global spread of the moustacheless beard cannot
be understood in isolation from the rich blending that took place
between various strands of Islam and music in black America.
City of Brotherly Love
Philadelphia’s Muslim elders are quick to list the jazz greats who
lived in or came out of the City of Brotherly Love since the 1930s —
John Coltrane, Lynn Hope, Pharoah Saunders, Sun Ra, McCoy Tyner, George
Jordan and the Heath Brothers. Many of these artists had an intimate
relationship with Islam. Saxophonist Hope was featured prominently in
Ebony magazine’s famous 1953 article on Muslim jazz artists, sitting on
the floor of his Philadelphia home smoking hookah with his two young
sons in fezzes.
“The history of Islam in Philadelphia is reflected in the music. Some
artists were openly Muslim, others more private,” says Imam Nadim Ali,
a celebrated jazz deejay and community leader who spent his youth in
Philadelphia. “We knew Pharaoh Sanders as Abdulmufti. One of his first
albums from 1966 was called “Tawhid.” Likewise, George Howard was a
great funk/smooth-jazz artist. Kenny G co-opted his style. We knew
Howard as Tahir — I grew up with him in West Philly. But when he died,
his family buried him in a Christian cemetery. This sometimes happens
when converts to Islam don’t leave a will.”
Jazz artists in the 1940s and ’50s came to Islam through the Ahmadiyya
movement, a heterodox Islamic movement that emerged in 19th century
India and developed a significant presence in Philadelphia. As the
Nation of Islam gained followers, it cast its cultural influence on the
music scene. Sun Ra, who lived in Germantown for 25 years, for
instance, was not Muslim. But he claimed to be a distant cousin of
Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad and was inspired by the
movement’s teachings. Sun Ra traveled to Cairo and collaborated with
Egyptian drummer Salah Ragab, recording numbers such as “Ramadan in
Space Time.”
As members of soul and R&B groups such as the Delfonics, the Five
Stairsteps, the Moments, Kool & the Gang and Earth, Wind & Fire
embraced Islam in the 1960s, the dialogue and tensions between Sunni
Islam and the Nation of Islam found expression in music in various
cities. In Philadelphia old heads recall Kool & the Gang’s visiting
from New Jersey in the early 1970s to perform songs such as “Whiting
H&G” (a reference to the frozen fish that the Nation of Islam was
selling) and “Fruitman,” both tracks praising the Nation of Islam’s
economic initiatives and dietary rules. Even non-Muslim artists paid
homage to what they saw as a positive movement that taught
self-reliance. Philly native and Grammy-winning crooner Billy Paul
never embraced Islam, but he recorded an album called “Going East” in
1971 and gave a shout-out to Muhammad and Malcolm X in his 1976 track
“Let ’Em In” — perhaps the first popular song to sample a speech by
Malcolm X (“You’ve been misled/ You’ve been had/ You’ve been took …”),
years before hip-hop artists began doing so.
Urban renewal
At the heart of these decades-old attempts to use faith and art for
community building stands Luqman Abdul Haqq, a real-estate developer
who has harnessed the energies of diverse Muslim groups to revitalize
Philadelphia’s southeast area. Better known as Kenny Gamble, he is the
founder of Philadelphia International Records and is considered one of
the fathers of disco and R&B — specifically, a subgenre called the
Philadelphia sound. In the 1970s, with longtime partner Leon Huff, he
recorded dozens of hits for artists such as the O’Jays, Teddy
Pendergrass and Patti Labelle, producing almost 200 gold and platinum
records.
In the early 1990s, Luqman moved back to Philly and established
Universal Companies, a nonprofit that includes a housing-development
initiative, a charter school and a social services agency. Universal
has since refurbished more than 1,000 homes and created enclaves where
Muslims own businesses and live near mosques. “We are continuing the
cultural revolution that began among African-Americans in the 1960s, a
cultural revolution based on Islam,” he says. “The Nation of Islam was
a vehicle that came to the need of African-Americans, teaching do for
self.”
