The
hip-hop movement in Beirut started towards the end of the 90s. The members of
the group « Kitaa Beirut » (Beirut’s Sector) were the first to rap in Lebanese
Arabic and they were invited to represent Lebanon in a music festival, in
France, in 2002. The six guys missed their flight back,
disappeared and decided to stay illegally in Europe, leaving everything behind.
Eight years later, I pay a visit to each member of the group, with my camera.
Project
Description
"Visit Me Once A Year - Mix Tape” is the portrait of six grown
up men who by their difficult biographies reflect some of the repressions that
Lebanon’s youth has been facing after the civil war. Shot between Paris, Lyon,
Berlin and Beirut, the film traces the story of the group and addresses the
problems that our generation is facing in terms of immigration, independence,
privacy and culture. The film is a mix of old and recent footage that I have
been accumulating since I first joined the group thirteen years ago.
Towards the end of the 90s, a few years after the end of the civil
war, the hip-hop movement was born in Lebanon. The first trials of Arabic rap
in Lebanese dialect appeared with a collective called « Kitaa Beirut ». The aim
of the group was to introduce, to the new generation of the city, a new way of
expression through hip-hop, lyricism and street life. In Beirut, we had always
the connotation of the street guerrilla (militia), but we had never heard of
street art culture at that time.
Life was getting hard on the group in Beirut. There were a lot of
restrictions and problems with the police. They used to gather in a parking
spot in the city, away from everyone, to rehearse and prepare for their
concerts. This parking, known as “Rap King”, at that time, by the members of
Kitaa Beirut, became their second house and their first studio. They would eat,
drink, work and meet people, journalists, producers and friends there. Every
one would join them to listen to their private and improvised sets of music.
One of the main members of the group, born in Beirut from African
descendants, found himself from one day to another with no legal papers. The
police arrested him and put him in jail. The rest of the group had constant
problems for example escaping from the army and the civil service to record
songs, work on music and meet the rest of the crew.
Waldo, Banelly, Billy, RGB, TMC and me were the official six members
of Kitaa Beirut, and then joined new talents and fans to the crew. The group
did its first music tour in Lebanon with the “Francophonie” festival and many
concerts in Tripoli, Beirut, Jounieh and Jbeil. During the festival, they were
given their first equipped studio in the area of Gemmayzeh where they produced
their first track called “Bi Siret El Mussi’a“ (Speaking About Music) in 2001 ,
that was featured in La CD-thèque’s compilation called “Beirut Incognito”.
During the “Fête de la musique” event, in the summer of 2001, the
stage of Kitaa Beirut held 9 lyricists performing on stage like a big family of
rappers similar to the Wu Tang Clan. The youngest among them, at the time, was
a 13 year old boy who used to hang out in their studio most of the time. The
most important characteristic of the group was to always gather people; this is
the reason why, wherever they were, there used to be a large circle of people
around. At that time, Lebanon had introduced a law forbidding gatherings in the
streets of Beirut. If you were more than three, you would get searched and even
sometimes arrested. A lot of times, the group members had to run from the cops
and then meet again somewhere else. Sometimes, they even divided the group to
different small groups not to walk together. The life style of those youngsters
was different; they were stylish and full of humor. They were trying to create
something new, to use the city and the esthetics of the city in their everyday
life.
After some time, in 2002, Kitaa Beirut was invited to represent
Lebanon in a music festival, in France, with other Lebanese musicians such as
“Soap kills”, "Ziad Sahhab" and many more. A couple of concerts in
the south of France were organized for them. The six young talents were leaving
the country for the first time in their lives.
The arrival to France was magic. A room was given to them for one
week. Everything seemed good and pretty. The concerts went fine, especially in
the bars of the town more than the main big concert that was mainly attended by
the fellow musicians and crewmembers. The week in France was over; the date was
set to come back. Arriving to the airport, the members of Kitaa Beirut
disappeared. Instead of taking their flight back to Beirut, they took the bus,
jumped into the first train towards Lyon and decided to stay illegally in
Europe, leaving everything behind them, thinking that Europe is the top, the
symbol of freedom and Human rights, the dream becoming true, France the hip-hop
capital of Europe. Well, things did not go as good as expected and the six
found themselves sleeping in a small cave, similar to a squat, living from
nothing in the cold snowy winter. Since the late 90’s I have been documenting
some of those moments on camera. I was the first one to come back to Beirut to
resume my film studies. 9 years of absence later, I decide to pay the remaining
members of Kitaa Beirut a visit with my camera, to every member separately, to
try and learn the truth about what happened after I quit. What are their
destinies, their motivations, their projects and if they ever think of
returning to Beirut? The story explores other details from today’s Lebanese
society. It talks about emigration, racism, army, music, the issues with the
language and the use of the Lebanese Arabic dialect.
