Aki Nawaz (born Haq Nawaz Qureshi) a.k.a. Aki-Stani, Righteous Preacher and Propa-Gandhi is a British singer and musician and part of the band Fun-Da-Mental. He is best known for his controversial lyrics.

[edit] Profile

Nawaz grew up in Bradford, England. His parents were Pakistani immigrants who arrived in England in 1964.

In the 1980s, using his proper name Haq Qureshi, he played drums with the gothic rock band Southern Death Cult, a forerunner to The Cult, featuring Ian Astbury on vocals. When Astbury moved on to found his own band, the remaining musicians stayed together for a time as Getting the Fear, recruiting new singer Bee Hampshire from Futon, but eventually broke up. In 1986, Nawaz moved to London, set up a management company and signed artists to major record labels. Two years later, he formed Nation Records as a label primarily focused on creating fusions between different musical forms from all over the world for a more youth-oriented audience.^[1] Changing musical genres, Nawaz went on to found the Islamic rap group Fun-Da-Mental in 1991 set up Nation Records. He was the group's leader and most visible rapper.

Nawaz advocates a certain Islamic orthopraxy, expressing total opposition to alcohol and drug use. He believes that there should be a unity between Afro-Caribbeans and Asians because he believes that the struggles that the two groups face are exactly the same. Through his music, Nawaz attempts to "normalize" the Islamic presence in Britain as well as to explain the reasons for fundamentalist tendencies among Muslim youth^[2]. Nawaz has collaborated with many traditional musicians, both in the studio and live: these include Huun Huur Tu, Rizwan Muazzam Qawwal-Mighty, Zulu Nation (a South African hip-hop group), and Gazi Khan (an artist from Rajasthan).^[1]

Controversy surrounded the release of Fun-Da-Mental's 2006 album, All is War. Nation Records had a distribution deal with Beggars Banquet Records, but Martin Mills and Andrew Heath, two of Beggars Banquet's directors, threatened to resign rather than allow their company to handle the album. The record was finally released directly by Nation Records as a download album on August 7 2006, with a retail release on the Five Uncivilised Tribes label later that year.

Also that year, Nawaz set up the Muslim Defence League to combat what he regarded as a climate of demonisation of that religion and against racism.^[1] Additionally, Fun-Da-Mental worked with progressive Asian bands to help fight racism and spoke at anti-racist benefits. The group emphasizes militancy and self-defense as weapons against racism.^[3]

Nawaz has been criticized by Islamic community members not only for his lyrics, but also for his group Fun-Da-Mental's recital of verses from the Qur'an over musical beats. Some Muslims believe this goes against what they regard as a fundamental tenet of Islam. In this sense, Nawaz's musical contributions are considered controversial for their lyrics as well as for their religious content ^[2] Nawaz claims he is prepared to face the consequences of any of his albums' releases, saying, "I'll take all the blame. If they're going to lock anyone up they'll lock me up." ^[4]

He appeared as an interview subject in Bill Maher's 2008 satirical documentary Religulous, along with excerpts from the "Cookbook DIY" video.

[edit] Controversy over lyrics

The controversy behind "All is War" lies in its lyrics, which could be interpreted as glorifying terrorism. One of the songs, "Cookbook DIY," (the song's title being likely a reference to The Anarchist Cookbook) includes instructions for making a home-made bomb. The video to this song makes many visual references to America. The video ends with a shot of graffiti which quotes John F. Kennedy's statement "If we make peaceful revolution impossible, we make violent revolution inevitable."

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• G-Had in the UK
• Nawaz at theworld.org
• Controversy over political songs
• Cookbook DIY video at Trinketization