It seems to me that the cogency of any given artist is measured at least in part by their personal flirtation with what’s come to be known as, “The Struggle.” From Woody Guthrie to KRS-One, we seem most enamored with those who’ve hand-fabricated an immortal future out of a history of hardship, oppression, and poverty-stricken ashes.
With that in mind, it seems Iranian-born producer Mahdyar has gone and supplemented the greater “hard knock life” canon with a new and unassailable cultural dimension of his own; after bursting onto Persia’s underground hip-hop scenet at the ripe age of 16, he was subsequently blacklisted by Iran’s Ministry of Culture in 2009, and had to flee his home country for the safety and security of Europe. I don’t care what anybody says about the OG “thug life” manifesto, that right there is legitimately some next level shit.
As such, it’s nothing less than rectifying to hear the news that the Tehran native’s forthcoming debut album, Seized, is set to drop February 23 on an itsy-bitsy London-based label called Kowloon Records. The album’s first single, “Timmy Might Burn Y’all” was just released a few days ago (find it in streamable format below), and this is what Mahdyar had to say in regard to its greater inspirational process:
“I made this track in 2011 for an unfinished documentary about Kaveh Golestan, an Iranian photojournalist who lost his life in Iraq by stepping on a landmine. The concept behind the track was basically “war in Iraq,” [which at the time] seemed like the US was using its power to bully Iraq and take control of the region, which in fact actually led to more instability in the region.”
Well fuck; at least we perhaps can be thankful that one of the outcomes of the unfathomable horrors of hardship and oppression is that they sometimes expose the world to a barrage of new art to appreciate, new music to love, and new heroes to admire.
You can download “Time Might Bury Y’all” free from Mahdyar’s Soundcloud page here, and you can go ahead and check out your vinyl pre-order options for Seized right over here. I haven’t a clue where an Iran native might’ve picked up the expression “y’all,” (I’m a Florida native and I don’t even use it), but here’s to true art, y’all — and here’s to the heroes that create it.
Seized tracklisting:
01. Seize
02. Money Money
03. Timmy Might Bury Y’all
04. Vow
05. Hush
06. Iran Iraq
07. Khakis
08. Running From
09. Lust
10. Glimmer of
11. Twist the Facts