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Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 August 2000 Issue No. 494 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 August 2000 Issue No. 494
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Books Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Behind the scenes
The gig is up. Over a month ago, Tarek Atia of Al-Ahram Weekly broke the news that popular American rapper Jay-Z's best-selling hit "Big Pimpin" uses a riff ripped off of Abdel-Halim Hafez's "Khusara." No credit was given. It was simply taken. The news of the heist has now reached the United States. Last Sunday, citing the Weekly article "Pimpin a Classic," The Washington Post decided to take up the cause as well in "Tut Tut: Pimpin fails to give credit where credit is due." The Post notes, "The twitter of flute notes throughout Big Pimpin is a nearly note-for-note knockoff from Khusara."The Post actually confronts the song's producer, 26-year-old Timbaland, with the evidence that he lifted the tune without permission. "Timbaland didn't know that the song was called Khusara," the article says, "nor did he seem to care." Then, in what has to be the most ridiculous Orientalist cliché, Timbaland states, "It's just an ill sound. It makes me think about summertime, a bunch of girls and king cobra coming out of a genie bottle."
If the cultural insult is not bad enough, Timbaland is totally evasive about where he actually first heard the song. "As best as I can recall, at a carnival," he said. "I remember hearing it and then I just hummed it to some friends. Then we hired an old guy to play it on an Arabian flute ... If you're an innovative producer you hear stuff, at the circus, or on TV, and you use it." Yeah right, Timbaland. You also accredit it.
