Hey everyone, I'm Ahmad Dali Akbar, and this is See Something, Say Something.

In this episode, we're going to be talking about the relationship between Islam and hip-hop.

If you see something, you better, you better say something, nothing at all, nothing at all.

So I think like many immigrant Muslims, I have always been drawn to hip hop because it's probably the only artistic form in the United States where I feel like my experience

is referenced consistently and in a positive way.

But there's also this broader history that I've never quite understood and can't really

understand having not experienced it.

And so for this episode, I've invited on somebody who's

really done an excellent job theorizing it and thinking through how both black and non-black

Muslims have used hip-hop as a way to respond to racism and to deal with inequality in their

community. It's Dr. Suad Abdul-Khabir, the author of Muslim Kool. And we're also

going to be joined by some performers in this episode. Joining Dr. Suad, there will be Salima Ra,

who is a rapper and singer herself. And then later on, we're going to be talking to Alta O'Am,

who are twins. You may have seen dancing in a couple of hip-hop videos by Brother Ali or Mona Hyder or maybe

just on your Facebook feed. So let me introduce Dr. Suad Abduqabir to the show. She's an activist,

artist, an associate professor of American culture and Arab and Muslim American Studies at the

University of Michigan. She's also the author of Muslim Cool, race, religion, and hip hop in the United States.

Welcome. Thank you. And we're also joined by Salima Ra, who is a Brooklyn-based singer, an artist,

who also performed at your book, at Dr. Suarez's book lunch. Yeah, it was so much fun. It was nice.

For this episode, you know, like Dr. Salad, your book revolves around a lot, around the intersections

between Islam and hip-hop.

So I wanted to talk a little bit about, you know, hip-hop generally.

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