Text Messages: or How I Found Myself Time Traveling

by Yassin Alsalman

Overview

Pioneering Iraqi-Canadian rapper Yassin ‘Narcy’ Al Salman is a founding member of WeAreTheMedium, an international multi-media artist collective of Arab, African, and Indigenous artists and creators. ‘Text Messages’ is his survival guide, a multi-media collection about finding one’s self in the anxious intersections of a post-9/11 world, through a combination of poetry, rap verse, short stories and comic book illustrations. Text Messages is multi-form written exploration of the imminent crisis in technology, the pressures of self-awareness, and the meaning of Judgement Day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781642592313
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	08/24/2020
Pages:	150
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Yassin 'Narcy' Al Salman, formerly known as the Narcicyst, is a musician, actor, professor and multi-media artist based out of Montreal, Canada. He was a pioneer of the Arab Hip-Hop movement through his Iraqi trio Euphrates in the early 2000s. He is a founding member of the international multi-media arts collective WeAreTheMedium, and currently teaches one of Canada's only Hip-Hop courses at Concordia Universityin Montreal, where he blends performance with education, media with literacy and creativity with cultural heritage.

Table of Contents

Introduction 2

Verses

False Start 9

Anxious Balloons 10

Self-Censored Phone Chip 11

Us 13

Rap Life 15

Dear Father(s) 17

Baghdad: A Jewel the Thief Kept Trying to Steal-It Eventually Killed Him 22

Tourist 24

At the Club 25

Iraq 26

The Heist That Is 29

Field of Dreams/Nightmare Meadows 32

This Ain't a Movie, Dawg! 35

Mr. Arab 36

Agrabah 38

The Setup 42

Free 2 43

Twenty-Eighteen (Charles and Eddie) 46

North American Blues 49

Overwhelmed 53

Nightline w/Peter Jennings 54

Mission Impossible 57

Thoughts and Prayers 59

I Got 5G on It 61

Things We Took for Granted (0 A.C.) 63

I Know Nothing About You, Tell Me More, Dear Reader 68

On the Verge 70

I Am on the Verge 73

Reply: On the Verge 75

World War Free Now 76

Dear Jerusalem 106

All We Need 107

Picture of an Arab Man 108

Life Science 110

Street Life 112

The Q 113

Verses (cont'd)

Ancestor 123

Baby Boy 125

I Love You 128

189 Place Du Soleil 129

Lovemakin' 131

Montreal 133

Beautiful 134

Who Am I (What's My name)? 136

It Is What It Was 137

Motivated 138

Nothing 140

Gone. Be There (Please) 142

Engulfed 143

No Time 144

No Thug Life 146

Hashim: A Life Unfinished

Chapter One 150

Chapter Two 155

Chapter Three 161

Chapter Four 170

Acknowledgements 176

Credits 179

Editorial Reviews

"Yassin ‘Narcy’ Al Salman is a one-of-a-kind artist. He is transcendental, he is pop, he is the Muslim, he is the poet. Through his questioning of the tides of time, and the world's disregard of the Arab, he writes lyrics as anthem, providing a source material for a part of the world that is so often misunderstood and forgotten. This book is exciting in its futurity. It is punchy in its enthusiasm. I am grateful for this book's aliveness."
—Fariha Róisín, author, How To Cure a Ghost

"Yassin Al Salman's writing weaves through the epic struggles of people to get free, enduring and resisting brutality, dictatorship, war, and occupation. As a hip-hop artist, he was forged in the rubble of 9/11 and the ensuing war against Muslims, emerging as one of the most creative and sharp artists chronicling the crimes of the powerful and giving voice to people’s uprisings. Text Messages is a potent book rooted in the poetry and art of Al Salman’s Iraqi ancestors, translated in a global language for the urgency of the times in which we now live."
—Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of The Intercept and author of Blackwater and Dirty Wars

From the Publisher