A sample from Hashashin's "Iran:"
"We must get together and be united against our enemies.
Why are freedom's hands tied?
Why are we so disappointed?
That's enough.
We are rapping because we are tired/
of the system.
We are looking for/
freedom."
AZ, who is 21, got his first dose of rap in grade school when an aunt from Germany brought him a Tupac CD. Last year, he joined with his 18-year-old cousin to form Hashashin. The name, though, isn't a reference to gangsters or guns. It goes back to a band of early medieval Shiite Muslim raiders based in the Persian mountains fighting Sunni rulers they considered repressive.
"We're a voice of the youth. We're taking about what people are really feeling. We don't want to rap about girls and sex and parties," AZ told me. "That's nothing. We want to go deeper."
Sometimes they play at house parties — which are usually safe from Iran's morality cops these days unless the crowd gets too big or loud. But a public appearance is out of the question without the Culture Ministry's permission.
"You can't make a career at music in Iran unless you are willing to compromise," said AZ. "Maybe it's good that the best music is all underground. It keeps us on the edge. It keeps us fresh."
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