Episode 2: Dora

Welcome to The Safe House Travel Diary, a travel and music podcast that explores hip hop in misunderstood places. My name is Soha. I go to the safe houses of hip hop artists for intimate conversations and try to get a sense of what life is like in their corner of the world. The idea for The Safe House comes from Kendrick Lamar's lyric about "venting in the safe house." Every season I travel to a new country and immerse myself in their hip hop scene. This is Season 1: "Three Nights in Beirut" and it takes place in my Motherland: Lebanon.

The idea for The Safe House comes from Kendrick Lamar's lyric about "venting in the safe house."

WATCH

If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you can also WATCH it with the full visualizer on my YouTube Channel. I highly recommend watching this one so you can see the footage of Saleh and I zipping through the narrow corridors of Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp.

SOUNDTRACK

E2 playlist. Check out music by Palestinian-Lebanese rappers featured in and inspired by this episode. A lot of great music from MENA features titles written in Arabic, so it can be hard to access. But I have done the work for you in this playlist. Any recs for this playlist for songs to add? DM me!

THANK YOU

• Osloob Abdelrahman for permission to use that chilling track "حيد عن الجيش" (Jeed 'an Al-Jeysh). The minute I clicked on this song and heard it the first time I knew that it was going to set the whole tone for the episode, which it did. I'm so grateful for this hidden gem from 2016.
• "Moustafa." I hope he lets me record a conversation one of these days, or at least some of him reciting his poetry.
• Saleh and Rawiya for treating me and Medina like nothing less than family during our three nights in Beirut.

LEARN MORE

Palestinian hip hop

• Music Video: Katibe 5 "بين حينا وحيك" (Baya Hayna wa Hayyak). Take a walk through Burj al-Barajneh, Sabra, and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut in this music video.  
• Article: Palestinians In Lebanon Find A Political Tool In Hip-Hop
• Article: Refugee rappers voice disgust at Lebanon camps
• Article: "We Ain't Missing": Palestinian Hip Hop—A Transnational Youth Movement

Burj al-Barajneh Refugee camp

• Video: For the love of art. Check out this video that features Saleh as a teenager at the program I referenced in the episode that taught kids how to rap.
• Video: Seven days inside a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon
• Video: A walking tour of Burj al-Barajneh Refugee camp
• Video: Remembering the Nakba from Burj Barajneh refugee camp
• Episode: PBS RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY: Palestinian Refugee Camps in Lebanon
• Website: Burj al-Barajneh UNRWA archive
• Article: On the brink of cannibalism (1987)

Lebanese Civil War:

• Mudawant Podcast (Arabic)
• The War on Lebanon Documentary Miniseries

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