Ghadeer Jan
Instructor: Heather H. Pavletic
ENGL 1000-B
Essay #2
Shaka Bombom
“Hey, I hate shaka bombom shaka bombom; I want to listen to Kazhim Al-ssahir, or Abdulmajeed Abdullah, not shaka bombom shaka bombom”, I said. My life has been always full of extreme transitions that no one ever would have expected. The phrase shaka bombom shaka bombom is pasted in my brain since I was a little kid as if someone used UHU glue to lock it there. Absolutely, you want to know what relies behind shaka bombom shaka bombom, and jumping between the lines is not a good idea, so just wait.
Transferring the hate of something into not only love, but passion as well that you almost feel as if there is a tangible relationship between yourself and the thing you started to love. As a child, I had been always that kind of stubborn kid; I used to adore some specific things in my life while extremely hated some others. Without any little acceptance to except what I loved among songs, I hated English songs. Only some Arabic singers, but no one else, were my favorites such as Kazhim Al-ssahir. Beside of my stubborn personality, and not understanding the different points of view, there were other reasons that made me hate English songs.
A side from personality, something relied behind my brothers that made me not only hate English rap and hip-hop, but also love them later. My brothers used to be an English hip-hop crazy fans, so it was the only kind of music they listened to and nothing else. Twenty-four-seven, this is what I would say if somebody would have asked me how frequent they used to listen to hip-hop or rap. English is not my first language, and in my childhood I did not understand English except hi, hello, and few others. I was always bored, upset, and unsatisfied of what my brothers wanted to listen to because I did not want to listen to something that I do not understand. You don’t hate anything until you know it, until you are exposed to it; English hip-hop and rap for me, basically were like the water surrounding a fish. I was that fish. The matter wasn’t only about understanding English or not; it was even about understanding what any Arabic speaker might have said.
Although my mother said that I talked at age of eleven months, I had a difficulty understanding people when they talked little fast, or by a better meaning, catching. As a result, while singing a favorable song, I had to invent some new words and place them instead of the original words that I did not catch. Turning on English music was the most hideous thing that anyone could do to annoy me because I seriously hated it. I especially had more hate for English hip-hop and rap for the same reasons because they are faster and more difficult to catch. Hearing any of them was just like hearing some rusty and shabby machine trying to survive doing what it is obliged to do.
I remember the day as if it was yesterday; I told my family that I hate shaka bombom shaka bombom music, and told them not to turn it on again. A little small kid was pappling and everyone was lughing at her, but they all knew what I meant by shaka bombom. You also know what I mean or what I meant when I was a kid; imagine yourself listening to some language that you completely don’t understand, will you catch anything? Will you recognize any single word? Absolutely your answer is no. so, shaka bombom means as if someone is saying bla bla bla. That bright white painting of the walls of our dining room, my aunts, uncles, their kids and my mother, and brothers were all there laughing at the youngest individual in the whole family at that time, me.
Turning to my early teenage years, I started to understand English much better, and I had the ability to initiate a complete conversation. I began to listen to a variety of English sounds in order to enhance my English language, and that was the period when I really had expanded my musical interests. My intention to increase my ability of English listening had lead me to find something interesting in rap and hip-hop. At some point when I was exploring which bands really caught my ears, I realized that I was a crazy little teen about all kinds of music without any exceptions.
You now know that I changed from hating rap and hip-hop to extremely, and crazily loving them. Hearing phrases such as, are you serious, you are crazy, and etc. was such a normal thing for me because I had adapted to it. Listening to rap or hip-hop moves me as when the magnet moves the iron. I can’t resist the amazing fast rhythm of these kinds of music; I couldn’t and still can’t prevent my body from dancing or my mouth from repeating the song. Hip-hop and rap were and not only my favorites during the period of high school, but also my biggest superior in life.
As well, someday I thought about being a rapper and started to train myself on how the fast rhythm works. This was not all of a sudden, but because of extreme adore with intention. No one ever is kidding about these things neither I do. That craziness nor diminished completely neither remained as it was in my early teenage. Receptively, I consider myself an adult since I have my own life, and I rely on myself in everything, however, literally I am considered a teen because I still under age. My interests did not change that much from when I was at high school, but my personality has little changed to make me think of more important things to do in my life regarding my future instead of just listening to music.
“I began to feel like a Rap God, Rap God” Eminem said. Thinking about being a rapper and about learning breakdance was because of my love and connect to rap and hip-hop. Nowadays, Eminem is my best rapper ever whom I do not feel tire or bored from listening to. Each time I listen to Eminem’s Rap God or The Monster I think back of my childhood, and I ask myself a question, oh God how the heck did I used to catch that rap rhythm shaka bom bom shaka bom bom?! This question has no answer nor if someone asked it to me neither if I asked it to myself. Isn’t it such a craziness about that little child’s brain that interpreted what her ear heard a completely different thing!
Ghadeer Jan 