| 4 Imam Siraaj |
| June 22, 2009 |
| As-salaamu-alaikum All, We just got back from Atlanta (AKA-HOT Lanta) And it was hot there. I don't know what was going on, but the whole city seemed alive. People were every where all the time. Must be a real test for the brothers down there too. Some know what I mean. But anyway, we are back home safe and sound. We were there to support Imam Siraaj Wahhaj in his time of need because of his medical condition. If you didn't know, he was diagnosed with cancer and really could use some help from the community for medical expenses. So if anyone out there can, mention it in your community and go to MANA's website and find out how you can help more. It was a nice show. Allah Made Me Funny was there keeping the crowd happy and laughing. A group called the Dawah Ensemble. They sang some of their famous songs. I enjoyed our own performance as well. Native Den put on a good show. I’m not just saying that because I’m in the group. Sometime we do very poorly. But this time, it felt real good and I think he crowd enjoyed it. We tried some new things as we always do. This place had a curtain so we used it. We started with the curtains down and it came up to the music playing with all of us on stage. After two songs, we did a spin move and jumped toward the crowd and then the curtain came back down. It was exciting. We used the computer to play some music from the CD on two songs to beef it up for the audience. But for all the other songs, it was completely live. We have two amazing musicians behind us with Tariq on drums and Andy on the steel drum. You guys have to hear these two. Absolutely amazing. It really makes us perform better by having them with us. Next week we will be in Cincinnati Ohio. So if you are anywhere around there, you might want to try to make it. |
| Connection |
| June 3, 2009 |
| Okay people. Here we go. Just me and the key pad. Watch out. I’m feelin’ kind of loosy goosy here. NO pressure, no one to respond to, nobody rushing me. So I’m gonna just tell you a little bit of whats going on here. I just got off the phone with Native Deen. For people new to this site, that would be Naeem and Abdul-Malik. Of course when I speak in business terms, Native Deen includes about 6 other people between our backline percussionists and Management. We have a lot of people rolling with us when we travel for our complete shows. Its like 9-10 people sometimes. But when I’m just talking with the guys, Native Deen means those funny looking black guys in the video. We were talking about the future. Everyone is starting to talk about “Where is Native Deen”? “Haven’t seen you guys for a while.” “When is the new album coming out”? Well we hear you. We hear you on fan mail, we hear you in person when we see you….we hear you! And we feel you too. As an artist, we start to get frustrated after a while if we are not making music. We have songs pouring out of us and we need a platform to work on. To record on. Well, lets just all hope that all this frustration will be channeled productively into the next album and future concerts. We want it to be off the chains, off the meter and charts. But at the same time, we don’t want to over hype it. But I can honestly say that people have not heard the best of us yet. Even in the last album, I think we were holding back. Still walking on egg shells about each others input in the songs as well as the general communities possible reaction to songs. Trying to stay in the middle and please the majority of the people is very restrictive. That’s why when people ask us about the whole music thing, we let them know, we have already compromised so much to make sure that the message can reach the maximum amount of people. Its not too much music, but there is enough for someone to jam to. You know what I mean. Anyway, we are not going to rush it. We are not going to put out an album just because people are asking for it. And we are not going to keep you waiting forever either. We will find a middle road and get it out in a reasonable time. Insha-Allah. Make dua for us. We are not the best singers or the best rappers but we do put our heart and soul into what we do, and I think our fans can feel that. You can’t buy that. You can’t rush that. You have to let that heart just come to you and connect. Look forward to connecting to you guys soon. May Allah reward you all and talk to ya later. |
| Small Deed |
| May 13, 2009 |
| Ok, well normally I try to keep my deeds to myself. But the brother came on the website and made mention of it, so I thoght I should share the whole story. Plus fans are getting real upset that there are no blogs on here. Anyway, I'm on my way to a morning meeting and I see a car on the side of the road with a guy working on something underneath. Once again, I'm in the wrong lane at the wrong time and I can't get over. Normally, I feel like the thought was enough and I keep on going. But I decided that I can call and tell the people I will be late and tunr around and see if the guy needed some help. Plus it was raining a little and I felt for him. So I turned around and pulled in back of him. Of course, I pull out my rain suit from my backpack that I always keep on me....gotta me ready...and I start helping him figure out how this spare tire works. Turns out the way to undo it was hidden in the trunk some how. But after a few minutes we get it down and change the tire.But then his car doesn't start. And I'm like, normally I would be a little anxious to get to my meeting, but his wife and baby are in the car coming back from a 6am dentist appointment. So it all felt right. I felt like I was supposed to be here. I didn't have cables so we had to flag someone down. And hes telling me its okay because his sister lives very close and shes on her way. And the more he tells me, the more I want to run into the highway and force somone to stop because I know he feels bad that I'm staying longer than I was expecting. And I'm getting a little upset that all these cars are in such a rush that no one can stop and let us use some jumper cables. Finally, a hispanic guy stops and we try to jump it but it sounds like the starter is fried. SO we are all standing there in the rain (i got the full top and pants so I'm cool) wondering what to do. But Al-Hamdu-lilah, everyone was patient and had a little time to spare. We let the car charge for like 10 minutes and then it started right up. It felt real good, I tell you. Knowing that you helped someone with no strings attached. SO I wrote down my website and told him check out the song small deeds and you'll know why I do this. And he did it. So I think thats cool. And I think its even cooler that I have a site that I can even refer someone to in the first place. SO him and his family drove off and we didn't even know each others name. Now I know it was Pete. Nice to meet you man. Hope to see you again....but not stranded on the side of the road... |
| Spring Break!!! |
| April 15, 2009 |
| Wow!! Spring Break is something else man…..and wo-mans. I am just recovering from a week long camp with 80 youth. You know how you don’t get a lot of sleep on camps like this. Especially when you are responsible for everyone. But it was cool. As soon as the buses arrived, I had a drill sergeant type of brother jump on the bus and start shouting at the youth. Telling them to run this way and that way, Push ups, in the mud. The whole nine. It was just to shock them, then after that, we had a lot of fun for the rest of the week. The sisters did it too. I’m still getting death threats from that. We played a lot of basketball, soccer, canoeing, obstacle courses, etc. And I don’t know how many of you are familiar with a game called “Square of Death.” I like to call it “Square of Life” so I don’t get into too much trouble with the authorities…ya know. Basically there are two teams. One team send over a person to tag someone and make it back to their side before they get tackled. It gets pretty intense and the guys want to play it all the time. We also played a game called VIP, my boy Daud Hawa came up with this one. Another tackling game. We played it at like 11pm at night. One person is like a President surrounded by secret agents who have to protect him (prevent him from being tackled) as he moves from point A to point B. The other team is just trying to tackle the President. We had decoys and stuff and it was a lot of fun. Just a bunch of being getting tackled in the middle of the night. And of course they made me the President until I could not run anymore. I may be a bit older but I was still putting some moves on those young guys. Anyway, let me go on here and answer some fan mail. Missed you guys. Talk to you soon. |
| Whoaaaa!!! |
| March 11, 2009 |
| Man. I got 5 pages of mail to go through. Sorry for being away so long. Got busy again with stuff. Sometimes I get into a good rhythm with life. But then sometimes, I can't seem to get anything right. You know what I mean. So anyway, I'm back. I will try to answer emails everyday for a while. Give me a couple of days to catch up. I'm real excited because I am working on some songs now. I just wish I had more time. But the chorus lines are real tight. WHats new? I don't know. I need to start working out again. Abdul Malik teaches martial arts so he is always active. I'm probably active more than most since I am a youth director at the Masjid. But I need more running, bike riding, jump rope, push ups, sit ups, etc. yall know the drill. But its okay because I have been taking care of other stuff in my life. Paper work type of stuff. Like my will. No, I don't have cancer or anything. But its said that a Muslim should not go a couple of days without having a will. And I went to visit a brother in the hospital and it really reminded me that you could go at any time. So I'm doing that. And just writing it makes you think about Allah. Okay, anywya, got to go. Asr is coming in. Take care and remember I will get back to yall soon on fan mail. |
| Wassup |
| February 6, 2009 |
| Salaams,
Wassup everyone, \"it’s been a long, I shouldn’t of left\" wtihout fly blog to step to step to step step step to. Any what’s been going on as of late. I don’t even know if josh has put up a blog. He’s the dependable one in the group. Not to say I’m fair weather, but I get distracted and lost time to time. Anyway. All was quiet ti’ll a couple weeks ago. We had a show in ATL. It was cool, you can check it out at deen.tv THE OFFICIAL vid blog site of all things ND and good on the web. Umm yeah it was cool because we got to play with our new find. We found this ill steel drummer. Makes it all very flavorful and textured having different sounds and a layers when performing on stage. Keeps it’s interesting for us and hopefully to you. Inshallah we are growing as artist and as people as the days go on. ATL was hot, our first time in the city. We were held down by some volunteer friends I made a while back and some old friends. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. If I start dropping names it can get ugly. One of the hot things was we drove down and we hit up two Masaajid for khutbas. Josh did one, our biz partner Saafir did the other. AND THEY LEFT ME IN THE HOTEL. NICE! VERY NICE! I was told each of them thought I was with the other. LOTTA love there bros. Anyway, some other highlight we were on a radio show in ATL and we visited the Imam Muhammad High School basketball game. Dunno if they won we had to leave after halftime. Oh and the good Imam hooked us up with tickets to the Hawks game, BOX LEVEL SEATS! Spoiled or Blessed? A bit of both, I hope more blessed than spoiled. The show went over really well the next day, first time we’ve played with our drummer tariq in a while. The guy is spot on AMAZING. And if your like watching youtube clips of sami yusuf, or see him in some far off distant land, and your like HEY IS THAT NATIVE DEEN’S DRUMMER. YOUR ARE CORRECT! Tariq gets around. He’s just that good. I think the same will happen when more people get to hear our steel drummer. EIther way, oh another thing we unveiled the FRESH NEW AND IMPROVED ND CONCERT TEE! You gotta get ’em, they are premium TEEs. Kiddie sizes to come, but it’s a must have for the fan base. ATL, again we really thank all the folks who came out to the show, and helped in anyway. THis was a collabo instead of us just being invited, which made it all that more special. Moving to doing and creating our own shows and venues. NEXT LEVEL STUFF HERE PEOPLE.
salams and keep the faith, Naee, |
| HOT! Lanta |
| January 27, 2009 |
| As-salaamu-alaikum, Ok, Atlanta was nice. What can I say? We have not had a crowd that lively for a long time. Felt like we were over seas or something. And it was very diverse. Probably the most diverse crowd we have ever performed in front of. It was just a real joy. And it was our first time performing there. So we had to bring them something special. Atlanta was the first city to get the new Native Deen T-Shirts. And they are nice!! I didn't design it so I'm not bragging. But the brother who did, did an excellent job. You know I'm not the best to desribe a show. Thats Naeem. So I'm just dropping in to tell you where we were this past weekend and to let you know we will be in Detroit this coming weekend. I will tell you that we went down early to Atlanta to promote the show. We visited so many Masjids and Islamic Schools and stuff. And there are so many in Atlanta. I was impressed with Warith Deen Muhammad High School. We walked into there Basketball game. The bleachers were filled and the Muslims were supproting their team big time. I was like, "Man, I need to get my boys down here." Anyway, so many memories, so little time to tell. Hopefully Naeem will come on and do a better job. I'm going over to fan mail now and do my best to catch up. |
| Where have I been?!!! |
| January 21, 2009 |
| As-salaamu-alaikum, Ah man. What a world it is. I am so sorry for dropping off the map again. I know a lot of you have been asking for my whereabouts. AM, told me he came on and answered a fan mail or two to let people know I was okay. So before I even opened the fan mail (because I know its gonna be like 7 pages worth of email I need to respond to) I decided that I should post a blog to let people know where I have been. It all started about around New Years. The masjid I go to was hosting this traveling Intensive Quranic Arabic Studies class taught by The Bayyinah Institute and I really wanted to take it. But it required you to go to class every night for 3 hours a night for 10 days. For me, that takes a lot of pre planning. So I had to arrange for my Mom to come down and stay with me so she could watch the boys while I went to class at night. So I could not find the time to get online to answer fan mail from January 1, 2009. Then the class was held from January 4-14 with on day off in the middle. During the class, I fell behind in some of the projects I was working on for the youth, so I had to catch up with that. Then it was time for Martin Luther King day and President Obamas inauguration. I had to prepare for that and I ended up being in DC for 2 days straight helping. Finally, I am able to come up for a little air. At least enough to take time out to let the fans know whats going on. Because now, I have to prepare for our show in Atlanta this weekend and do some more catch up on youth projects at the Masjid. I’m tired, I’m sore, I’m worn out. But I must keep moving. That’s my motto. “Just keep moving.” Never give up Never surrender. So if you have sent me or Native Deen an email within the past 3 weeks, know that I will be reading it and responding to most of them. May Allah reward you for your patience and forgive me for my shortcomings. |
| Oppression |
| January 9, 2009 |
| This is AM again on the blogs. So the other day, our Imam Majid gave a really good khutbah. I had been over in indonesia for a bit (I'll post about that trip also in a bit) and I hadn't heard a good khutbah in Englsih in a while. He made some really good points about how muslims should respond to oppression in general. All rules of Islam are supposed to protect five things - I like to call them the fantastic five (but I could actually call the five pillars of Islam that too, haha). They are: ad-Deen (Religion), al-Nafs (Life), al-’Aql (Intellect), an-Nasl and an-Nasab (Honor), al-Maal (Wealth). Right now "Life" is the one that needs to be discussed. Because I kinda feel that we have a double standard. Muslims have been constantly condemning violence in the name of Islam, over and over again. The last big thing was the India massacre - which we condemned over and over. But now when there are innocent Muslims being killed in large numbers - people are calling it a necessary measure to stop aggression. Come on! I dont want to get involved in politics or the whole political situation in the Middle East. But when you got young children being killed - thats what gets me upset. The Quran mentioned thats exactly what Pharaoh did to oppress his people "Slaughter the children - and keep alive the women" Qur'an 2:49. Muslims should stand up for the sanctity of life whether its in Gaza or Daufur. We should condemn all oppression and terrorism whether its done by Muslims or against muslims. Naeem is working on a song about Gaza - I heard it its pretty good. I might write something about oppression in general and how we need stop this concept of "protecting our own" and move towards "protecting humanity" which Islam tells us to do. Ok homework for all you guys. Read the story in the Qur'an about Moses (Musa, Alayhisalaam) in Surah Qasas (number 28) starting at verse 15. Its the story of when Prophet Musa was asked to defend someone of his own people against the "enemy" or Pharaoh's people. What happened? Hit us up on the fan mail - see if you can make the "connection". |
| No Music vs. Music |
| December 10, 2008 |
| I normally hold back my opinion to keep fitnah down. But since I have seen a lot of emails on fan mail about the music in our songs, I am going to speak briefly on how I feel. Not Native Deen, just Joshua Salaam. Trust me, every Native Deen member has a different opinion on music. I really do feel that people who understand musical instruments to be haraam except for the duff, are more against music that the issue of instruments. Why do I say this? Music is not musical instruments, music is MUSIC!!! Singing is music, Birds make music, wind makes music, the ocean makes music, the bugs make music, etc. You can call them sounds, but music is nothing more than sounds organized into a pattern or a beat. YOu think I'm being funny? Well I'm not. People use all of these things for musical sounds. And if you wanted to, you can make a whole album in which ever style you choose from these sounds. Rap, country, R&B, alternative etc. Don't forget the human voice as well. With todays technology, you can manipulate the human voice into whatever you need. Back in the day, we would make instruments out of anything. Turn over 5 gallon water containers or buckets, spoons, rubberbands. When its in you its in you. And I'm not talking about Gatorade!!! We did one show where our drummer used like 3 buckets and some other stuff and the crowd didn't even know. But I don't think its haraam to play buckets. There is a whole production called "STOMP" where they make music from trashcans and everyday household items. And people love it. They travel all around the world and do very well. Most people just love music. Its good for you. We sing to our babies and make songs to remember stuff. Most children educational Islamic material has music in it. Of course too much of anything is a bad thing. So moderation moderation moderation. So if its just the issue of certain musical instruments, then thats cool. But if someone just doesn't want music, then I don't agree. What I may try to do is make a song, with just sounds from nature. Sounds from Allahs creation. Now it will still be hip and get your head bouncing, and you probably won't notice a different unless someone told you it was all made from nature sounds.....but then your problem is not with music, your problem is with having rhythm. But thats JOSHUA's opinion and that with 75 cents may get you a cup of coffee. |
| AM on the blogs... |
| December 2, 2008 |
| This is Abdul-Malik. As I said before, every once and a while I'll get on the blogs and try to give my thoughts. Plus I see Naeem and josh haven't written one in a bit. This weekend the three of us went to a convention in Philadelphia. It was the MANA conference (Muslim Alliance of North America). We went last year and Native Deen received an award for our efforts in the media. This year some of us were speakers at the conference. In fact, I opened up the brochure of the conference and I saw Josh was giving a lecture at one of the main sessons. As you may know at these conventions they have the small "workshop sessions" and then they got the big sessions that everyone goes to. Josh had one of those big sessions. So right before he was going to give his session, I see him walking upstairs. I was like "Josh aren't you going to speak soon?!" He's like yeah I'm heading upstairs now. But he was going to the wrong room. The room was downstairs! Alhamdulilah Its good we ran into each other, he might have been sitting there on stage waiting for people to come, wondering if maybe he put on the wrong cologne or something. He gave a good lecture - I had a thought of heckling him during his speech but alhamdulilah my better judgment prevailed. Naeem was also there also at the Islamic relief table doing his thing. The funny thing was they had a fancy banquet on Saturday night. It was kind of a fancy-schmancy thing. But I forgot to bring my dress clothes with me to Phily. So when my wife saw me going to the banquet with jeans, she was like "ummm, shouldn't you be dressed up?" I was like ohh man, she is right. So I looked and found some khakis I had. But I didn't worry about it, because I figured Muslim are cool, casual, and besides people call us Muslim "rappers" right? Its OK to be a little informal - so I thought. Well I was half right. Mashallah people there were dressed up according to their means. Some very dressed up, some more casual. But what do you know... here comes Naeem in like a full 3 piece suit, looking crazy sharp like he just came back from meeting President-elect Barak Hussain Obama. Plus he had his whole family all nicely dressed up, his daughter had her hair done all nicely. They put me at a different table from the other guys. Maybe cause they saw Naeem and then saw me and was like ummm, the professor and his family will go to table 32 and the bum can go to table 28. Maybe Josh or Naeem might want to go into detail about the conference but one thing I really felt was the push towards unity between the different schools of thought and Islamic organizations. That was one thing people kept saying over and over. Stay united! STAY UNITED! I think its an important message that needed to be said. They had some sisters from Progress Theatre perform and mashallah, they are extremely talented. In the end it felt like maybe the American Muslim community is one step closer to being united and solving issues in the community, and in the world - like the horrible attacks in Mumbai. Yes, our community always speaks out against these horrific acts of violence. But maybe soon we can move forward as a united community in making these cowardly acts disappear forever from the face of the earth and never let Islam be used to justify violence against innocents! |
| Whats the news? |
| November 7, 2008 |
| As-salaamu-alaikum, WHats the news, huh? Well, let me say that I have good news. Believe in Allah and do good deeds and you will have Jannah. Ha haaaa. Thats right! 'Aint no news better than that. If I sound corny, its because I am. If you don't know me, you know now. I'm passed the age of peer pressure. Not too worried about what people think of me. Not trying to be cool anymore. Just being myself. I find that it works for me. Anyway, Native Deen is meeting a little more regular now. We get togeter and learn music theory and work on our voices and stuff like that. Its real cool. I think, the next album will have some new creative juices as a result. A lot of our gigs for this year are getting moved to next year. Liek Egypt and stuff. So January is going to be like a really busy month. So let me say now that I apologize ahead of time if I'm not on the fan mail for a few days. I think I spoiled a couple of people because I was answering fan mail like twice a day. I'd get on in the morning before I started my tasks. And then right before I went home, I would check it if I had a few minutes to spare. So it was starting to be like a conversation instead of just answering emails. But to all the fans out there who write in on a regular, we do have more good news for you. Not as good as the news we mentioned at the beginning of this email. But we are working on something special for NDFFL people. If you haven't been on fan mail, that stands for Native Deen Fan For Life....and no, I did not come up with it. I'm not that in to myself or Native Deen. SOmeone who really enjoys the music and feels like it has done a lot in their life came up with it. But I said something in fan mail that I think I should say here as well. WE REALLY APPRECIATE OUR FANS!!!! Native Deen would not be anything or anywhere without Allahs help and the dua of thousands of fans. People who have been sincerely asking Allah to give us success. So from the bottom, top, and somewhere inside of my heart....I want to say thank you!!! Thank you for helping us get to where we are. |
| DONT CALL IT A COME BACK! |
| October 31, 2008 |
| Can’t you hear it, the rocky theme song? I can hear it. Just when you thought the champ was down for the count. Just when you thought it was all over. Just when you thought he was about to lose the fight. The music starts up and the champ is up on his feet, floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee. But don’t call it a come back, I BEEN HEAR YEARS! That was a shout out to my buddy zain. Yeah so lets get the shout outs, out of the way. Ok so there was this lil kid in Canada I meet at isna this year, wassup lil buddy. Wassup to my boy Bassit and his wife that take such good care of me when I come through to London. Keep the sweaters guys. Shouts to the Somali masses in London, lets keep the peace ya’ll, FOR REAL! All my peeps at Islamic Relief around the globe, the Family Relief Posse (Wassup Sabia), and anyone else out there doing good. Oh yeah all my peeps at Islam Channel, Saima, Muhammad Ali (buy your little one a skateboard I taught her how to skate at GPU), salma, kamran, Z, Sajid, Camilla and anyone else who I know. Alright enough of that lets get down to business. Lets start from the top. Ok here’s where captain busy tells what’s be going down lately. Alright lets just focus on GPU cause that’s like the latest big deal that’s happen to us. And for those of you who don’t know what GPU is, let me define it with an algebraic equations. But my trip to GPU started out with WORK as always. I was basically in charged of a week long retreat for work. We were in the woods in the middle of Virginia at a retreat center. It was really a beautiful spot, in the middle of the wilderness, leaves changing colors, rolling hills, and at night shooting stars and a sky paint splattered with stars. Oh yeah and we got a lot of work done too. So I spent a week in the woods meeting, planning our year out, it was nutz. So basically at the end of the retreat I had to drop a bunch of people to the airport and make it for a last chance practice with the guys. I had a 9:50pm flight, which I had to be at the airport by 8pm at the latest. I get to the practice around 6pm and I barely give salaams, I’m all just business. I don’t crack a joke, I don’t even smile. Because I got there late, and don’t have time to do anything but get this practice right and not miss my plane. What made this practice important was because this would be the first time we practice with a steel drummer we were trying out for the first time EVER. The practice is going pretty well. Even with all the pressure. It is the crazy juggling act that is my life. Finishing stuff up at work, drive two hours to make it to practice, practice. Then make sure we can make the flight to one of the biggest events of the year for us. It’s nutz. Oh and the DJ was late. Thanks Atif. But he finally shows and the practice goes well. Andy the steel drummer is killing it. I mean if the backing musician are just right; for me at least, it can put me in the right mode to produce. Literally pulling the best performance out of me. Excellence breeds excellence. So we run through a few songs and I have to bounce. Josh keeps the practice going while I and the management side of the team heads for the airport. If you wanna know what happen at practice e-mail josh. So here’s my situation, I’m coming from the woods after a tiring long week for work, about to take a transatlantic flight to a huge event. I’m in badly in need of both a shower, a hair cut, and I have a bag full of dirty laundry. Uh huh you know it, ROCK STAR. NOT! ROCK STARS would have all that done for them, just remember we are your friendly neighborhood bros. Always and forever inshallah. So the flight was uneventful. Caught a movie or two and a bit of sleep. Ummm…. but a note to the wise. NEVER ORDER THE MUSLIM MEAL ON BA. OH MY ALLAH. That was the worse meal EVER! If you wanna play it safe, get the vegetarian meal. They put much more love in care in making that than making the Muslim meal. And plus who eats fish on a plane. It’s a bad idea. So I starved on the way over. We make it to London. And as always, when I get to Heathrow, I’m ready to go. There’s just and energy about arriving in London. I love it! But the hard part as always is customs. Our work visas came crazy late. So we had to wait around for them to sort stuff out. Oh well nothing I’m not use to. We were waiting so long that a couple of my buddies who took another flight came walking through customs. They got caught up because they were giving us salaams and dap and the suits watching didn’t like that. So they had to take a seat and wait also. Customs is nutz. Either way we make it through and a car is waiting for us. We meet the bro and head to the hotel. OK, so we are heading to the canary wharf district, and on a side note. Leaving Heathrow there is this building that Josh SWEAR is much more architecturally impressive than the Burg Al Arab or the 7 Stars Sail Hotel in Dubai. If your in London you gotta know this building. It’s shaped like a boat, it’s brown, ITS UGLY, and josh is nutz. Please write in about this. I tried taking a pic but the camera phone was dead I think. Please send photos of said boat building as well. If you agree with josh, he’d love to have at least ONE person agree with him. So we make it to the hotel and check –in and stuff. We are exhausted and HUNGRY. So we run into comedian and long time friend azhar usman in the lobby. He told us that he ate already and the food was bad, but found out there was a Nandos close to the hotel. So me and the bros troop out to nandos and get some food. First time I went to nandos was with Zain Bhikha in South Africa. So I’m still in bad shape but at least I’m not hungry, but I need to get my clothing situation in order. So I ring a bro of mine in London, Basit Khan. He’s a cool bro, takes care of me when I come through. I basically asked him if I could come over and use his washer and dryer. Oh there was one other thing. Turns out I am hosting the GPU event with a good friend of mine Mo Amer. And since I’m just coming from the woods, I HAVE NO SUIT! I’m gonna be on international TV rocking torn up jeans and skater shoes. I call home and ask the bros to bring a suit for me. Then I found out they would not make it in time. So after dinner me and Basit went to the most impressive suit shop in all the land. It was open ti’ll like 4am. Did they open this exclusive shop for me cause I’m a rock star. NO WAY. It’s open to us all. We went to TESCO! Yes Tesco! Let’s just say it’s the Wal-Mart of England. Whatever, I never wear suits anyway so it was cool. I got a half way decent suit, and shirt and head back to the hotel. It’s like 2am now, and I haven’t slept since the flight over. We are meeting my buddy saima, whose in charge of GPU, to go over my Hosting duties. After we run through this I head to bed. I’m not much for sleep. But even I have to shut my eyes for a couple hours. Next morning we get up and it’s go time. The rest of the team is on it’s way over to London and I’m prepping to host the GPU. But before that we go down to breakfast and see some of the guys. Zain Bhikha is having breakfast and is on his way out to do a sound check. I give him a hug, crack a couple jokes, and he’s off. So after I finish breakfast I got some stuff I need to do before I’m on TV in front of millions. I’m still looking like a woodsman and in badly in need of a haircut. So I go to a hair salon where I can tell, THEY AINT USE TO CUTTING BLACK PEOPLES HAIR, and get a hair cut. The guy didn’t do half bad, so I was happy. But I paid 21 pounds for a hair cut. THAT’S NUTZ! Oh well. We head to the sound check and find out the guys have landed and are on their way to the Excel Arena. By the time I get there, they are setting up drums, the DJ is setting up, and we are trying to work out sound issues. Only problem is that the steel drummer and our kit drummer are stranded at the airport with no ride and we only have a few minutes to check sound. We do a sound check with out them and it feels ok but there are too many unknowns without having a full check with. It could be disastrous if everything doesn’t fall into place. And you don’t want a disaster to be played to MILLIONS around the world. OVER and OVER and OVER again. So we get off stage, and instead of spending the day practicing, I’m off to host this thing. Which drives josh up the wall. He’d rather we’d be in a room practicing every moment until it’s time to go on stage. And I’m with him, I didn’t plan on being only 1 of 2 hosts. They had a late cancellation. So the shows starts, I’m dressed in my TESCO’s best (can we get paid mentioning tesco?) and doing my hosting thing. It was hectic at first cause, things were not the best backstage. Guests showing up late, changes to the program, me being nervous; as a producer once said to us, it was a dog’s breakfast. Later during the day, things shaped up and we caught a good rhythm. I didn’t know half the people who were going on the stage. A bunch of political types, lords, MPs, and I dunno. A bunch of guys I never heard of, or understand what they do. But I smiled and did my things the whole time. So after my hosting duties where done, which was like 4 or 5 hours straight, I hand it over to Mo Amer. That guy is an AMAZING HOST, and had one of the most sincerest hearts in the world. So I leave the stage, change into my ND outfit, and start practicing with the guys. So I leave one job, straight into another. So when I’m busy, believe me guys I’m telling the truth. All the guys are. So now we are getting ready for our set. Did I also mention I’ve eaten NOTHING, since breakfast. Part because I don’t like to eat before I hit the stage, and by the time I was ready to eat it was time to practice. I’m just running on my favorite English tea at the moment. After practice we make the rounds around the bazaar. It was cool meeting the fans, stopping at some of the stalls and picking up some t-shirts and stuff from some very nice people. We met a lot of people who were saying they were waiting for us to play, and they might leave. We assured them that we are going on soon, so we head back to the stage. We head back and jump on stage for this charity thing, jump back off to get ready for our show. Right before we go on, they tell us we have to cut our time. Josh concedes with no protest but I was not ready to go down without a fight. I got one of the biz guys who work with us to say SOMETHING. He did and we got our original time back. NICE. Ok we take the stage. IT WAS NUTZ. A HUGE CROWD OF ABOUT 15,000. They were waving flags, holding banners, one fan made an ND bag, waves, and clapping and singing along. It was amazing. We haven’t had a response like that in some time. We came out to the chant josh does, Sea of Forgiveness. And that killed. Right after that, the steel drummer plays a lil freestyle and ends it with the riff to Tala Badru Alayna. And we launch into the song. We keep it moving rolling right into Stand Alone. We have this choreography and everything planned and the people eat it up. It’s something about that song that strikes a chord with everyone. We all find a point in our lives where we have to stand up, stand alone, and I think that song empowers people. We next launch into Be at the top. The Steel drummer pounding, the drummer, the DJ, the three of us, we are all in-sync and getting to work. It was electrifying on stage. The guys off stage are saying wrap it up, so we finish with the show stopper, M-U-S-L-I-M! We cut it short, do our outro and go home. It was amazing, the response was probably heard across the world. From what I hear, we did a great job, and many thought we should have played a lot longer. That’s the life. That ends it. We are done for the weekend. The guys had to get back home, and there won’t be anymore shows this weekend for us. We hook up with saajid from Saturday night live to record an interview. Later that night, which is my favorite thing to do, we take over the hotel lobby. We order massive amounts of food because it’s midnight and I still haven’t eaten, and we sing and share our music. Who was there, Zain bhikha, Native Deen, Dawud Wharnsby, New comer Khalil, and a bunch of volunteers. Believe me, this is way better than seeing the main show. It’s really natural and you really get to feel what each guy is singing or sharing. Just means a lot to me to spend that kinda time with the guys. AND EAT! That breaks up like around 2am and we head to bed. The guys are off in the morning but I’m there for another day. Not much happened that second day but a couple things where cool. After I was done my second day of hosting. I told a friend that I would ride the ramp. Well they had this group called team extreme in the bazaar. They were a troop of BMX’rs, Skaters, and roller bladers. They set up a vert ramp in the bazaar. So I brought my skateboard with me. So I lace up my shoes and take off my tie and suit jacket and hit the ramp. It was cool cause this was my first time riding a vert ramp. And I survived, no broken bones. It was awesome. I didn’t catch any airs, but still I made it up to vert part of the ramp and felt like floating. It was amazing. Also I hooked up with my bros from Mecca to Medina, we gotta do a colabo, and they let me warm it up solo on the urban stage. It was a stage in the bazaar area where a lot of the up and coming acts could get a dedicated crowd. It’s good because it creates a much needed venue for the new guys to prepare before taking the main stage at GPU. It’s great M2M could make that happen for the guys. Other than that, saw a good friend sabia who runs a relief org in London. I helped them at their booth for a bit and worked out some details for hosting an event for them in ’09. Later that night they had a gala dinner where we ate and I stayed late and share some songs with some friends. It was cool. Playing the larger GPU stage is cool, but sometimes it’s nice to be amongst friends and singing. No pressures, just sharing something you love to do, with people you care about. You can miss that touring from place to place sometimes. So that’s it. That was our time in GPU. As is true with life, there are so many more stories that can be told but I think I gave you more than enough to think about or have cared to read. We are finishing up the year with a couple shows and a bunch of practices. And at the top of the year we are suppose to play in India. WOW! As always, keep us in your dua. And I hope to see you guys on the road one day. |
| GPU was amazing!!! |
| October 27, 2008 |
| As-salaamu-alaikum, No let me say this. I really want Naeem to come on here and write a big Blog about GPU. He got there before me and he was there when I left so he will hae a better take on it. But I'm just coming on to let the fans know that we made it back safely and thank you for the great feedback and response on fan mail. We did 4 songs. We started with a chant from off stage to introduce the band members. Each time someone was introduced, they started playing their instrument. Once they were all playing and the the stage was live, we came running out and kept singing the chant for another minute or so. Then the steel drum player did a beautiful intro to Talal Badru Alinah. We sang that. Then we went straight into "BE at The Top." Then we sang "Stand Alone." And we finished with "MUSLIM." It was short. Only about 20 minutes. But it sounded like the crowd really enjoyed the performance. We added some moves to make the songs have life. Moving from side to side, waving arms, walking together, etc. Any little thing we could do to act out the song. Anyway, it was sad that we had to run out and fly back to the states the next day but INsha-Allah, we will be back soon. |
| Philly before London |
| October 24, 2008 |
| As-salaamu-alaikum, Aight, Aight yall. Its Friday and I'm running crazy trying to get stuff settled for London. I leave tonight. Naeem is already over there. He arrived safely. Abdul-Malik and I leave at 9 something pm. But before we go, let me tell you about Philly. Philly was not a concert, it was a workshop. A small intimate group of Muslim and non-Muslim college students who came to learn more about Native Deen, why we write songs, why we only use percussion, etc. The entire session was about an hour. We also did 3 songs inbetween talking so we wouldn't bore them too much. We performed Intentions, Small Deeds, and The Message. We got a lot of good feedback from members of the audience after the workshop was over. Some of the students made us feel old by telling us the were listening to our music when they were like 8 years old. But hey, thats the way life goes. Anyway, it was another trip that we hopped in the minivan and drove up. I like road trips. You get a lot of conversation time to learn more about everyone. Of course, if you don't keep me talking, I will fall asleep in a few minutes. Don't know, must be some kind of condition I have. Happens in just about any moving vehicle. ha haaaa. Anyway, just touching base before I go overseas. Let me go on fan mail and see whats going on. |
| Chicago by Demand!!! |
| October 17, 2008 |
| As-salaamu-alaikum, I tell you, fans are something else. I was threatened.....seriously, into getting on here and writing a blog. This Native Deen thing is starting to get dangerous. Anyway, they are right. We went to Chicago and people want to know how it was. Well, we decided to drive instead of fly first of all. Trying to save money to expand Native Deen you know. It was 6 performers and 2 guys to crack the wip making sure everything is running right. We took 8 people and that gets expensive on plane tickets now a days. Four people in one van and four in another. Drums in one van and food in another. Yeah, see, you thought this artist life was all that, right? Nope, we drove 12 hours to Chicago and you just can't seem to find the right position to go to sleep in a van. Although, I still have the gift of being able to go to sleep in any position....which is why they don't like me to drive. But we arrived and the show was at a high school. But it was a really nice high school with a decent stage with curtains and stuff. Sound system wasn't that great, in fact it was kind of broke. But our sound guys made the best of it. The show was to be an hour so we had like 8-9 songs lined up. Labayk, Small Deeds, Intentions, Talal Badru, Stand Alone, Be at the Top, MUSLIM, to name some of them. And by the way, whn we start the official fan, you will be able to see all these concerts in the comfort of your own home in real time Insha-Allah. So you can travel the world with Native Deen every time we go somewhere. Thats part of what we are saving up for. Stuff like that don't come free. You have to pay someone to set it up and get it running. So on the long 12 hour drive home, shifting and turning trying to find a soft spot to sleep, munchin' on chips and juice waiting for the next rest stop to get some real food, talking about stupid stuff to help keep the driver awake.....we were thinking of our fans all across the world. Ok, there. I did the blog. Please don't kidnap me and beat me up. I'll be back on here Tuesday or Wednesday to write about our trip to Philly. And then we are off to GPU in London. |
| Abdul-Malik on the blog |
| October 7, 2008 |
| Ok people, I know Josh and Naeem do the blogs, but every once an a while I'll come in here and give my 2 cents. I'm hoping everyone had a great Eid and you had fun on Eid. In the community we are in, Josh and I get asked to do the Eid Khutbah (sermon). I'm the least verbose of the three so I try to let Naeem and Josh do all the public speaking stuff. But they needed someone so I agreed to give it. Alhamdulilah it went well. Josh had the next Eid prayer after me (in our community they have several eid prayer "shifts" because in America our masjids are small). But Josh was running late because he had some other things to do for the community (they are always making Josh do a million things) and Rizwan (the guy in charge) said "Abdul-Malik" you might have to give the second one also. I didn’t want to give TWO khutbas!! So I'm calling Josh like every two seconds - WHERE ARE YOU?! He's like "I'm 20mins away, 10mins away". Finally the time came for the Eid Khutbah and Josh is driving as fast as he can but was still 5 mins away. So Rizwan decided to give all these announcements to pass the time. Finally josh calls me, “Im here!” I run to park his car for him and jumps out and walks into the Khutbah like nothing ever happened. I don’t thing the audience realized either. Except… Josh realized he didn’t have his Quran with all his notes. Oh no! So I ran to the car to get his Quran while he was leading the Eid prayer and Rizwan handed it to him. So it all worked out. And Josh is pretty good doing khutbas of the top of his head so I don’t think he really needed his the Quran with his notes. I always like to have notes. If it was me that forgot my notes, it would have been like this: ”Ummm, errr, salaam alaykum guys and um girls, I… I mean sisters… Umm, Eid is great and stuff… Umm… and err… you guys fasted and stuff… that’s cool… umm… errr... we can… like… eat today… and chicken is good … but not in the morning you probably want cereal or something – maybe oatmeal… but umm …. yeah Ramadan like totally rocks and stuff … and errr… well, a-qoole-qawli-haatha – wasalaam alakyum… err.. eid mubark dudes!!! Well maybe not that bad…. Last thing… did any of you guys sing Eid morning on Eid? Or did you let the uncles “hog” the microphones? Let us know in the fan mail. |
| I"m Back!!!! |
| October 7, 2008 |
| Did ya miss me??? I've been on fan mail for a while because I was doing so poorly at keeping up with these blogs. Al-Hamdu-lilah, the fans say I'm doing a good job of keeping up with the fan mail. But now, I'm reading emails asking me to have Naeem write blogs!. Its hard for me to put pressure on him becasue I know how hard it is to find time. I was keeping up and he has a bigger family than I do and travel a lot more and all that. Soooooo, Naeem and I talked and we agreed to team up to do our best to get you guys something on a regular basis. SO here I am. Like it or not. I'm back. SO what should I talk about. Well we are going to Chicago this Saturday. We've been to Chicago before but this time it will be different. We have a few new memebers to the backline now. We have a steal drummer, and new DJ and a new drum kit player. Its going to be the first time we all play together. We have a had a couple of practices but its the first real show. SO I'm exited. If you're in Chicago, you might want to check the website and see if you can make it to this Historic event. This could be the beginning of a new sound from Native Deen. Steal Drum?!!! Come on How awesome is that? Okay, I'm keeping it short cause I have to answer some fan mail too. Lets stay on Naeem to get him to write about Chicago and how it went. We'll know if we were Zero's or hero's in about a week. Hopefully some Chicago fans can come onto fan mail and let us know what they thought about the show. Stay tuned!!! |
| Farewell to friends |
| September 5, 2008 |
| Salaams my people. Hope everyone is doing well. And yeah I think people started to wonder did I literally disappear of the face to the earth. Was I captured by space alien and flown off to a distant planet in need of a new leader? Was I in talks with the McCain election committee to become his running mate (HA THAT’S FUNNY!)? None of the above just caught up with so much going on in life. But there was something a guy told me about blogging and web presence, he said, “You gotta take care of your tribe!” And he’s right, and I haven’t done too good of a job of that lately. But here are some of the things that have been going on in my world and in my heard the last few weeks. Umm about 3 weeks ago Native Deen lost 2 big supporters, Allah have mercy on their souls. One was a young girl from my local area. She went to my kid’s school. The kids there kinda get geeked out when I show up to pick up my girls, and I joke around with them too. This one girl was a 3rd grader. Very small for her age and had maybe some medical complications that stunted her growth. I always made and extra effort to give her salaams when I visited the school and she would light up. I was saddened to hear we lost her. I pray Allah makes this loss easy on her family. I ask you guys to pray for her family as well, and that she hold the gate of jannah for her parents to enter. The second person we lost was an older sister from our community. She had been a supporter of mine way before Native Deen was even thought of. She was someone who watched me grow up. She was very supportive of Native Deen work and always asked about our travels around the world. She was the kinda sister that lived during the 60s & 70s and could tell you stories of struggles of black people during that time and the how Islam started to enter the black community and how that lead to her accepting Islam. And she was the type that kept the younger brothers like us reminded of our duties as young men and future leaders of our community. She was small but very strong, even in her last days her spirit was as it always was. For people who convert to Islam, there is always this struggle at the time of death, if the family will release the body to the Muslims for proper burial, or whether they’ll be buried in a religious tradition the family preferred. It was a blessing that the family agreed to give her to the Muslims. One of the very symbolic moments in the whole process of the janaza was at the burial site. Her non-Muslim family took her from the casket and passed her to three Muslim brothers, one a very good friend of mine, who stood in the gravesite and placed her in her final resting place. That scene was her life. She came from a family that was not Muslim, they raised her in her early life. But she spent the rest of her life in the arms of her Muslim family. Allah tells us in the Quran that he shows us signs that we should reflect on. I hope many people there saw this sight the way I saw it, or came away with something even more profound inshallah. One other observation, the sister was married but he husband had been incarcerated for many years. And she stood by him. There was even some hope of his release but it didn’t happen. I can’t imagine the great hurt and pain this sister went through, not seeing him in her last days. And for her husband, who was left behind. His wife, his light at the end of the tunnel, gone. I ask all of you to pray for the sister that Allah be pleased with her and spare her all punishment in the after life. That Allah gives her husband strength and patience and he holds fast to his deen. And that Allah reunites them in jennah. So that’s some of the stuff I’ve been wrestling with as of late. But Death is a reminder of life. What this life is about. I pray I learn to prepare and make the most of the time I’m given. And that my time on earth meant something. Something good of course ☺ .Ok enough for now. I’m gonna do another one since I owe you guys. |
| Let the games begin |
| August 9, 2008 |
| Salaams,
Ok so, unless you live in a place where they don't get much TV reception or the whole population is not athletic. You should know the Olympics are going on in China as I type this. I'm actually watching as I'm doing this blog. First you need to understand in my family, the olympics is like a tradition. From the opening ceremony to the closing we Muhammad's will be there. I might even admit to watching olympic curling. So you gotta know we are fanatics for the Olympic games. The opening ceremony was crazy, never saw anything like that. The lighting of the torch was awesome with that guy running in mid air, I thought he was gonna fall. I still think the most impressive torch lighting was when they had that guy shoot a flaming arrow to light the olympic flame. THAT WAS AMAZING. I always go nuts once I see the american team march thru, You GOTTA REP THE HOME TEAM. I get kinda excited too when I see the muslim countries roll in too. It's kinda cool to see our brother's and sister's out there repping their country. And when the Muslims medal, I get excited. Like those lil turkish weight lifting dudes win or when one of those sister's win for archery or something (I'm scared of them). After those countries any of the african countries I get real excited for, MOTHER AFRICA always. And then any underdogs to see them knock down goliath. OH YEAH Dude, when Mali walked in, I was just soooo EXCITED. I love MALI, after home, it's my most favorite country in the world. I hope they take some medals home. And plus you GOTTA KNOW, my home town has put out so many officials for the olympics. Atleast two swimmers, one to be one of the top swimmer in olympic history MICHEAL PHELPS. And don't forget the dream team with Carmelo Anthony. B-MORE is bringing home crazy medals. So let me apologize to the peeps we met in Australia now. Cause I know swimming is a big deal down, but Mr. Phelps is gonna make things rough for you guys down under. But it's cool. It's just a great time, to see so many excellent athletes come from places you've never even heard of. And their stories of what they had to do just to make it to the games. Countries that don't have the money to really help athletes train and rep their nations. And to see them walking with their flags and do their thing is awesome. And to see what Allah has given to people, the human ability to fight through pain, peer pressure, lights, expectations, and to break world record after record. Moving the line ever so slightly to what is possible by the human body. MashAllah, its awesome. Maybe one day I'll see one of my kids there, who knows. Oh well. Seeing Micheal Phelps already pull down his first gold medal, they are begging me to take them to the pool. So you'll probably see my girls either in the Olympic Games, or maybe X-Games, since they are all future skaters and snowboarder. HA! So I hope you guys get a chance to catch some of the games. Rep your countries. Cheer our bro's and sister's. Don't feel bad when the U.S. keep finding their way to the medals plat form. We are THE BOYZ OF SUMMER! salaams and keep the faith, naeem |
| Finally |
| August 5, 2008 |
| Alright Alright. I hear ya. I was going to work and like I was being chase down by like 20 ND fans like saying "WHERE'S THE BLOG!!!!". I had to tighten up my backpack and take down this crazy steep hill on my longboard to get away from them. So I'm going so fast I'm getting those speed shakes you get riding your skate down a hill you know better than going down. But as I'm nearing the end of the hill I see they've setup a road block at the bottom of the hill. Cop cars and everything. And they got josh on the loud speaker going. " ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS PUT UP A BLOG." But amazingly, being the best snowboarder & skater in the "muslim-hemisphere", I pull off the largest Ollie EVER, Flying over the cop cars. It was so fat that I tweaked it out into a stale fish just large enough to knock the bull horn out of josh's hand as I soar over the cop cars. So I land and I'm getting away, but now the 20 fans have turned in to 200, and then 2000 fans. Cops are in hot pursuit, there is even a news chopper in the air now. They got the spot lights out and everything. And as I hit like a crazy large blunt slide to make it around a curb they pull the lowest trick of them all. They totally caught me off guard. THEY CALL MY MOM! She's in the chopper, and she's on the loud speaker, "Naeem all you have to do is put up a blog!!!" So I'm totally distracted and they drop a net on on me from the chopper. Some guys wearing some knock off Native Deen T-Shirts, looks like their home-made or something. They pull up in like a black get-away VAN. They take me to the nearest coffee spot that has internet,FREE INTERNET! They slam me down into a wooden chair and they pull out this crazy large roll of duck tape. They tape me to the seat only leaving me the use of my hands. They plug in my laptop, and gave me a large Extra Hot Organic No Whip Peppermint Mocha, and say, GET TO WORK! Ummm......that's not what actually happen. But if I gave you like a million excuses on why, that's not my style. I take my beat downs like man. So I heard ya'll. But I wish all that happen. Last couple weeks I was on tour with zain and 786 for Islamic Relief. Thanks to all that came out and showed love. AND FOR THE REST OF YA'LL......U MISSED IT!!!. It was cool I haven't spent that much time with zain EVER. We even wrote a song together which was cool. Caught a movie and even had a barn fire on beach out in LA. All has been quiet on the ND front. Even though the album hasn't really hit everywhere just yet, they guys are already itching to get back into the studio and do it again. I guess it's like that for artist. They wanna keep on going. I personally would rather have EVERYBODY and their mom purchase the current disc, and THEN we put out a new one. So what you guys waiting for? Eid is coming, Ramadan, you got peeps you know you'll be getting them an EID gift. Some lil reminder for the tough days ahead. Gift them the new ND CD. And I don't mean burn it. An actual legal download or hard copy. That would be awesome. The sooner we sell a million copies the sooner you get the new one. And I hear the next CD is gonna be sooooo HOT!!! So don't miss out. Cop yours or one for your friend TODAY. Alright enough of this. I'm on the train into DC. Gotta get into the WORK frame of mind. Talk to you guys in a few days. Maybe I should of split this one blog into two, hmmmmm.. salaams and keep the faith, naeem |
| The weekend off |
| July 14, 2008 |
| Salaams, I owe you guys one right. a Blog. Last week we had an actual break. But a break I did not really get. I spent thursday driving to NJ to meet with people about the upcoming Zain Bhikha tour. The guys are working really hard up there. If your in NYC, DALLAS, SAN JOSE, or LA come on out. It will be a great time for everyone. So I drove up there to NJ, then drove back to baltimore (it’s 3 and a half hours each way). I broke a couple land speed records cause josh scheduled a HUGE meeting for us in baltimore at 10pm. Meeting up with lawyers and management, it’s nutz. That meeting lasted until 12:15am. Which was nutz because I was scheduled for a 9am flight and hours drive away from my house. I was going out west to meeting volunteers and staff who are putting on the Zain concert show in San Fran area. It was cool. The meeting was at the MCA masjid in Santa Clara. This masjid was also known as the HP masjid because it use to be a HUGE office space for HP computers. That masjid has to be one of the busiest masjid’s in the country. They always have like a half million events going on there. It cool too, in the middle of the meeting. One of the kids asked if anyone wanted pizza. I thought he was going to have to order from some place have it deliver. The kids comes back 10 minutes later with a pizza he bought from the MASJID’s PIZZA SHOP!!! That was nutz! The have a full restaurant on site. The meeting went well, I had to do a pep talk and everyone reported their progress. I had family in the area so I stayed with them. It was cool cause I hooked them up with the new CD. All my lil cousins over there skate. So it’s nutz, we were out in front of their house skating, showing them some old school tricks. Them wandering why I never learned to kick flip. I might still try to work on it, who knows. A good time was had by all, and nobody got hurt. Next day I had a meeting scheduled with Imam Zaid Shakir. He wants to do an event that bring the issue of Malaria to the Muslim community, and mobilize them to make an effort to help. Before the meeting my cousin wanted to take me to the local skate park and also to visit the beach. The beach trip was kinda funny. It was a total MAN trip. Can I explain, This trip was ALL guys. 2 adults and 3 of my lil cousins. Only 2 people have shorts, there are NO TOWELS, NO FOOD, NO SUN SCREEN, NO BOOGIE BOARDS, we just going to the beach. I didn’t realize ANY of this until we were 15 minutes from the beach. We stopped and got supplies. Went to this organic sport and got some hippie treats and so locally grown CALIFORNIAN strawberries. And I drop into the dollar store for some cheap shorts and a towel. We now have 1 towel between the 5 of us. MAN TRIP! Gotta LOVE IT! We get to the beach and it was cool. LITERALLY, it was maybe 85 degrees, and the water is like 50 DEGRESS. IT WAS FREEZING. My little cousin bilaal was king of the beach cause he got in the icey cold water first. We we got use to the water we spent the time bodyboarding, dodging seaweed & jelly fish, and watched the surfers catch waves. My cousins said it was the best beach trip ever. That was cool. We went home and tried get the sand out of my ears before I met Imam Zaid. We met at this Halaal Muslim Chinese joint call DaDars I think. I was cool. We pull into the parking lot and there is Imam Zaid outside making magrib with a couple brothers and sisters passing by. That was kinda awesome. After we caught prayer we sat down for a meal. I felt kinda cool I was there with one of the top Imam’s in the country, and he call me to have the meeting. It was cool, we talk about some tree huggers stuff for a bit, and the lovely people of australia came up again and their efforts to keep the world green. We finished the dinner and meeting with a great plan to mobilize the community to help with malaria awareness. I head home and go straight to bed, I had a long day. I get up for fajr and had the strange urge to check my flight time to get back home. Turned out my flight was NOT at 1:30pm, it was at 8:30am and had to get going. We made it in time, but I couldn’t take the kids to the skate park. But I’ll be back with Zain and crew during the tour, maybe do it then. I get back home late and Josh picks me up from the airport, and I return to YET ANOTHER ND meeting. Which ended after 1am. Then I drive an hour home to baltimore. So yeah, I had a weekend off from ND, but still a very action packed busy weekend. Some work some fun, hope there is also some reward in there as well. That’s me sharing, and hope to see you guys this weekend in LA and Dallas. |
| Life of a Fake Rock Star |
| July 8, 2008 |
July 1, 20083:45am See Zain off from the australia tour. Give Salaams 4:00am Stay up for fajr and watch the sun be born to the world. Try Sleeping. 10:00am Tried to sleep earlier, couldn’t. Packed Bags for trip. Go Eat Breakfast. 1:45pm Take Flight from Sydney to L.A. . Miss my connection. THANK YOU CUSTOMS! Did I mention the 14 hour flight. 4:30pm Have travel agent book new ticket to fly back home. Also make calls to catch up on work I missed while away. 11:45pm FINALLY ARRIVE BACK HOME! Drive 1 hour home from the airport. July 2 - 3 Catch UP on work. Work on Zain Bhikha Nasheed Tour for IR USA. July 3 8:00pm Drive 10hrs from Baltimore, MD to Indianapolis, IN to drop kids off at grandmothers house for the summer. 11:00pm Realize I have a show in Toronto on July 5. And a flight back in Virgina. July 4th 2008 9:00am Arrive at grandmother’s house. and CRASH HARD! 5:00pm Figure out how to get from Indiana to Toronto. Decide I will have to drive BACK to Baltimore. 8:00pm Start to drive back home. Lose wallet. No Driver’s License and No Passport (both in same wallet) July 5 1:00am Mother-inlaw finds wallet. Mama always knows best. But too late to drive home to make 6am flight. 6:45am Wake up and RUSH out of the house to catch 8:15 flight at the airport. 7:13am Call Southwest Airlines and book ticket for 8:15am flight. Almost missed it by 2 minutes. ALLAH’S MERCY. THANK YOU! 8:15am Board Flight. Call little brother to scoop me up from the airpot when I land. 9:30am Arrive Baltimore. Lil Bro picks me up, drive’s me home to my car. Drive 1 hour to Dulles Airport. 11:30am Get to airport, miss the 12:30pm flight, booked for 3:30pm 5:00pm Arrive in Toronto. Go through Customs ok, Customs Officer pulls me aside, ask about my trips in other countries. He noticed I’ve been to Dubai, so did he. HE’s NOW MY HOMIE! Let’s me go, with out issue. Wipe sweat from forehead. Thank Allah(again)! 6:00pm Arrive at Canadian Wonderland. Guys are all there. Head to dressing room and get ready for the show. 7:30pm Show STARTS! We do our thing for a lil over and hour. Sign autographs and sell some CDs. 10:00pm Pack up all our stuff. Talk a lil about the show. Try to get on the second longest roller coaster in the world. NO DEAL. Our star power ain’t that great. The rides were closed. July 6th 12:00am Arrive in the hotel. Get a wake up call for 3:30am to make our 6:00am flight 1:30am Pray and pass out. Josh stays up with Daud to watch Jackie Chan Movie. He doesn’t wanna sleep through and miss our flight. 3:45am Get up to catch flight. 4:15am Arrive at Airport. Check-in. Go through Customs. Pulled over to the side. Photographed and finger printed. Think about civil liberties being trampled. Wonder should I put in a case with CAIR. They didn’t even check my bags or anything. OH WELL. 6:00am Fly home, and get picked up from the airport. 8:30am Have a LONG ND management meeting. It was my idea, so stupid.I SHOULD BE SLEEPING! 10:00am Have breakfast and drive home. July 7th 2:30am Can’t sleep, work on blog. 3:40am Finish Blog. This has been just a snap shot of my life. As you can see there was very little sleep. Very little time to really enjoy the day. Very little time to breath. It’s a blessing we at least get to spend that time with people we are cool with. People who remind you what’s best. That’s enough this time. We met a lot of cool people in toronto. A couple families that said they drove 4 whole hours, not to ride roller coasters, but to see us. I was so humbled by that. It’s really a blessing. One low point. We kinda got into it with a couple people about music and other stuff. Didn’t go as well I’d like it to happen. It should have been more about sharing opinions, perspectives, and naseeha. It didn’t end so well. So i apologize for that. Next time, if we come and meet, it should be less confrontational, more sharing and more understanding. Thanks for keeping us on our toes. And I respect your opinion, hope you can respect ours as well. May Allah be pleased with us all. Salaams and keep the faith, Naeem BIG UP TO THE SOMALIS FOR HOLDING US DOWN IN TORONTO! |
| Id fly whole wide world, Id fly the whole wide world |
| July 2, 2008 |
Ok so. The blog. They are to be weekly. This is true. And I got a good excuse why you didn’t see one over the weekend. Oh yeah that’s another thing. I’ll get them up over the weekend. Friday was Josh’s promise, I’m going to say on the weekends to be safe. BUT this week there was an issue. I flew to Australia on Thursday so do you know what that means. I SKIPPED FRIDAY! Completely, Friday didn’t happen for me, by the time I landed it was Saturday. And over seas it’s kinda hard to get internet sometimes when you not a local. So, to the faithful I say I’m sorry. Ok enough of that junk. LETS BLOG! Umm....long flights like the one to Australia are awesome sometimes because you get all that time to kinda think and air out your thoughts. It’s a great time to write music too. There not much you can do on a plane. You can watch a movie, well several I think our manager dawud has the record of 5 or 6 movies on one flight. You can eat, you can’t eat WELL unless your on like Emirates Air or Qatar. You can sleep, which josh and abdul malik do if they sit for anywhere more then 10mins while on tour. Me I’m like a kid, I can’t sleep on the way to a new destination. I’m too excited, I think I’m gonna miss something. So I use that time to write songs if I’m so inspired. So I worked on some stuff on the plane. But all the while I was thinking about how when I get to Australia I got work to do. The guys got there a few days before me; they were playing a show in Brisbane while I was on the flight. THAT’S PRESSURE. I knew I had to come off that plane firing all engines to make up for that. Which I think I did, I hope I made up for the time away. You guys can send some fan mail to josh and ask if he’s mad I came late. But we juggle these lives of ours. And that’s one thing I like about the plane. I can find focus there. You can only do so many things. Your able to channel your energy into something constructive for the few hours you have(this blog done on the plane SEE!). Our lives are so all over the place we don’t get the moments that often. So when you get them you thank Allah for them and use them best you can. Whether it’s catching up on rest, catching up on the movies you missed because of work, catching up on work, or writing the next big hit song. Viva La International Flights! This blog is stretching long so let me focus here about the shows. Ummm the one thing about our group, when we are put in a room together long enough, Allah makes something happen. The creative energies are all bouncing off of each of us. It usually starts two way. Via josh’s way or Via Naeem’s way. Not meaning they come from only us two but Josh will explode into the room with a smile and some big idea of some crazy stage antics. The Naeem way is to be so annoyed with something or so mad at how something is being done incorrectly that I melt down what ever wrong thing we did, to substitute it with something better. And that can happen from anyone. Wes will be like “whatever we do on stage has to be a show”, Tariq will be like, “Man we gotta have the sound right” Josh will be like “ let’s really coordinate this intro and have the people guessing and wondering what’s gonna happen next, for the duration of the show. Abdul malik is, hmmmmm, well he’ll let us know what he’ll let us get a way with, and what he won’t. All that concluded with what I believed was one of the greatest performances and crowd responses we’ve received to date. The last show in Sydney started out with josh, undercover, acting as a conductor and he’s conducting out band. The band starts up with smalls solo performances that build, as I’m on the side of the stage announcing each musician like it was a three-ring circus. All the while Josh and Am are singing “Sea of Forgiveness.” Then I yell out “introducing NAATIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE DEEEEEEN!!!!!” The crowd erupts into applause and cheers, as I come skateboarding across the center of the stage. Abdul Malik does like a no handed cartwheel. And the people are hype. Something totally unexpected, and nothing like anything they saw the whole show. As we finish “sea of forgiveness.” Wes and Tariq start planning the opening to “Deen You Know” and the Conductor, Josh, turn around and surprises the audience and the song in ON! The lights where in sync with all our movements and words. This was an arena show, on par with any other show that has been headlined by the likes of any major recording artist. This energy and emotion was carried out the whole show with theatrics and expert musicianship. We even had a cameo appearance bringing Zain Bhikha on stage to do “Zamilooni”. The crowd went nuts to see him join us on stage. It was truly amazing. I love zain so much. To share that with him was great. Our set ended with and encore of MUSLIM. It was really great. Oh yeah in the middle of the show we went through like 3 costume changes. And at one point me and josh leave the stage to run back to our dressing room, change outfits and run around the whole venue to make it in time for the next song. CRAZY! CRAZY FUN. It’s rough sometimes, but when it comes off right, it’s really rewarding. And all that contributes to people’s openness to the message. If we don’t make a big deal about our work. If we don’t perfect what we do. To encourage ourselves and our fans to do better. Know that others out there are spending even more time perfecting what they do, to get us to neglect the blessings we have been given. Alright enough for now. I can get emotional with this stuff. One last thing. I just wanted to just say, it meant a lot. To go so far. To perform in Australia. We are just a 3 guys, who grew up Muslim, doing youth work. And our band mates are a bunch of brothers who found Islam, and made it their way of life. And for all of us, if you would have said to anyone of us, 10 or 15 years ago we’d be doing a show in Australia, singing songs like Intentions, Stand Alone, and Zaamilooni, we would have laughed. That we’d help to fill arenas with thousands of people looking forward to meeting us and seeing us do what we do. But we did just that. And ALL OF US, are thankful for the opportunity to do so. Thank Allah first, and thank the organizers, and thank the people of Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney. We love you, we miss you, and we hope to come back real soon. |
| SUMMER SUMMER SUMMER TIME!!!! |
| July 1, 2008 |
Salaams Everybody, Ok so it's official, THE SUMMER IS HERE! AND BEING A CHILD BORN IN THE SAME MONTH THAT THE GLORIOUS SEASON OF SUMMER IS BIRTHED, I should be the one to welcome it in right. And as in full summer fashion, schools are closing and people are graduating. And it's cool cause last week, we did something we haven't really done before. There was an islamic school in DETRIOT, MOTOR CITY, MO-TOWN! Also known as the home of ICD, who brought us to do a "WORKSHOP". I put workshop in quotes because our whole band was there, and it basically turned into a full fledged concert. Just a lil more talking in between songs. But that's cool. It gave us some much needed practice for our tour in Australia. So the kids where HYPE, and I think that will be one memorable graduation. How many kids can say, the keynote speakers and BAND, NATIVE DEEN ROCKED OUR GRADUATION! AWESOME. Other than that just enjoying this warm weather. ANd it’s cool because in the mornings I drop the kids off and then longboard down to the train station. Then I ride the train to DC from Baltimore(B-MORE WHERE YOU AT?!?!!?), and longboard from the station to the office. Which is a very cool way to get to work. Not to mention how GREEN it is too. It's so green that my board is made by this company ARBORSPORTS.COM . They make their snowboards and skateboards from renewable sources like bamboo. I own The Arbor Roundhouse Snowboard, and a Arbor Blunt Long board. Doing my part in a gas guzzling economy. And it's cool cause I'm making some death defying moves out there on the streets during rush hour. Dodging cars on and off sidewalks, dodging pedestrians, dodging debry in my way. So far no wipe out either so I'm chilling. Alright so get out there and celebrate one of the best season's of the year. Longboard, skateboard, swim, bike, sit under a tree, go for a walk, GET OUT OF THE HOUSE AND ENJOY IT WHILE YOU CAN. It's a gift, WALLAHI! And I know we always ask for dua, from you guys, make an extra one for me on my longboard. I've had some pretty close calls. But it's all good.salaams and keep the faith, Naeem PS Ok thinking about all this, I can hear Josh, AKA DADDY, wondering how I haven't said anything about safety to the kiddies. Be safe out there, nothing TOO wreck-less if you don't know what your doing. Progress at your own speed. Don't bite off more than you can chew. BUT when you ready for it, GO BIG OR GO HOME! |
| Change Roles |
| June 13, 2008 |
Salaams, Hey wassup everybody. Its your boy! Naeem, on the scene, for native deen BLOGS. So I dunno, whats on my mind today. Umm we are about to go out on tour soon, got some shows this weekend. I dont think people know how hard it is to get out the door sometimes. Most friends are like, hey man you got to go to this country or that country. And I am like yes, Allah has blessed us. And I am thankful for all those experiences. But sometime it takes alot to go out the door. Leave home, all the million things left undone. To live from airport to airport, out of a suitcase. Always on the run. I told my buddy, I am not dependable these days only because I am never home. But as josh says, "THIS IS THE LIFE YOU CHOSE." Which I both agree and disagree with. But I always think about the opposite. That, what if no one wanted to hear our work. Or the hundreds of thousands of artist that die with out their work ever being appreciated. Thats rough, and thats when I become thankful. And ONCE i do GET OUT THAT DOOR. I am with a group of people I love so that helps. Even though I give them a hard time, and sometime need some AWAY FROM THE GROUP TIME, when out on tour. The guys would always talk about how I would always leave early in the morning, to just go for a walk or something when we were in london or in some other far off place. Oh well but we are coming to a town near you guys soon. So be nice and welcoming if you can. ANd its my promise to you, I will do my best to give you the show of a life time EVERYTIME. I really mean that. Take care Guys. Oh and if you hit us up in near enough time, I will try to shout you out when we come to your town. AND FOR REAL GUYS KNOW THIS! The more energy you give us, the more love we give you guys. And dont have us fly half way around the world and not know the songs. Lets do our homework. SO Australia, YOU GOT HOMEWORK. DOWNLOAD THE LYRICS, memorize them, There will be a quiz. salaams and keep the faith, NAEEM PS AUSTRALIA, CALI PEEPS, GET AT ME!!! We gonna see you real soon. |
| From Joshua to Naeem...You\'re it! |
| June 13, 2008 |
As-salaamu-alaikum, Ok, guess what? Naeem Muhammad will be officially taking over the blogs. I know, I know…I will miss you too. But all good things must come to an end. Plus, Naeem is the writer in the group. I mean he keeps a journal every place we go. And anytime we get together to tell stories, Naeem always captures the crowd because he is a great story teller. Not to be confused with “liar”. Just a great story teller. Trust me, he’s good at stories. After we come back from some exotic place, people ask me, “Joshua. How was…Cuba?” And I’ll be like, “It was cool.” But Naeem will talk about how the air hit his face as he stepped off the plane. How he felt when he saw Fidel for the first time in real life. The clear waters, the culture of the people, the language, the food, etc, etc. By the way, we have never been to Cuba as Native Deen. But I’m trying to make a point here. So look forward to some really nice blogs from the journal man himself,….Naeem Muhammad. Me….i think I’m gonna move over to answering fan mail. So you can find me there Insha-Allah. But I will give one last blog entry today. You know, for old times sake. One for the road, kind of thing. OUR LAST GIG was in Baltimore at the Regional ISNA convention. For those reading this from France or England or Australia or where ever, ISNA stands for (Islamic Society of North America). Anyway….The ISNA convention was cool! Peace. Ok, just kidding. It was actually very successful. The hallways of the hotel were bustling with Muslims moving between lectures, checking out the bazaar. It was real nice. My only complaint was that entertainment went on too late. I mean there are always a lot of kids trying to watch us go on stage and Native Deen didn’t get on stage until after midnight. So that wasn’t cool. But it was a nice show AL Hamdu-lilah. On a personal note, guess what happened to me today. I swing by this local Masjid to support their festival day. You know, they had moon bounces, dunking pool, ice cream, vendors, etc. It was kind of nice. So I decided to be the first one to get into the dunking pool. You know the one where they throw the ball and if they hit the target, some sorry soul falls into a pool of water. But hey, it was like almost 100 degrees. I figure some people may have fun trying to hit a member of Native Deen into the water…and if they did, I should be able to dry off by walking around for an hour or so. Well, they all had terrible aim. Brothers and sisters had lined up wailing the ball at the target and missing turn after turn. One sister in Nikaab, threw the ball and missed. So she goes to pick up the ball, and without warning she just smacks the target with her hand. SWOOOSH!!!! I’m in. Can you believe it? A sister in Nikaab. I mean, who can you trust now a days? So the moral of the story…watch your back at Muslim festivals. It can be dangerous out there. Don’t believe me? Just stand by the children’s moon bounce for about 30 seconds and you might loose a tooth. Peace out guys. See you on fan mail. |
| Uh Ooh. Toledo!! |
| May 29, 2008 |
As-salaamu-alaikum, Peace be with yall. Whats up? So let me tell you about the 2nd part of this trip. First we went to Michigan like I mentioned last blog. Afterwards we drove to Toledo for a MYNA one day conference. It was a beautiful day outside. So just driving up and seeing young Muslims walking around made the day feel real pleasant. It was very organized and structured. So I knew some sisters were running the show. Sister Linda and her team of youth and adults did an excellent job. I don’t know if they read these blogs but I give you guys a lot of props. Except for the sounds system, everything was excellent. Dawud Wharsnby was there performing. Another brother I met for the first time from California doing spoken word. This brother was tight. Real nice. I still prefer Amir Sulaiman, but this brother really raised some eyebrows. Imam Johari was there giving some lectures and workshops. For those who don’t know, he was on our first album right before the song, “Small Deeds.” He was giving is some words of advice. The crowd asked for Naeem and I (Abdul-Malik has to run home) to perform “Still Strong” off the new album. But we had never performed that song live before. However, we tried to just to please the fans. But it didn’t go to well. Isam from Outlandish is on the song, so we didn’t do a lot of it. Plus, when I wrote the song, I made so many alterations to the original before we agree on a final version. So when I was on stage, I got nervous and started saying lines from the old version. I had to stop like three times before I got it. But it was a MYNA camp and kind of laid back so Naeem and I worked through it but it was kind of embarrassing. But what made it all worth it was Linda (the young organizer) got up later and did an amazing spoken word piece. Shes very talented. But she messed up. Then she said, “Native Deen messed up and they kept going so I’m going to continue.” That made my week. Having others being inspired off of your mistakes is great. We are all just regular people doing are best. And sometimes we fall short. But it’s the effort that makes us who we are. I’m on my way to Baltimore to perform at the regional convention for ISNA. I will let you guys know how it went some time next week. Peace out. |
| Birmingham?? |
| May 29, 2008 |
As-salaamu-alaikum, Okay, last weekend was different, exciting, trying, and memorable. It all started when we missed our flight to Birmingham Michigan. I never heard of this place. The only Birmingham I knew of was in England. Anyway, we missed our flight. Our flight was at 9:22am. However, there was another flight that was supposed to leave at 6:00am and they had plane problems and all kinds of problems that keep them delayed. So those passengers were still around when we got there. Finally they were notified that their plane would not be leaving at all and the airline would do their best to find them another flight to wherever they were going. That basically killed all our hopes of flying standby on the next flight. And no other flight leaving out of that airport would get us to Birmingham in time for the show. But Native Deen is dedicated. People were expecting us. So drove an hour away to another airport, paid some money for the flight change, and made it to the airport 90 minutes before we were supposed to be coming out on stage. Our drummers were already there. It was scary and kind of cool. You know how it is when you roll up at the last minute and be like, “We’re here!!”. Of course if we didn’t make it, we would not be able to show our faces in Birmingham for a while. But we made it. Alhamdu-lilah, the community was very nice. We had a room downstairs and they had honey for us and everything. For those who don’t know, Native Deen likes honey in their tea. It taste good and its good for the throat and stuff. So they had this huge jug of honey, a lot of fruit and many other things that let me know they were very familiar with Native Deen. The show went well. They asked us to performance “Not Afraid to Stand Alone” twice. Afterwards, everybody went out to a place called “Famous Burger.” It’s a halal burger place and everyone once in a while its cool to order a burger with turkey bacon on it. Thanks a lot Birmingham for making it a memorable show. I will be back in a few days to tell you about the 2nd part of this trip. We went to Toledo, Ohio for a MYNA camp. And the weekend did not end without a few more stories to tell. See you soon. |
| Cincinnati is Deenin\' |
| May 29, 2008 |
As-salaamu-alaikum once again, I know, I know, some of yall are like, “Oh my God. Joshua is going like 3 weeks straight on his blogs.” And yes I was raised in the mid west, so I say “Yall” a lot. And Insha-Allah, I will be regular on the blogs again. I know it is not cool at all to keep coming to the Native Deen site and not seeing any updates. I feel you. Anyway, we were in Cincinnati last weekend. My boy Faisal, lives down there. He was putting on an Akeekah for his second child but I couldn’t make it. I had to fly back too early. Sorry Faisal. I tell you what, have another child and I’m there Insha-Allah….I’m there. But Cincinnati is a nice community. It was a MAS function and you know they are all about the youth. This trip everybody was flying in from different places. Naeem came out of Indiana, Abdul-Malik came out of Detroit, Jaffer came out of Ashland Ohio, Tariq came out of New York, and I came out of Virginia. But together we….are….Native Deen! Inside joke for those who have been to one of our shows. But it all came together in the end. I arrived first and did a couple of workshops with the youth. That’s always….okay most of the time, that’s fun. Then we played some ball with the youth in our dress clothes. I thought I had grown out of that. But I can’t resist when Native Deen starts talking trash. Unfortunately, I lost 2 out of 3 games and had to go onto the stage with a loosing record, sweaty and tired. Don’t worry. The crowd never knows. We know how to dig down deep for that secret energy we have hidden somewhere. Naeem and I were doing rolls on stage. Afterwards I played a real life game of Pac-Man with the kids, running through the seats and backstage. Finally, I was dominating. Those 5 year olds didn’t have nothin’ on me. I was faking ‘em out left and right. Hey, I had to go home a winner…right. Just kidding. We had fun. Thanks Cincinnati. See you next year Insha-Allah. |
| GMU - The future!!! |
| May 7, 2008 |
Salaams everyone. I had to hurry up and get this blog in since we are going to Cincinnati this weekend. And I’m received threatening emails from fans. I guess it makes you think about the definition of a fan when you are afraid of them. But anyway….Last week we had a really nice show on a local college campus called George Mason University. Some of our good friends came from about an hour away to show support like our boy Ma’alam from Maryland. For those who don’t know, he is the person on the album playing the part of the DJ. So we got there a little bit early to set up the sound and make sure everything was going well. At first no one was there and with in a few minutes the place was packed. It was an intimate setting with about 200 students. Not all of them were college students as we had some people out from Jeb Stuart High School representing pretty hard. Their cheers were louder than the students from George Mason. We had a few non-Muslims in the crowd. That always feels good. Just to know that people are willing to enjoy to the positive vibe and not be turned off by things they don’t completely agree with. It reminds us how powerful this message is. It also reminds us that there are only two kinds of music. Bad and good. So my sons were there. And any time my boys are at a show they will steal the party. Their were dancing to the music on the side and busting moves all over the place. I don’t even know where they learned some of the moves from. I was a little embarrassed. I wanted to shout over the mic, “I don’t know where they learned that from.” A lot of people were taking pictures of them. So it was cool. Everyone had a good time. They had some local acts on before us. A brother Yunos who is turning out to be a good song writer and composer. I would look out for him in a few years. He’s about to graduate. And of course they famous guys from “Ghandegee” or something like that. I’m not sure how to spell it. But these guys are pretty funny. They remix popular songs and put Muslim themes to them. I don’t even want to try and explain it. You should just YouTube ‘em or something. They also had some young Muslim comedians. Not from “Allah Made Me Funny” but some local guys from the community. I had some good laughs from my brothers Adam and Shafi. I would look for these two guys in a few years as well. Its just amazing how our community is developing. I’m seeing more and more local schools for Muslims to get advanced Islamic education. We are showing up in the arts like the sister that started “Little Mosque on the Prairie” And the list goes on and on. Make dua that we continue to do our part to give Islam a good, wholesome, exciting name that is truly is. See you next week. |
| We Won!!! |
| May 7, 2008 |
Back from Abu Dhabi and Dubai. What a trip. You know, a long time ago, we went to Turkey and it changed the way we looked at our performances. For the first time, there were cameras as soon as we got off the plane. And they has a really nice car waiting for us at the airport. They took us straight to a television interview, and then a radio interview. Then we went to a park where they were selling our CD’s and we sang in front of the shop for a while to promote the album. Then we went to a show. And it continued like that for 3 days. We never got to see Turkey at all. It was non stop media and performances. But it was a very productive trip. Since then, we do what we can to make our trips as productive as Turkey. Of course, we don’t need cameras when we get off the plane but you guys know what I’m saying. We just try to take advantage of all the opportunities that are in front of us. Well, I feel like the Abu Dhabi trip was like the Turkey trip. It was very productive. We landed and went to the hotel and started practicing. The whole band was in the room going over the songs, the moves, the breaks, the voices. It was very intense. We went through the whole show and thought about when we needed to be loud or soft to make the audience feel what we were saying in the song. Well, it worked out, because during our show, the entire audience got up and started singing with us. Al-hamdu-lilah, we won the Muhabbah award for the 2nd year in a row. We feel really blessed. This year was a little different because it was not just the judges. The audience also got to vote. They had the little voting machines on the back of their chairs where they could push the button of their favorite group. So we got 72% of the audience to vote for us Al-hamdu-lilah. We also got to go to Dubai and do some radio and television interviews. That was a lot of fun. There was a sister at the radio station named Yara, and she did an excellent interview. And the TV anchor, Br. Ibrahim was a long time friend of mine so we got to catch up at the T.V. station. It was just amazing. We ended the trip by getting a tour of the “7star” hotel in Dubai. The one that cost money just to go inside. You can’t even go in the lobby without paying. Every room is two levels. And every floor has a butler. We got to see the most expensive room which was about $17,000 per night. It was like bigger than many houses. It was crazy. Anyway, we also got to pray in the 3rd or 4th biggest Masjid in the world. It was in Abu Dhabi and it was a huge beautiful white Masjid. It really looked majestic from the road. But when you go inside, I think there are too many beautiful designs and it becomes distracting. But it was good to visit it. After we got back from Abu Dhabi, we did a small show at George Mason University in Virgina. I will tell you guys about that next time I come back on. By the way, I just got done talking to a friend who reads these blogs regularly. So I hope I put enough detail in this one to give you a better idea of our trip. Thanks for the emails and your words of support. It means a lot. Just work on your broken English. Ha haaaaa |
| Those 2 Gigs I mentioned |
| May 3, 2008 |
Salaam everyone. I have been answering more personal emails to me that blogs. I had a parent email me and say, “Okay brother Joshua, your break is over.” I was like, “Man!” Al-hamdu-lilah. Wow. Where do I begin? Well, my last blog mentioned a MYNA camp and a show for the 25th anniversary of a local Masjid. So lets start there. The MYNA Camp was awesome as always. Texas is really doing a great job with the MYNA program down there. They rented a first rate camp site with really nice cabins and an amazing campfire that overlooked a lake. It was real nice, I’m telling you. So we went down there for more workshops and lectures and less performances. Sometimes the youth just want to talk to us about issues and different pressures and challenges. That’s always a pleasant experience. Just kicking it with the youth. So we spent the night and the next evening we lead a sing along at the camp fire. Roasted some marshmallows and just had a real good time. Long Live MYNA Insha-Allah. NOW!! Moving on to the local Masjid show. It wasn’t in a Masjid, it was for a Masjid. The rented out a hotel. For anyone who has ever been to the DC area, you must be familiar with Dar Al-Hijrah. One of the first well established Masjids in the area. And for those international readers out there, it is right down the street from Halalco. The famous on line store for just about all your Muslim needs. Anyway, it was so cool that the youth from this Masjid lined up on stage and started singing, “M.U.S.L.I.M., I’m so Blessed to be with them.” That kind of sent chills up my spine. I don’t know what it is. Just the fact that the next generation of Muslims are singing Native Deen songs is a reminder that this work will live on long after we are gone Insha-Allah. But it was a laid back show. Native Deen was just on the side with our families chilling out, eating waiting for our turn. Seeing Native Deen isn’t a big deal when you’re at home. Everyone sees you every day. When we travel, we meet people who have only seen us on YouTube or on a television interview so they view us differently. But at home, its like performing in front of family. But it was a real nice event. May Allah reward Dar Al-Hijrah for all the good work they are doing in the community. |
| Anti-War Show |
| March 27, 2008 |
As-salaamu-alaikum, Ok, well lets see. What have you missed? We did an interfaith show as different faiths came together to appose the war. A quick note: When Native Deen allows the State Department to pay for us to perform for Muslims in Palestine, we get flack about supporting a U.S. agenda. But when we come back home and protest the war right in front of the Capitol, nobody notices. Anyway, the event was kind of cool. Like I said, we were directly across the street from the U.S. Capitol. And that was a hard core show. We were out there in the rain. The crowd was under umbrellas or just plain wet. In addition to being wet, it was freezing cold, and we still had a good time. The crowd really enjoyed the performance. We only did one song, and then they all wanted CD’s. They were all non-Muslim too. It was a really nice experience. The next day, there was another anti-war performance in a small café like set up. We met these two other groups that were pretty amazing. One guys name was David Lamotte and he was just all professional. You could really tell he had been doing this for a while. He keep the crowd involved the whole time and made us laugh and think and it was just great. Another group was called Cobalt Season and they showed so much emotion in their performance, they really brought you along for the ride in every song they did. Very impressed with both groups. I hope Native Deen left a mark on the people as well. Stay tuned, I have some more gigs to catch you up on. I will come back and write to you about a MYNA camp we went to and a local celebration of 25 years of service by one Masjid. |
| Flint is on the Map!!! |
| March 26, 2008 |
As-salaamu-alaikum, Ahh man. This trip was definitely up there. I don’t you can get any more energy into a room that the community of Flint Michigan did. Just an amazing community. Our first show was at an Islamic school in their gym. The youth were on the chairs singing along. Don’t worry, Native Deen does good crowd control so we made sure they didn’t tackle Abdul-Malik or anything. But they participated in every song and made it a great show. The next day Naeem and Abdul-Malik went skiing with the community. Sorry guys, I was too tired and still have a football injury with my foot. That’s why you haven’t seen many stage jumps recently. And its eating me up. But I heard they had a great time. Naeem is pretty good at snow boarding and always gives people good tips. Abdul-Malik just uses his inner Chi to stay balanced as he goes down the hill. Just kidding, I’ve never seen him ski. The next day, we performed at the University of Michigan. It was not on a stage. It was like in a small corner of the student area or something. But it was cool. Many non-Muslims came and sat down to enjoy the music. A bunch of toddlers came and started break dancing. No joke. These kids actually got up and made a little dance floor and stole the show. They were all under 5 years old. I sure hope somebody took some pictures. And to my fan who reads these blogs regularly, I got an email from your Mom who encouraged me to stick with it because you are 6 years old and read my blogs. So thank you for all the support people. Until my next show, or when I just want to share something with you…..I’m out!!! |
| I missed ya!!! |
| March 26, 2008 |
As-salaamu-alaikum, Yeah I missed ya. I said it. Did ya miss me? No? I thought so. You’re probably not eveing reading this right now. See what I mean. Well, I just got back from a MYNA type of camp in Texas. As you know, Native Deen came out of MYNA Raps so we have very strong ties. But Naeem and I got to go back to an old skill of ours....skits. We were acting and it felt great. I guess if I wasn’t doing music I would be in plays or something. So I look forward to coming back down to Texas in March to attend the actual MYNA camp. Texans are very cool people who really make you feel at home. I will be in Michigan this weekend for a nice show. Insha-Allah, I will tell you all about it when I get back. Any questions. Please email me at joshua@nativedeen.com Peace |
| Enjoy |
| January 29, 2008 |
Salaams ok I know blogs are joshs jobs, and Im suppose to be on the fan mail, which I should be fired from doing. Sorry guys Im just all over the place. But we hear you and well get to you guys I promise. And maybe well catch up in person one of these days inshallah. We are very approachable. You can walk right up to me and be like "Naeem, whats the deal homie!!! ANSWER SOME FANMAIL!" And Ill be like holding my head down in shame but Ill get the message. But anyway the real reason I got on here. Just because today was the first REAL snowfall for my city of balitmore. I LOVE THE SNOW. Well I love all the elements actually. You just gotta find something cool to do in whatever climate you find yourself in. So tis the season for snowboarding. I mean Im telling you its nothing like it and Im totally addicted. And when I cant get to the mountain I longboard, actually I just skate WHENEVER even in the house. Which is a good fix until I get to the mountain. But when you get to the top of that mountain, take a sec to take it all in. Its not all about learning how to bust that backside 540 late nose grab(which I cant do, Im working my way up to 180, I landed ONE this season, WOO HOO). But really look at the wilderness, take it all in, make dua, and shred the hill. Know its a blessing and honor it. Especially since global warming is making the season shorter and shorter. So get out there and ENJOY and thank Allah for the time. And dont forget to try and make smaller carbon imprint on the earth. Im gonna start a "NATIVE GREEN" or "GREEN DEEN" campaign real soon. Stay tuned. salaams and keep the faith, naeem |
| I am back how is the Album? |
| January 29, 2008 |
As-salaamu-alaikum, Its been a while but I have been answering a lot of fan mail. We just got back from New Jersey and Canada doing a show in each. In New Jersey, we were there to help raise money for an Islamic School. The venue was beautiful and the turn out was great. May Allah reward Sister Hoda for all her hard work in putting the event together. In Canada, we were there for the “Riving the Islamic Spirit” conference. We have been there 3 times in all. We always hear amazing feedback about the conference. However, when we go, we always come in at the end, perform and leave the following day after everything is over. Insha-Allah next year we will be able to go up and enjoy the entire conference. I’m glad that people are enjoying the new album. We sold out of our first batch and are into our second batch. So that you for all your support. Its on iTunes now so you can download the whole thing for $9.99. No reason to burn your cousins copy. We need your support so we can continue this work. I’ve missed talking to you guys. Insha-Allah, now that the album is out, you should see me more on the blogs. |
| Back from London |
| December 5, 2007 |
As-salaamu-alaikum, We just got back from London. I no, I did not get lost this time. (See Lost in London Blog from a while ago). And if you haven’t heard, the new album is out and Al-Hamdu-lilah, people are enjoying it. In London, they had an event called “Global Peace & Unity” and it is a wonderful event. Maybe 30 thousand people under one roof. Speakers from all over the world. Artists from all over the world. Just an amazing experience. I pray we get invited back. So what happened. We only had 20 minutes to perform. For us, that is very short. So we adjusted our performance a bit. Such a huge stage and so many people. I think there were seats for 16 thousand people in that one hall. But I never really look at the crowd. I listen to the crowd to hear if they are enjoying it, but if I focus in on looking at them, I will forget my lines or where I am supposed to be standing on stage. I tried something different this time. Instead of just jumping off stage, I had Naeem catapult me off to go further. I think my feet are still hurting. I think I will have to speak with my Manager to get some softer shoes. Anyway, I found a nice young girl to bring to the stage to give her a free CD. She really enjoyed it and we found out her family was watching from home and were so surprised to her on TV. That’s just awesome. I know we were surprising people by just walking through the conference center, but we don’t really see ourselves as famous. At home, where we spend most of our time, no one says anthing about us being part of Native Deen. So when we travel, its hard to adjust to people reacting to us like we are anything more than regular attendees. But it was cool, I think we stood for 2 hours for a autograph signing session. Did I tell you my feet were hurting. Anyway, you have to do it. We try to sign as many as we can before they drag us away to the next place. It hurts to be dragged away and see a young child holding their CD or paper out, and you can’t sign it….after they have been waiting for so long. That’s hurts. May Allah make it easy on us to continue to do this work and spread this Deen. Keep sending emails. We are reading them all and responding to as many as we can. Check out the fan mail to see some of the latest email. Peace, Salam, see you guys later. |
| A day closer |
| November 2, 2007 |
As-salaamu-alaikum,
Well the photo shoot went well. I started laughing because they did have this little fan on the set. But like I said…there wasn’t no hair blowing anywhere. Maybe our shirts got a little airtime. Anyway, just minor tweaks right now on the album. Thanking some people who helped us out here and there. That’s always hard because there are so many people who you can thank but you just don’t have room for everyone. So forgive us if we missed anyone. I’m really liking the flavor that the artist came up with for the album cover and theme. I think a lot of you guys will dig it. There isn’t 100% agreement on how to tweak all the songs. So I guess we’ll just have to say…Bismillah and send it to print. Stand by people, it’s a comin’ soon….Insha-Allah.
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| Its a comin' |
| October 30, 2007 |
As-salaamu-alaikum everybody. And since we have a lot of fans who are not Muslim, Peace be unto you guys. Ok who says “unto” anymore? Maybe I should say something like, “Walk with peace good brethren.” Ha haaaa. Anyway, what’s up. Hows everybody holding up?
We said we would get this album out by Eid right. Eid ’07. Okay, well we are working hard in the studio. Debating which songs sound good, which songs sound weak, which songs are hype, which songs are slow, which songs will get the listener emotional, which songs will get us boooed off stage.
I tell you, it is really hard to put your work out there. I mean, once its out, its out. Can’t take it back. Can’t be like, “Oh, I’m sorry. I meant to give you this one.” So it’s a lot of pressure over here in the DC metropolitan area. But things are moving. We are going to take some pictures for the album today. You know, when we hit those pre-arranged poses. Hey, its part of the business. Gotta do it. Don’t worry, we won’t have no high powered fan blowing our hair back….have you seen our hair. It don’t blow in the wind. Especially Naeems. Ha haaaaa. I’m buggin. Its just been so long since I spoke with everybody that I had to let loose a little.
Anyway, we’re having fun over here. Stay strong yall. And stay tuned. More blogs are comin’. This is where you get all the insight into the album and the group. I try to put a little extra information in here for the fans that take the time to read. Don’t believe me, read some of the old blogs and you’ll see.
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| Palestine AGAIN!!! |
| October 8, 2007 |
Yup, yup. Back in Palestine. Praying at Al-Aqsa Masjid. Visiting the Dome of the Rock. Allah is truly merciful. And then to come back and see all those emails from the youth of Palestine saying how they enjoyed our visit. Man!!! Masha-Allah. It makes me want to go back right now.
We spoke with the people living in Gaza over video. They told us how they were on lock down and could not leave. I pray their suffering ends soon. Getting detained in the airport for hours, traveling and going through checkpoints every 15-30 minutes, even we were feeling the frustration and we only stayed 3 days.
The Muslim schools we performed for were off da hook. So much energy. Staying strong under all that pressure and keeping their deen tight. You guys are an inspiration to us and we pray that Allah rewards you. |
| EGYPT |
| October 8, 2007 |
What can I say? Egypt was all it was hyped up to be. The people were down to earth. The traffic was crazy. 18million people in Cairo, WOW!!!. Check out the pictures on the side. We performed in AL-Azhar park. Very romantic so watch out. The park was filled with Muslims couples walking and talking and enjoying Allah beautiful creation. It was very nice.
We visited a pyramid. Thanks to Imam Anwar Awlaki, we stayed focused that we were visiting a people who were destroyed because of their disbelief. We went inside on of them and went to the top. One huge tomb. All that...20 years of hard labor for one body. May Allah keep us on the straight path.
I think I may go back to Egypt to study Arabic. I just can't get passed the Gummah and Masgid type of talk. I want my Arabic to be with no g's. But you will be hard pressed to find people more pleasant than the people of Egypt. |
| Back with an Album and Video |
| October 8, 2007 |
See, see. I know yall been talking about me. Wheres Joshua? Where are the blogs? Well, I can honestly say that my time was well spent. Native Deen has been doing a full blitz to finish the album and we made a music video. Its for a song called STAND ALONE. And the title of the album is called NOT AFRAID TO STAND ALONE. So check it out.
The album is sounding real nice. I let my Mother hear a few songs and she said that she liked the slow jams...(Naeems specialty) So I really think we will have a little bit for everyone. I'll be back soon. Just wanted to stop by and say Ramadan Mubarak and our album will be our Eid Gift to the community...for a small fee:)
I missed you guys. I look forward to getting back to the fan mail and communicating with everyone through my blogs. |
| An Inspiring Sahaba Story |
| October 8, 2007 |
Ok this is Abdul-Malik. Since Naeem and Josh posted something I was the only missing one. As you know, the month of Ramadan is divided into 3 parts - first is mercy, second is forgiveness, and third is saving from the fire. Right now we are in the mercy part - so lets try to be merciful and kind to everyone. Then Allah (SWA) will be merciful on us. Do you guys wanna know one of my favorite Sahaba stories? Ok, here it goes. At the time of the Omar (RAA) there was a group of Muslims captured by the Romans. So the leader of the Muslims, Abdullah bin Hathafah (RAA) was brought before the Caesar (which is like the king - not salad dressing). So they asked him to give up Islam. He refused. So he offered Abdullah to share his kingdom with him. At that Abdullah smiled and basically was like no way, dude - I wont, even if you give me your kingdom plus all of Arabia! So the the Caesar said ok get rid of him. Abdullah was like do whatever - I ain't compromising. So they tied him up and shot arrows at him but aimed at his hands - I guess they thought they could scare him. Then they brought him back and he still refused. This Sahaba was strong mashallah! So here is the part that really hits me. They brought a huge pot of boiling oil... yes that stuff you fry chicken in. Then they took one of the other Muslim prisoners and threw him in. There might be some young kids reading this so I wont write how they described that scene. But it wasn't pretty. So they turned to Abdullah and basically said, "Your turn!". I wonder sometimes would I have been strong. But suddenly the Caesar saw his eyes swelling with tears. "Aha!" He must have thought. "I got him with the boiling oil." But when they ask Abdullah if he changed his mind, he said no. But why was he crying? He said basically he wished he could be thrown in 1000 times for Allah. Meaning, that his LOVE for God was so much that he wished he had 1000 lives show his love and dedication to Allah. The Caesar guy was really impressed. But in order not to look stupid in front of his subjects he asked Abdullah to kiss his head. Abdullah was smart and said "Will you free the other Muslims?". He said yes I will free them all. So he kissed his head. On the way back, people questioned that why he kissed the head of the guy that threw one of the Muslims in a pot of boiling oil. But when he got back, Omar (RAA) commanded everyone to kiss his head cause he did the right thing. This story has so many lessons for me. I dug up some comments on the internet that talk about some of the trips we go on. But I look at this story and the story of how the Prophet used the support of his uncle Abu-Talib to spread Islam even though he was a pagan. Our goal is to save the youth from an even scarier thing than boiling oil. Yes that's Hell-Fire. We will do that by any beneficial avenues available to us. But NEVER should we compromise our beliefs - no matter who invites us. The last part of Ramadan will be upon us soon, folks - which is saving from the Hell-Fire. Lets all do everything we can to save ourselves and our community from it, inshaAllah! |
| Ramadan is a Coming |
| October 8, 2007 |
Salaams,
Wassup FAM! What's the deal? There have been a lot of thing going on personally for me, that you would think I would have came on here sooner to blog about. I went to africa at least twice this year, prayed for rain there and it was answered, and a bunch of other drama. But I wanted to just make a lil reminder about the month upon us. Ramadan is here! Almost. One fun fact about me and Ramadan, the first rap I can remember writing was for my islamic studies class when I was in 5th grade. And it was about ramadan. People around here still rep it. We had a school reunion and we broke it out, people got amped when we kicked it. Anyway, Ramadan....One thing I would say is...set a GOAL! Come up with a couple things you wanna master during this month to carry out the rest of the year. Let go of some of those bad habits, and see how long you can keep it going. Write it down, make your list of improvements, make a plan, and get on with it. Don't just go through ramadan like it's no big deal, just a time to lose weight.... LOSE SOME SINS!!!! Alright do it! But on the real we go about ramadan all wrong. Well this is how one guy explained it. Right now we treat ramadan as a time to recharge and do the extra stuff to get those blessings. The way he looks at it is this. The whole year is practice for RAMADAN. All the prayers we do, the fasting outside of ramadan, all those tasks are prepping you for THIS month, and not the other way around. Ok look at it like this. When your prayers count the most, fasting count the most, and you get the most blessing per capita then any other month for any good deed, shouldn't you go into that month professionally. Practiced, prepared, ready to go. The 11 months are like preparation for the olympics, and the first day of ramadan is the beginning of the Olympic Games. Honestly, I'm not there yet, but I need to be. I need to be striving for that. At least I can enter ramadan with some goals. Re-memorizing and quran I have lost (especially re-memorizing the 30th juz), increasing my reading of the quran, set aside more time for dhikr ( believe me it centers you ), praying AS SOON as it's in, and adding additional prayers ( sunnah, nawaful,) and more inshallah. Make duah I can make my Ramadan goals and I pray we enter ramadan as zeros but walk out of Ramadan like heroes. And I hope in years to come we use the rest of the month preparing for ramadan, and not just use ramadan to prepare for the rest of the months.
salaams and keep the faith,
Naeem
PS Sorry if I got to meta-physical on you guys. Sometimes we need that. |
| Hello Again |
| October 8, 2007 |
As-salaamu-alaikum,
Okay...see what happen was...we were Kidnapped on our way back from Africa...and it took us 3 weeks to escape. And the whole time I was thinking...how can I get my blogs in...HOW!!!!
Okay, so I'm kidding. But I did just get off a tough Islamic relief tour. Ma-Sha-Allah, this is the second year it has happened in the U.S. and the Muslim American community trully represented. Both years they raised over a million dollars for orphans and needy people around the world. May Allah bless us all for our efforts.
The tour started in Dallas. Then we went to San Jose, California, Los Angeles, Detroit, and we ended in New Jersey. Those communities really stepped up to the plate and did a great job. The audience gave the artists excellent feedback when they were performing. Hamzah Robertson and Sami Yusuf from Awakening performed as well.
It was fun for Native Deen because we tried out some new songs and some new moves. We added a DJ to our show for this tour. DJ Be Like Muhammad. Since Naeem is a pretty good skate boarder, we added that to our set as well. That really surprised the audience. Like I always say...you never know what you are going to see at a Native Deen show.
Next week, we are in Chicago for MAS. Insha-Allah I will get on here right after the show and tell you how it was. |
| Where in the world is Joshua??!! |
| July 24, 2007 |
As-salaamu-alaikum,
Where have I been? I don't even know. We are all over the place and trying to make an album. We just got back from Tanzania and Zanzibar Africa. That was really nice. Mambo VeePee to all my Tanzanian brothers and sisters. I learned a little Swahili and made a short rap. We performed it on stage a couple of times when we felt that the language barrier was a problem. And Alhamdullah the crowd loved it.
We did two shows in Zanzibar, a nice little Island with beautiful beaches. The second one was really cool, because they have crowds of school children just sitting in the grass enjoying the show. After that we did one show in Tanzania where there had to be at least ten thousand+ people. Standing room only in a grass field. Security patrolling strong with the words, Black Ninja Security on their backs. How cool is that!!
Everyone avoided the Malaria mosquito's. I think, only time will tell. But we all made it back safe. I went swimming in the ocean which was fun, although I must admit that I am very intimidate by the ocean. Maybe its because I grew up with Jawsťbut I can never get myself to go to far out there even though I know how to swim I fear that the shark will eat me, event every time I step on a rock or something touches my leg, I think I am about to get eaten. Ok, so maybe that's a little too much information. But hey, that's what these blogs are for, right?
I think we finally have a title for the album. So well be working on the artwork now. Still a few more songs to finish before we can release the album. We are working on a video for one of the songs on the album, so be looking for that. And if you are in the DC area join us Friday on our shoot. Make dua for us all.
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| Studio and the Clan |
| July 17, 2007 |
Good News Everybody!!!
The album is coming along nicely. Sometimes it gets tense with each of us saying what sounds good and what doesnt. We all want the album to be a success. But at the end of the day, its up to you, the listener. Of course everybody likes something different. Thats the beauty in the way Allah created us. But let me tell you this…if you hear anything that doesnt sound good on the album, it aint my fault. Its those other 2 guys.
Anyway, we just got back from New Jersey. We were blessed to be invited to perform at an event that had Zaid Shakir, Hamza Yusuf and Imam Siraaj Wahaaj on the ticket. How cool is that. You know what I mean. It was a lot of people but it still felt intimate.
I must say that I dont ever remember so many people coming up to us expressing how much our music meant to them. I heard some of the most sincere stories. Reading it on our website is awesome. But looking someone in the eye as they tell you their own story is priceless.
I told the Albanian Clan that I would give them a shout out. This beautiful family took the time to take a picture with us. Then the Grandmother told us how her daughter returned to her prayers as a result of listening to Native Deen music. What do you say to that? I just say thank you and smile. Because I am so happy that I may get some reward when people I dont even know are moved towards Allah by our music.
We have a couple more studio sessions before we go to Africa. Insha-Allah we will try to have the album half way finished before we go. Make dua for us and Ill be back soon. Hopefully next week. But yall know Im struggling over here.
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| Back to Back gigs |
| June 5, 2007 |
As-salaamu-alaikum,
How are you? Good to hear that. Let me tell you about some recent shows did. We had a packed weekend not long ago where we performed in Maryland Friday evening and then in Ohio Saturday evening. First, lets talk about the Potomac, Maryland Crowd. This Masjid was awesome. When Native Deen starts a show Naeem normally asks the crowd, “Are you having a good time?” Usually he has to ask about 3 times before the crowd gets any energy. But this group of Muslims hit it the first time. We felt so much energy from them and we fed off of that all night.
I got so pumped up I did a new flip off the stage. Now my manager wants me to do all kinds of flips off stage. But hey, Native Deen does not provide any insurance man! I stick to the basic stuff and try to make it look exciting. Anyway, the sisters from the Islamic school were enjoying themselves. People were singing along and it was just overall a very fun and enjoyable evening. The Muslim community needs more of those.
Next day we are off to Ohio. Of course I’m running late to the airport as usual. But I make it. We arrive and discover that its for a MAS Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts program. I tell you, MAS is one organization that is at the forefront of you work. May Allah reward them. Their youth put on like 4 plays with props and everything. It was really nice. Native Deen and our drummers just kicked it in the back with the youth playing instruments and signing songs even before we went on stage. I was just so happy to see all the attention on the youth. The whole evening was for them. It was their night and they knew it. That has to do a lot for a child. The next day, we went to the MAS Youth Center. We played fuse ball, ping pong, and pool. We really had a good time. Thank you MAS Cincinnati.
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| In the News |
| May 20, 2007 |
As-salaamu-alaikum,
The album, the album, the album. I thinkm honestly we will do about 3 more albums. This one coming out and two more. I don’t know, what do you guys think. Its hard though. Trying to make an album in between our careers, family, community activities, etc. Studio time is hard to find and you know that rhymes. It comes straight from my mind at the drop of a dime. Native Deens doing just fine but if we need to rewind to a lyric or line that we wrote with inspiration that felt divine. Its not yours and it not mine, this message is for all humankind.
Ok, ok, a little tangent there. I got caught up with not much to write about since I just wrote about the show last week. I hope all of you are keeping up with our calendar to see when we will be in a city near you. Cincinnati is coming up. New Jersey, Africa, Malaysia, etc.
And if you want to see my oldest son jamming to one of our songs, go to “In the News” and click on the interview with Voice of America for Indonesia and Malaysia. I didn’t understand a word of it except for when they said “…Native Deen…” But in there, you’ll see about 3 seconds of a little boy dancing in the aisles to one of the songs. That’s my boy. Chip off the old block.
See you guys next week.
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| Amer Khalid & Native Deen |
| May 20, 2007 |
As-salaamu-alaikum,
Okay, this blog is for last Friday. I have to post another one tomorrow. Yeah, I know its Thursday night, but I have a few more hours before the week is over.
Let me tell you about our show last Saturday. It was soooo laid back. For us at least. ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) had a regional conference with a special guest of Amer Khalid. Now call me out of touch, but I did not know who he was. I mean, I heard Naeem and Abdul-Malik speak about him sometimes, but I didn’t know who he was or what he did.
But let me tell you…he sure is somebody special. The room was packed. Standing room only. Absolutely no seats left. His speech was all in Arabic but they had someone typing the translation as he spoke. As I looked around, everyone’s eyes were focused on him or the translation screen. And when he was finished and left the stage, the crowd rushed him with cameras, babies, reporters, questions, bodyguards, and the whole thing.
I smiled, because Native Deen was on stage performing after he left the stage. So as we did our chant and started the first song, Alhamdullah loyal fans were around to enjoy our show. To me, it was great because I get very happy when knowledge is respected by the community. And it also humbles you and lets you know what’s really important.
So we put on a good show. It was just Abdul-Malik and I since Naeem was helping needy people in Mali with Islamic Relief. I’ll try to get him to get on here and tell you about it with some pictures. But anyway, we jumped off stage and rapped for the crowd. Then we rolled back on stage and performed some more songs. It was cool.
May Allah reward Amer Khalid for inspiring so many people to be good Muslims and May Allah reward all the Native Deen fans also, who always make dua for us and support us…even when we are late for Blogs.
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| All Faiths Jammin' |
| May 10, 2007 |
As-salaamu-alaikum, Hey everyone, its Friday night and my blog is up. What's up now! Just kidding. Let me tell you about our show last week. We were involved with a performance at a church for the fight against AIDS. It was kind of an interfaith thing. There was a Christian group and a Jewish group also performing and us repersenting Islam. Anyway, I did get to see half the performance of the Christian group. It was an all African-American group and they all could sing very well. It was about 5 guys and they had a nice grove. They didn't use any music except for a shaker, a tambourine and the clapping of their hands. The crowd seemed like really enjoyed it. Now the crowd was majority Caucasian. But you really didn't feel any color issues. Everyone was there for one purpose. So here comes Native Deen. We have our drummer in the back warming it up with some hot beats. I get on the congas and add some spice to the sound. Abdul-Malik kicks a nice chant about Allah and the mood is set. We rocked it!! I mean the young church children and the old church ladies were all clapping and standing up. The choir section was rocking back and forth with their hands in the air. And I am like, hey, this stuff works. They really didnt care that we were a Muslim group rapping and singing about Allah. All they cared about was that we were there to support the cause and they liked our sound. I dont know, I just thought that was real cool. Peace out and see you NEXT WEEK!!!! |
| I missed Ya'll |
| April 30, 2007 |
As-salaamu-alaikum,
Okaay. Okaaayyy. I love you guys too! I have been reading the fan mail. So has the rest of Native Deen. And after they cornered me and beat me up pretty bad for neglecting the fans, I agreed to get on the ball. Did I ever tell you Abdul-Malik is a black belt and one time he kicked the wind out of me. And Naeem, that big guy just likes to break things. You should see him before Showtime. These guys are tough, I tell you.
Anyway, I miss you guys. I really do. I know this was supposed to be a WEEKLY blog. Thanks for reminding me fans.
You want to know about the album of course. When is it coming out? What is the status? Well…its hard. We want to be the biggest, baddest, most happenest, album ever. But we also want it to be released before our kids graduate. What we will probably do is just do our best in the time we have. Realizing that our fans can’t wait forever for another album. We’ll just have to make that big, bad, happen’in album next time. IF we don’t you guys will forget about us.
Although, I will never forget some of the fan mails. You guys give so much good feedback. Anyway, its crunch time baby! And Native Deen is sprinting to get this album out by Ramadan. Make dua.
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| 5 out of 10 'aint bad. |
| March 28, 2007 |
Wow. I just read a message from Samiah Ahmed in the fan mail. It was really long just like my blogs. Thanks for all the feedback Sister Samiah.
I just want to give a quick update on the album. We are up to 5 rough songs now. Meaning, they are written and recorded but we have a lot of tightening up to do. I think this next album should have like 10 new songs and 2 remakes and 2 chants. What do you guys think?
So if we have 5 rough songs now, all we need is 5 more. Just this last Sunday we started on a 6th one. We spent most of the time writing the lyrics together. I tell you, this one line took about an hour. We did not want to offend anyone, but it had to keep the same flow as the rest of the song, while being very poetic and yet not sounding corny. And after all that time, we decided to table it until the next studio session.
But I enjoyed every minute of it. Its like math to me. You know you can solve it, but you just have to find the answer. I’ll keep it short this week. For those of you in the local Washington DC area, we will be performing at MIST in College Park this Sunday so come by and check us out.
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| Lost in London (Part 1) |
| March 19, 2007 |
As-salaamu-alaikum everone…or since I was raised in the mid west…Peace be with Ya’ll. Many of you may have seen the BBC documentary that we were a part of with 786. But I have a behind the scenes story that some of you may enjoy. If you watch the video you will see a scene where we are playing soccer in this park. But it is interesting how I arrived to that park. I’m a military veteran and sometimes I just get pumped up to do crazy stuff. So we were all just chilling out in the hotel lobby when the camera crew decided to drive to the park to set up. Everyone else decided to wait for the next vehicle leaving. Everyone except me. All the locals said the park was just a few blocks away and it was within walking distance. So when the camera crew vehicle pulled off, I just decided to run behind them. Hey, I used to run cross country…no problem. I was for sure that I would be able to keep up with all the heavy London traffic and red lights. But…Allah is the best of planners. After just two turns, that camera car hit a straight away and caught all the green lights. I thought they would slow down since they knew I was running behind them but that was not they case. Business is business I guess. So I running full speed and the car just gets smaller and smaller and then makes a left turn. It took me 5 minutes to get to that turn so I had no idea where they went after that. It was at this point that I realized how stupid this idea was and how much the guys were going to laugh when the found out I was lost in London. But as Native Deen can tell you, I never give up. I just keep on jogging and starting asking strangers if they knew of a park near by. The BBC people said it was just a few blocks away, I had to be close. I never just ask one person, I ask at least three. If they all say the same thing then that is where I go. I finally felt like I was being pointed in the right direction. Go up 1 block, make a right, then a quick left and go about 4 block and you will run right into it. Now check out this blessing. I was being directed to some huge park in the middle of London. I did not know this at the time, but it will be very important later. So I go up 1 block, make a right, a quick left and begin my 4 block journey. But during block 1 of 4, I just happened to look to my left…just happened to look I tell you, and through a fence, I see the sound crew. AL-HAMDU-LILAH!!! Thank you Allah. Native Deen and 786 will not be laughing at me today. I jogged on around and joined the crew. I could see they were surprised that I was able to track them down like a blood hound after they lost me like 15 minutes ago. If you want the truth, I think they tried to loose me. Like “This stupid American. Let’s loose this sucker.” But Allah knows best. Anyway, later, all the guys come walking up and I look like the hero. Joshua was able to keep up with that car in London. WOW!. Lets end here. But next week, I will tell you how I went from being a hero to being a zero. Stay tuned. |
| Lost in London Part 2 |
| March 19, 2007 |
Ok you guys. You want the rest of the story? You want to know how I went from being a hero to a zero in less that 4 hours? Well you have to first read the blog from last week. That will get you on the right page.
So we had a fun day playing soccer and a little basketball with 786 for the cameras. Now its time to go back to the hotel. Since I was the only person who came on foot from the 2 groups, I knew how to get back...or so I thought. We start walking back and Saeed from 786 is walking with me. The rest of the guys are like a block behind us. Now as we are walking, I evaluated the streets and decided to take an obvious short cut. But within a few block I realized that my short cut did not come out where I thought it would and I no longer recognized the area. Unfortunately, everyone was following me since “I know the way back.” Right?
I turn to Saeed and ask him, “Do you know where you are at?” “No, I’m following you” he replies. MAN!! Okay, don’t panic. I switch to military mode and decide to run ahead and see if I can figure out which way to go before the rest of the guys catch up. I ask Saeed to wait for me.
Off I go, running through the crowds of London. Adrenaline is pumping now so I am able to leap up more stairs and clear walls without out a problem. Unfortunately, my scouting skills prove to be no good. I rush back to Saeed only to discover that he is no where to be found. Not only that, none of the guys are anywhere to be found. Nnnnoooooooooo!!!!!!!
I literally start spinning in a circle shouting Saeed’s name just like the movies. In fact, I imagined a camera getting an aerial view of me in the crowd shouting my lungs out. I could not believe it. I told him to wait for me. Did everyone just leave me? I thought they were following me. I start running around the immediate area for about 15 minutes to see if I can find the guys. Maybe they are looking for me…yeah right!! I’m in trouble. I don’t know the name of the hotel. I don’t have the number to the hotel. I don’t know what street it is on. I don’t know anything. No more just landing in different countries and going to sleep in the hotel. I have to start keeping track of where I am. Sometimes you would never know that was in the military.
Anyway, I’m truly lost. I give up looking for the guys and try running around looking for the hotel. I knew I had to be close. But it was hopeless. So then I start running around trying to find the path that I took to the park in the first place and instead of taking the short cut back, I would just take the way that I came. Again, nothing there. I just keep getting more lost. My legs are getting tired. My feet are starting to hurt. I’m thinking I’m going to have to find a police station and turn myself in or something. I decided to try to find the park we played soccer in and start all over again.
I did not know the name of the small park we were in by I kind of remembered the name of the other park that I was directed to originally before I bumped into the film crew. Lets call this park “London Park.” I start asking people where is London Park. How do I get to London Park? After asking more than 5 people, I finally arrive at London Park. Of course I realize that this is not the park that we played soccer in.
I was so upset. I thought I was on the other side of the city. These people directed me to a park on the other side of the city. Why? WWWHHHHYYYY!!!!!!???? Everyone is so happy in this area. Joggers are running, dogs are being walked, nice cars are driving by. And I just look like I want to fight somebody. I start following the joggers because I didn’t know what else to do at this time. Maybe there was a finish line ahead somewhere. But this park is so large, I don’t even see where they are running to. I cut through an apartment complex hoping to find someone coming out of there home who could have some sympathy on me.
I run into two young men who just happen to have a map. I ask them for their help. They eagerly open up there map of London and ask me, “Where are trying to go?” I thought about that question for about 3 seconds and answered, “I don’t know.” Then they logically asked me, “Well, where are you coming from?” Again, I answered, “I don’t know.” This is where I realized I was definitely a zero today. I don’t know where I am and I don’t know where I’m going. How much more lost can a person get.
But then…I turn around and guess what I see!! It was they park that we played soccer in. Right there in front of me. Wal-lahi, I tell all of you, I wanted to kiss the ground. I was so happy. You ever seen that movie, “Singing in the Rain.” That was me. I found my way back only to find everyone chilling out in the lobby of the hotel. Saeed, Naeem, Abdul-Malik…everybody. Where was the control room with radios and police tearing the city apart to find me! Life goes on I guess. I was literally running around London lost for 2 hours.
I can laugh about it now. Hope you got a kick out of it too. Until next week when I give another update on the album.
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| I want your feedback!! |
| February 12, 2007 |
As-salaamu-alaikum, Lets talk about the album some more. If you go to our “In the new” Section of our website, you will see that a lot of the articles written about us say that we rap about being Muslim in America. Growing up Muslim in America. So when you go back to MYNA raps and listen to the lyrics, you will see that we had songs about not being afraid to pray in public. Being proud of being Muslim no matter what people say. Etc. But as many of you know, being Muslim in America after 9/11 is a whole new experience. Music has always reflecting a people’s experiences at a particular point of time. There are a lot of songs that came out from the struggles of Blacks in America, South Africans from apartheid and Americans from the Vietnam War. Therefore, I think you guys should look for Native Deen to have some feedback on how life has changed for Muslims in America on our next album. I don’t know. Its just an idea right now. What do you guys think? Any feedback? Do you think it may start to be too political? We want to know what our fans think. Get you guys involved in the making of the next Native Deen album. |
| Native Deen Practicing for New Year |
| February 8, 2007 |
As-salaamu-alaikum, Hello Friends and fans. This is Joshua checking in again. I want to update you guys on the album…or should I say our next product. Because we are thinking about doing something different than a studio album. Something very exciting happened recently. We stayed an extra day after one of our gigs here in the DC area. We asked all three percussionists to stay for a full Native Deen practice. We had Tariq on the drum kit, Br. Shahid on Congas, and Wes on Marimba. And it was absolutely amazing. There was so much creativity in the room you could cut it with a knife. We were re-creating the songs from the old MYNA raps tapes and practicing for a live performance. This had never been done before. Most of the time when we perform we only have one percussionist or maybe two. But in this new year of 2007, everybody should be looking to see at least three percussionists. It does wonders for us on stage. We are able to hear the key the song should be in better, keep the tempo of the song steady, and a whole lot of other things. So if you plan on booking Native Deen this year, you should be looking for a whole new experience. |
| Dubai Trip |
| January 8, 2007 |
As-salaamu-alaikum, Well we are back from Dubai. We got to see a little more of the city this time. Naeem and Abdul-Malik went to check out the hotel with a ski slope inside. I went to check out the hotel that has a small river going through it. None of us got to go into the 7 star hotel. I'm told that it costs $250 just to go inside. And with all that glamour, its nice to know you can still go parts of Dubai where they still hang their clothes off the balcony to dry. People still riding bikes getting to work. Not everybody has the latest ride. You know what was cool though...I was out shopping with the brothers and 2 young boys recognized me from a T.V. program in England. They were visiting Dubai from England. The younger one looked like he was 5 and his name was Faisal. The older one looked like he was 9 and his name was Waleed. I thanked them for stopping and giving me the greetings. I told them I would mention them in my next blog. So to Waleed, Faisal and your family, Eid Mubarak. Actually, to everyone who is able to read this blog, I say Eid Mubarak!! Our show in Dubai was not as big as we expected but it was very nice. The crowd was very involved and made us feel at home. At the end, we had about 12 children come on stage and help us with the song, "Drug Free." They knew all the words. A special thanks goes out to all the people who donated money over and over again that night. Thousands of dollars were raised that evening and Native Deen is glad that we could be a part of it. Next time we come to Dubai though, we got to get the word out more. There were a lot of people that were upset that they did not know we were in town. Until next time, everyone. |
| Eid coming up! |
| December 25, 2006 |
| As-salaamu-alaikum, So how is everybody doing out there? I have some very good news for you guys. Last week, Abdul-Malik and I met with a producer to discuss his role in helping us with our new..."Album." That's right!! We have not given up. Slowly but surely we are moving towards getting another album out to you. We listened to some of his beats and talked to him for a while. He seems like someone we can work with Insha-Allah. He's not Muslim but he is a very positive brother trying to do some good work. In fact, he said he really liked what we were doing because of the positive message. What else is going on? Eid is coming up. And being in a Muslim performing group, we have one of those jobs that always has you going away for Eid. We go to help create festive events and memorable occasions for many communities. If every one stayed home for Eid, who would get up early and get the moon bounce ready, or decorate the hall with balloons, or dress up like a clown, or coordinate the sack races for the kids. It is definitely hard being away from my sons on Eid. Same goes for everyone in the group. But I try to spend a lot of time with my boys when I am home. And Native Deen will not be traveling forever. Very soon there will be some other talented youth group who will take the torch and travel and perform for the community. When that happens, I will be in the crowd clapping, saying "Takbir", with my sons just thinking about what a wonderful Eid celebration this is. We leave for Dubai, this weekend for Eid. Check our calendar section for more information. We will take some pictures and tell you all about it when we get back. |
| MAS tours and then some |
| December 14, 2006 |
As-salaamu-alaikum, Have you ever had a new years resolution. You know the kind; get in shape, loose weight, learn more Qur’an, make Hajj, take a cruise…etc. You start with good intentions and then you start to fade out. Your workouts become shorter and shorter. The money you put away become less and less. That’s why its always good to have a partner with you. Work together. So when you are feeling like giving up, your partner is there to push you forward. Well, that’s my story with these blogs. I really wanted to be here every week giving you updates about what is going on with Native Deen. And every once in a while I meet someone who I consider a partner, who tells me to keep it up. “Push on” “You can DO it!” One person that comes to mind is Br. Mahdi from Meem records. This brother always tells me in the nicest way how I have not keep my promise to write a blog every week. So to Mahdi, I say…May Allah reward you for reminding your brother about his promises. That being said. The last trip Native Deen had was to Houston and LA for two local MAS (Muslim America Society) conferences. Unfortunately, Naeem could not make it because him and his wife were expecting a baby. So Abdul-Malik and I had to hold it down. We were blessed to have a nice percussion crew that day. As some of you may know, Tariq has been touring with Sami Yousef for a while but he was able to perform with us on this trip. Also Br. Shahid was on the congas to complete the set. Abdul-Malik and I held it down. I’m sure the crowd really wanted to see Naeem but they still gave us a nice applause and a round of “Takbirs!”. MAS came across very organized Al-hamdu-lilah. They had nice bazaars and both events were well attended. But the thing I want to praise them for the most is their focus on the youth. I felt that MAS always had the youth in mind from A-Z in the planning and execution of the conference. The youth truly are the leaders of tomorrow and if we see them in this light, it is our duty to invest in them. So, Br. Mahdi and the rest of the world out there…see you next week and thank you for your patience. |
| Special thanks to VA |
| December 5, 2006 |
As-salaamu-alaikum,
This was an interesting weekend. The weekend of November 10-12. I told you last time that I would let you know about my experience signing for an Imam for an interfaith crowd. I will be brief so I can get into the show at ADAMS center in Northern Virginia. So I’m sitting quietly in Jummah like a good little Muslim is supposed to. As the Imam starts speaking, he looks over and notices me and smiles. I guess that’s cool. To have an Imam happy to see you. He could have given me that look like, “Ahhh man! Who let this guy in here.” Anyway, he gave a beautiful Khutbah. He gave a lot of historical facts that were really nice dawa for the non-Muslim crowd observing the service.
So afterwards, I run up to him to give my salaams. Got to respect the knowledgeable among us ya know. And he says, “Joshua!! Just the person I want to see. You have to do a song for us. It would be a wonderful surprise for our guests.” To anybody else, I would have probably said no. But since this was Imam Yahya Hendi whom I have known for years and like very much, I could not resist his request. Abdul-Malik and Naeem were not there to back me up. I had no percussionists to have a beat. I did not even have a table to beat on like I used to back in the days of M.Y.N.A.
So I do my verse of “For the Prophets”, and then I do “Drug Free.” But right when I am almost done with drug free, my voice cracked. Very embarrassing, but hey. The show must go on. Anyway, the seemed to enjoy it and I was out. Just thought I would tell you about it.
Moving right along. We did a nice show at the ADAMS center in Northern VA. They started advertising late but were still able to pack the gym with about 500 people. We were able to meet back up with 786 and Mohamed Amer. It was nice chilling with those guys upstairs eating rice and lamb.There is nothing like performing for a crowd that knows every single one of your songs. It seemed like every person in the crowd sang along the entire show. We look out and see friends and family and it is just a very relaxing environment. Sometimes, our fear is that they will get tired of hearing us. They see us all the time and yet they seem to make us feel special when we are on stage. For them, it is like looking at the brother get up after dinner and tell jokes that you have already heard 50 times. But because of the love you have for your brother, every time he does it, its still special. To the brothers and sisters of ADAM, thank you for all your support.
Another special thanks to wives of Native Deen and our managers (Tehreema, Sahra, Rahimah, Dina, and Jessica) for putting together a nice surprise party for Native Deen after recently winning a Mahaba award. I don’t know what we would be without you ladies.
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| New York / New Jersey tour |
| November 13, 2006 |
Okay. Here I am again. Now I am kind of self-conscience about these blogs. Everyone I run into is telling me that they are reading them. When I first started, I never expected people to read the blogs regularly. Al-hamdu-lilah, Allah is the best of planners. Anyway, lets get to the last leg of the tour. New Jersey and New York.
This is not an easy task because we did three shows in 2 days. Listen to how crazy this is. Our plane landed from Palestine at 5pm. It was a true blessing how fast we passed through customs. We came out and our ride was ready to take us straight to the venue that started at 7pm. It was about an hour away, so we made it just before doors opened. We were happy to see 786, Dawud Wharnsby Ali, Br. Dash, Sham, and the comedian Mohamed Amer. We had to quickly do a sound check and get back stage.
I could get into the details of how we had to iron clothes and work out the songs we were going to sing, but who wants to hear all that stuff…right? I can tell you that Hasan Johnson and Br. Dash put together a very nice show. Very professional guys.
One thing that I will remember about this trip is how I witnessed about 10 young men around the age of 20 standing in the hallway singing “Mubarakum” by Zain Bhikka. Zain would be very proud.
Okay, we go to sleep, wake up and head to another show that was outside. That’s right! Outside in the cold. We normally are very active on stage but this time it was with a purpose…to stay warm!!. It was a funny show because they did not have drums. So we had to buy an electric drum set right before the show. I mean right before the show. We were literally still setting it up when they announced us. After stalling for a few more minutes, we put these drums on stage an tell the drummer, Wes, to “rock on.” But since we did not have time to work out the kinks, the sound of the drums kept coming in and out. We did not blink an eye. We just kept on singing and Wes kept on playing whether it was making noise or not.
So we rush of the stage, try to make sure we pack all the pieces to this drum set, and run right to the next venue. This was at a nice college with a nice stage and everything. But we had no idea what we were going to encounter when we got on stage. Our opening was very nice and dramatic. The announcer gave a good introduction and then they dimmed the lights and started playing our video, “Small Deeds.” While the video was playing we lined up behind the screen and stood in a row waiting with mics in our hands. When the video finished, the screen went up slowly and the crowd was like, “Ooooohhhhh.” I think that got us hype a little. So we do our show as we normally do. (Ohh, I’m sorry. If you haven’t been to one of our shows, we try to bring a real show. Make sure the crowd remembers they saw Native Deen live. To learn more, you just have to come to one.) I went into the crowd, and brought up two young kids. One male and one female. We had them sing along with us for a while. I gave the girl a shaker and I gave the boy a tambourine. LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING!! This little boy stole the show. Native Deen was singing and rapping but no one was listening to us. All eyes were focused on this little boy and how hard he worked to make that tambourine shake. He was jammin’. May Allah reward him for all his effort and raise him to be a good Muslim man. And same goes for the young brave sister that came up. I would tell you about how Naeem forgot his lines and messed up big time, but then he would come back and write a blog about all the times and mess up and start singing words that don’t make sense. So lets just keep that door closed. We leave there feeling real good because everyone truly enjoyed themselves. Al-Hamdu-lilah.
That’s it for this blog. Next week I can tell you about how I went to Jummah today and the Imam made me sing Native Deen songs to an Interfaith crowd at the Masjid. I tell you… the burden of being in Native Deen. Just Kidding. Thanks for taking the time to read and I’ll see you next week. Insha-Allah.
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| World Eid Tour - Palestine Trip |
| November 6, 2006 |
We are in Palestine now. I will have to keep this blog short before I start to get heated and make some political statements that will get Native Deen arrested. Its hard for a Muslim American to visit Palestine and not get upset. But anyway, lets get back to that. This was by far the best trip we have been on as Native Deen. We prayed fajr at Masjid AL-Aqsa every morning. We got to visit many religious sites. We went to Hebron and visited the rave site of Prophet Ibrahim, his wife Sarah, and others. Unfortunately, we could not visit the grave of Prophet Yusuf even though it was at that same Masjid. In fact, just to get into the Masjid we had to pass by three sets of guards and get checked three separate times. But anyway, let me get back to that. We also got to visit the old city of Jerusalem where Muslims, Christians, and Jews worship at building right next to each other. You turn one corner and see Jews crying at the Wailing Wall. Turn another corner and see a group of Christians walking with a cross chanting, turn another corner and see Muslims entering a gate to pray at the Dome of The Rock or Masjid Al-Aqsa. Amazing stuff. We did a shows in Jerusalem, Herbon and Jericho. Each show was very well put together with good sound and live crowds. We visited schools and interacted with the youth. They were so excited to see us. But we were so happy to be there for them. This was just a great trip. Our manager, Daud Hawa, gets big kudos for hooking us up with the Hotel with the best view of the Dome of the Rock. Naeem was able to just look out his window and gaze right at it. Dauds family lived just blocks away from the hotel and his uncle gave us a ride to fajr each morning. And his aunt fed us every night. May Allah reward all of his family for their hospitality and making Native Deen feel at home in Palestine. TO anyone who came to one of our shows in Palestine, Native Deen will never forget the experience. We will tell everyone we know about the trails that you have to go through everyday just for being Palestinian. We will be coming back Insha-Allah. WE WILL BE COMING BACK!!!. We want to thank the U.S. Consulate for working with the Palestinian people and helping to bring positive programs to them. You know Native Deen was inspired to come up with a couple of songs for our brothers and sisters over there. Shoot outs go to G-Town, the Palestinian rap group that hooked us up with so many gifts and opened our eyes to the famous Palestinian, Handala. Like I said, I have to keep this short before I get heated again. All I can say is, Muslims need to go visit the first Kiblah and experience life in Palestine soon. It may cause you to be more active for change in your local communities. Native Deen signing out. See you in New Jersey and New York for the last leg of the trip. |
| World Eid Tour - London Trip |
| November 6, 2006 |
London, London, London. What can I say? This leg of the trip you will begin to understand why it has been so hard to get these blogs to you. Here we go.... We land and our ride, Sister Nasreen and Abdul-Aziz, is there in good time to get us something to eat at the airport before we leave for a 4 hour ride to Leeds. We take a vote and decide to stop somewhere along the way instead of praying at the airport because we are running late. So after a quick lunch we hop in a nice van and we're off. I don't know about everybody else, but I was in and out of sleepy land. Next thing I know we are pulling over at a place called, "Little Chef." We make wudu, order some fries and pray in the parking lot. Back in the van you go boys. We are 90 minutes away and the show starts in 120 minutes. And our clothes are not even ironed. The next time I wake up, we are pulling up to this nice building with nice young Muslim brothers standing around in suits and ties. No time for long "hellos." We unload the luggage and head straight to the stage to set up the drums and do a quick sound check. The setting is a banquet type of event. It has about 30 round tables with nice table cloths on them. Every seat is set for a full course meal. The stage is extremely small. Not much room for our normal jumps and rolls and performance surprises. We either have to stand and sing or step off the 2 foot stage. After sound check, we go to the dressing room. It's a small room. Maybe 6' X 8'. And all the artists are supposed to be in there. It has a bathroom attached to it that helps but it is definitely not enough room. The artists were the comedian, Ahmed Ahmed, Sham, and Native Deen. What I loved was that no one really complained about the inadequate facilities. We just immediately starting moving chairs and tables and stacking bags to make the best of what we had. Ahmed Ahmed goes and sleeps on the floor somewhere. Sham hangs their cloths on the door. It would fall if you opened the door but there was no where else to hang it. Native Deen starts ironing cloths the best we can with just a few minutes before show time. Remember, we went straight from the airport to this venue. We have not been to any hotel yet to freshen up. And more specifically I have not had time to get on a computer. (you know I'm going to plead my case until the end) Anyway, each performer says that the show was a bit difficult because people were in the middle of dinner. And as an artist, its tough to compete against food and silverware. But we did get some people to come up after the show and tell us how much they enjoyed it. That always makes it worth it. We give our Salaams to Sham and head to the hotel with Ahmed. Another 4 hour ride back to London. I told you this trip was rough!! Four hours back to London to go to sleep at the hotel. We arrive at 3:00am. But it turns out that it wasn't really a hotel. More like a deserted bed and breakfast. No one was there to receive us. It was a small place that looked like a house and had about 15 rooms in it. So we each found an empty room and settled in. It was a nice little place with a courtyard in the back. But it was just weird finding our own rooms with no one on duty. So I stay up because my clock was wrong and I think its 4:30am instead of 3:30am. Fajr comes in at 5:30am. I'm in the courtyard stretching and doing push ups for about an hour. Then I wake everybody up. Of course after they all converge for prayer that are made at me since they have another hour to sleep. Hey, I'm sorry. Just trying to be a good brother in Islam Ha haaaaaa. So I have to stay up another hour to be able to wake everyone up again. I took a walk to kill time. We pray and then everyone goes back to sleep at like 6:00am. The van is back and ready to take is to the next show at 11:00am. But to be honest with you, none of really know what day it is or what time it is. We are all kind of lost from the international traveling. So we do the next show at the U.S. Embassy in England. They helped the Muslims organize and pay for the whole trip so, hey. Right after the our set, we grab our bags and run for the airport. We did not even get to stay and see Ahmed do his comedy set. But we make our flight but we are tired. Now we have about a 4 hour flight to Palestine. See you there. And do I have some stories for you. |
| World Eid Tour - 2nd Turkey Trip |
| November 6, 2006 |
I am actually at the airport about to leave Palestine. We are on our way back to the States. I have been catching a lot of flack about not keeping up with the blogs. But this trip was rough man!. I know, nobody wants to hear any excuses. Just type Joshua....just type! So what I'm going to do is write a blog for each leg of the trip since Dubai. After Dubai, we went to Turkey, then to London, then to Palestine, and now we are going back to America. So below are some brief words about our show in Turkey. We arrive in Turkey tired because we did not have time to sleep the night before in Dubai. For some reason they like doing things late. Both nights we were there, dinner was at like 10:00pm. Anyway, we land and we have a few more television and magazine interviews. We made it to Jummah just in time. Wish I could tell you what the Khutbah was about. But it was nice having Jummah in the middle of a city where Muslims are walking all around and doing things. The next day we go check out the venue. It is at a place called Feshane ("Fez-Han-Ne") It was an old factory that used to be for making Turkish hats. We play a little Putt-Putt while we are there. That was fun. Especially since I had two hole-in-one shots. We go back to the Blue Mosque and pray two rakat. The group Noor is with us now. Wonderful brothers with beautiful voices. If you haven't heard of them, keep your eyes open. Check them out at www.Noorifcation.com. We both shoot a couple of impromptu videos around the Masjid since we have a camera man with us. We'll see how that comes out. Anyway, its time to head back and get ready for the show. It was put together at the last minute so they don't know how many people to expect. But when show time came around, they had a good crowd of about 500 people. The first, group to perform was Noor. As expected, they did pretty well and got a good response from the audience. The next performer was Mustafa, the Turkish Rapper. He really got the crowd hype for us and made it an easy transition. We go on stage and do our best. Its always hard with a crowd that does not understand English. But we always act like they do. It helps us perform without thinking about some of the blank faces that are looking at us. The beautiful thing about music is that the rhythm moves people. The sound can generate emotion all by itself. So the Turkish people were feeling our show. Hands were clapping and faces were smiling by the third song. After the show, all three groups had trouble leaving because of all the youth who wanted pictures and autographs. Afterwards we crammed in the back of Omers SUV. I really mean crammed. I was in the back with the luggage and no seats looking out the rear window. See, I told you this Native Deen stuff isn't all that glamorous. Plus I live for opportunities like that. That's all in Turkey. I know Naeem and Abdul-Malik are readying this and getting mad about all the things I left out. But hey, that's what they get for making the guy with the bad memory write the blogs. Well, I volunteered, but anyway. See you in London.
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| Al-Mahaba Awards DUBAI!!!! |
| October 27, 2006 |
Its hard trying to get on the internet when you are country hopping. Sometimes the hotel has internet and sometimes it doesn't. So let me apologize ahead of time if these blogs are coming late. I'm doing the best I can over here. Well, the DUbai part of the trip was very interesting. We stayed in the Grand Hyatt Hotel like I said before, but I did not know how good the service was. It was by far, the best hotel that we have stayed at in our 7 years of traveling as a group. People just periodically come by your room and fix your bed, change your towels, give you fresh fruit, bottles of water, etc. It had like 5 restaurants and they were all excellent. It was a mixture between a 5 star hotel and ad 5 star resort. I had a friend call the hotel trying to reach me. Not only was there a message on my room phone but I had a typed letter i my room informing me they had called and giving me a number where I could reach them. Everytime we came back to the room, our clothes were folded and our items in the bathroom had been organized. Anyway, you get the point. The service was amazing.
SO we were not really sure what the event was about when we arrived but we learned that they are trying to establish a Muslim "Oscars" where artist can be recognized for the work and win awards. So some people received awards for work done in the media, some for work with visual art, some for having the personality of the year. But all the performing artists that were invited had to perform and be judged to receive an award. So Al-Hamdu-lilah, Native Deen won they English portion for the performing artists. We were blessed to be part of the first annual "Muhabba Awards" ceremony.
Now we are back in Turkey for our performance tomorrow. Today we had like 5 interviews with TV shows and hopefully that will translate into a better showing at the concert tomorrow. So make dua for us everybody. And when we say make dua for us we really mean it. Dua is the most powerful tool that we have as Muslims and we need to use it more. If you are sick, you should still take your medicine, but you should first make dua to Allah to make you better and cure you and then take your medicine. So don't stop doing whatever you are doing. But remember to make dua to Allah first for help. So make dua to Allah that He continue to keep our intentions pure and keep Native Deen on the straight track. That He protect us on our journey and bring us back safely to our families. Hopefully you guys will be haring form me tomorrow when I can tell you how the show went. Abdul-Malik is working on the site now so we can upload some of the pictures from our trip, so stay tuned daily because they should be up any minute. |
| World Eid Tour - Part One |
| October 27, 2006 |
Ok. Time to catch up because we are in Dubai now and you guys have not heard from us while we were in Turkey. I have been tasked with making a daily journal while we are on tour instead of the weekly journal. So before I get to telling you about Dubai, let me inform you about our adventure in Turkey.
Last year we went during Ramadan and that was our first year in a Muslim country. This year we went during Eid and it was our first Eid in a Muslim country. So Turkey is starting to have a lot of firsts for us and is becoming very special in our hearts.
We stayed in Turkey for three days this time and we did not perform. We actually come back to perform after our performance in Dubai. But we got to walk the streets more and make the Eid prayer at the famous Blue Mosque. There were a few people that remembered us from last year. That was surprising.
The difference between this time and last time is how live the streets were. Everybody was outside. The streets were packed. It was nice to see everyone in the market buying gifts. We found a a nice spot that had a small carnival. So we all rode a mechanical bull like ol’ cowboys. They also had trampolines with bungee cords attached to you so we could do amazing flips like a gymnast. Of course, they don’t have too many Turkish boys with big bones like Naeem so he had to pass on the trampoline ride. But he was the only one who rode the bull like a real cowboy with one hand.
We took a lot of time to walk down very narrow streets and found some nice restaurants with great Turkish food. And of course, our sponsor made sure we hit about four television stations to promote the upcoming concert. And just like that…we were gone. ON a flight to Dubai. Our first time in Dubai.
So far so good. We are staying in a hotel called the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Very nice place. Although since we arrived at 1:30am we could not check in. So we had a friend let us all crash in their place until the hotel had our rooms ready. As soon as we get to the hotel we meet up with Zain Bhika and his crew. And after a wonderful breakfast we get into one of our rooms and start recording. Its amazing what we can come up with when so many creative minds come together. Unfortunately, you guys will not be able to hear what we came up with until we get on the album. But stay tuned, and I’ll let you know what happens at our dinner tonight when I check in tomorrow.
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| Best Friends and true brothers |
| October 27, 2006 |
As-salaamu-alaikum, This week I would like to talk about something a little different. I would like to tell you guys a little something about two of my best friends...Abdul-Malik and Naeem. They don't know I'm writing this and they will not find out about it until they read the website themselves or they hear about it from someone. These brothers are truly good people. You know, you never really know someone until you travel with them, eat with them or do business with them, etc. I have done all these things with Native Deen and I can say that it would be hard to find two better friends. Now, I'm not getting soft on nobody. Anyone who knows me knows that I am pretty hardcore sometimes but Islam should soften ones heart. You can't be tough all the time. So during this month of Ramadan when Allah is opening his doors for mercy even more so, it is important for all of us to remind those close to us that we love them for the sake of Allah. So the next time you see Native Deen, you should see 3 really close brothers who have been performing and working together all over the world for over 7 years. May Allah continue to protect us and guide us to do what is right and spread this message as long as we are able. |
| STUDIO TIME |
| October 8, 2006 |
| As-salaamu-alaikum, Alright everybody. Guess what? The new album is starting to get some momentum. That's right, we were in the studio just the other day and the energy was coming. Sometimes its hard to get the creative juices flowing. But I'm starting to have real good feelings about the upcoming album. Of course, you will be the final judge but Insha-Allah you will like it. Since we are all working right now in our careers, its hard to really push the album out. We will do our bets to have it in your hands by the middle of 2007. Well, let me say we will have it in the store. You have to go pay the money to put it in your hand. As always, make dua for us. We pray that this next album reaches even more people than the last one. Stay tuned next week when I tell you how are plans are going for this 5-country tour coming up. Stay tuned and as Naeem always says, "Keep the Faith!" |
| Small Deeds |
| October 2, 2006 |
| This upcoming music video is a big step for us. MYNA Raps started in 1992 and Native Deen started in 2000. We have been around for a long time and have done a lot of things Al-Hamdu-Lilah. But everyone knows that we can do so much more with a video. Allah truly facilitated it for us...and now its here. Who knows what happens after this. The video is for the song Small Deeds and it was shot in California. We had a really good time with it. We got to act, sing, act like we were singing, walk up and down the same street like 40 times, wear clothes that did not belong to us, etc. etc. Hah haaaa. Yeah it was fun. I think when you guys see the video you will be able to tell that we were having fun. Of course there is a powerful message. Don't just do a few big things and think everything is gonna be alright. Remember that Allah loves most the small things that you do on a regular basis. So keep checking back for the video. It should literally be out in a few days or so. You know we are going to be looking for feedback...both good and bad. See you guys next week. Salaamu-Alaikum |
| Ramadan Mubarak |
| September 26, 2006 |
| As-salaamu-alaikum, First I want to sayRamadan Mubarak, I pray that Allah blesses us and our families in this blessed month of Ramadan. Remember the purpose of this special season: charity, reflection, will power, connecting with Islam, learning the Qur'an, and thanks-giving to Allah. May all of our duaas be answered, and may we complete Ramadan as better Muslims than we began. May Allah forgive us all - Amen Ok everyone, if you read the blog for last week, you know that I ran off to do a gig in Virginia. So let me tell you how it went. It was for Habitat for Humanity. Yes, President Jimmie Carters program to help people who are less fortunate. It's a great program and I think more Muslims should get involved. I have a cousin in North Carolina who is a single mother with 4 children and through Habitat for Humanity she was able to get a house. Of course you have to roll up your sleeves and pick up a hammer and climb up a couple of ladders. But that only makes you appreciate your new home even more. Anyway, there was a Christian band and a Jewish band that performed as well. One of the guys from the Jewish band came to check us out when we were practicing. He was bobbin' his head and grooving with the Native Deen sound. After we practiced "For the Prophets", he told us how much he liked the message and style. It was nice to hear his feedback. The Christian group sang several songs. Many of them could have been performed at Muslim events without any complaints because of the lyrical content. For instance, in one song the chorus went, "I cry out your name, and that's why I was created. That's why I was created." All in all in was a nice evening. It was not a Muslim affair but Habitat for Humanity paused the program so the Muslims could pray Magrib. Beautiful sight. So lets all do our part out there. If we stay active and get involved in our communities, we will find that many non-Muslims will respect our way of life. When given the opportunity, they will help facilitate us practicing Islam. Tune in for next weeks blog when I tell you all about the video we just made about SMALL DEEDS!!! |
| Sorry I am late |
| September 17, 2006 |
| As-salaamu-alaikum, Can you believe, 2 weeks in and I'm already off schedule. I said every Friday. I must have overslept or something. I'm sure you guys can find it in your heart to forgive me lets get to it. We had a recording session last week at my place. Abdul-Malik got us some mobile equipment so we can record just about anywhere. But he is still working out some of the kinks and we were not able to use the equipment that night. It's a shame because he drove all the way (about 45 minutes) to me and Naeem's neighborhood in Baltimore. Naeem and I live one block apart. Speaking of Naeem, of course he had to save the day with his Macintosh. He's a Mac fanatic in case anyone did not know. He plugged a couple of wires in, clicked a couple of buttons and the next thing I know, we are recording on Naeems computer using Garage Band but the software is somehow still running off of Abdul-Maliks computer. I don't know. I'm not the computer guy. That's the other 2 members. In fact we each have a role in Native Deen. Although I am the Amir of the group, Naeem runs the show on stage. He is the Master of Ceremony and always holds it down and keeps the show flowing. Abdul-Malik made almost all the beats on MYNA raps. He's the studio/recording man. The graphic art man. The martial art man. He writes songs with ease and the lyrics are always deep. I don't know what I am. You have to ask the other guys. I'm the guy who likes to jump into the crowd. Roll around on stage. The day someone has to be shot out of a canon to get on stage...that will probably be me. Anyway, got to go. We have a show in Northern Virginia tomorrow that I need to get ready for. Again, I'm sorry for being late. I pray that it does not happen again. See everybody next Friday. |
| Josh Checking in |
| September 8, 2006 |
| As-salaamu-alaikum, Hey everybody...what did you think I was kidding about writing something every week. My PDA alarm went off last night and I said, "Let me write something." Well, we met a sister at the Muslim Convention (Mosque Cares) in Chicago and she said she put us on her MY SPACE website because she supports us after hearing us. I have been hearing a lot about this MY SPACE website so I decided to check it out. Apparently, Native Deen also has space on there. I don't know who put it up there. It wasn't us. So if anyone gets offended by the stuff on the Native Deen area on MY SPACE, we are not managing that. Our website is...well you're on our website now. But, reading some of the messages on there did inspire me. So thank you to everyone how took the time to give your feedback. A couple of people were non-Muslim who just wanted to say how much Native Deen is helping them in life right now. Wow!! Please make dua that Allah continues to make Native Deen a means to guide people to the truth. There was also a guy who has some funny feedback about our show. He said he was tired of seeing the same moves on stage. So to him, I tell you, we are working on some new routines so stay tuned. We will be sure to surprise some of you at our shows booked for 07'. I will say that he did come to 6 of our concerts, so your really can't blame us too much for seeing the same moves. Most people don't come to 6 Native Deen shows in one year. Of course thank you for your support and your feedback. Anyway, that's all for now. You can look forward to hearing from me next Friday. Ohh by the way, for any non-Muslims out there...I'm not mentioning any names but one member of Native Deen needs to hear more feedback from you guys. I think if he heard more stories about how Native Deens music is helping them to learn about Islam, breaking down stereotypes about Islam, helped in ones conversion to Islam, etc, it would really have a huge impact on him. No fake emails please. I know some of yall Muslims will try to play MR. INSPIRED NON-MUSLIM for one day. But we really want it to be true and real. So if anyone has let his or her non-Muslim friends hear Native Deen and you have feedback or if you yourself are non-Muslim and have been listening to Native Deen, we are looking to hear from you. Joshua out!! |
| Our Chicago/ISNA experience - Part Two |
| September 5, 2006 |
| As-salaamu-alaikum,
This is Joshua and I want to apologize for not being on the website more. The last stop on the Islamic Relief Tour in California and this last trip to Chicago kind of woke me up and I pray that I can make time to give back to the fans that give us so much. There have been a few shows that you did not hear from Native Deen. Insha-Allah, that will never happen again. In fact, I am making a personal commitment to write to you right here every Friday to give you general updates about what is gong on inside Native Deen. I have the weekly alarm set on my PDA already. So what happened in Chicago? Well, as soon as we got off the plane, we went straight to visit three Islamic schools. It was organized by the super cool, super tall principal, Habib Chowdry. Our first stop was the Islamic Foundation where they had over 750 students. Our second stop was Universal where they had over 600 students. And our last stop was at MEC, Habib’s school, where they had about 300 students. Can you believe it, we visited over 1500 students in just a few hours. And to all the students at those three schools who blessed us with their presence and smiled for us and made Native Deen feel so welcomed…THANK YOU!!! Lets do it again next year. After that, we finally made it over to the ISNA convention. I have never shaken so many hands before. So many people stopped just to give us Salaams and let us know that they wanted us to continue what we were doing. On Saturday night we took a 30-minute ride away from ISNA to perform at the 2006 Annual Muslim Convention in downtown Chicago. A special thank you to Sister Zubayda Madyun from the Muslim Journal, Sister Lydia and Sister Kaleemah Al-Aziz for helping us to make that happen. Lets do it again next year!! The very next morning, Native Deen had a workshop with MYNA (Muslim Youth of North America). Later that evening, we had the grand finale, ISNA Entertainment!! There had to be at least 5-7 thousand people in the crowd. And it seemed like the whole crowd was singing along to all of our songs. That’s a really good feeling. I want to apologize for the people on the side of the stage that I jumped over when I leaped off stage but I was pumped up. And to all the kids who came to the front of the stage. We love you, but too much screaming makes us nervous so we are going to work with you to find some middle ground. We want you to enjoy yourselves without scaring us. And last but not least. I want to thank 7 year old Abdul-Sami for bringing Native Deen and 786 to tears with your beautiful Quranic recitation during sound check. May Allah bless you and your parents with the good in this life and the next. |
| Our Chicago/ISNA experience - Part One |
| September 4, 2006 |
| This weekend was a very inspiring weekend for me, subhanallah. We left for Dulles airport Friday morning at fajr time, however our flight was pushed back. Daoud our manager managed to get another flight on a different airlines. My wife and daughter went on later flights. Why were we leaving so early? Well we had scheduled to visit several muslim schools in Chicago before we went to the aunual ISNA convention – which hosts up to 40,000 people. I was excited about going to the Muslim schools because last year Josh and Naeem got a chance to go but I had to work that day. Visiting schools and meeting a youth always has a positive effect on me because the message of our songs and raps are targeted specifically at the youth. And when we arrived at the first Islamic school (Islamic Foundation of Villa Park), they had assembled over 600 students there to hear our words and enjoy our music. I was indeed humbled by this experience to see so many students and teachers eager to hear the message of our faith in an entertaining and pleasing way. In the ride there Josh and I had decided we were going to get names of the youth and then call them out like the show “Price is Right”. We picked three students that the teachers had recommended and spoke with them briefly and did two songs – Hellfire and Muslim. They seemed to really enjoy it. 786 also came and rocked the house, mashallah. I was really inspired by the teachers who came to us to thank us for our work and even the Islamic studies teacher was happy that someone is trying to reach the youth in a way that they can relate to. We then moved on to Universal school – another school with around 600 students. We sang and did the same thing we did at Islamic Foundation. Then we prayed ate and prayed jummah. The khateeb was interesting in that he did half the khutbah in Arabic and half of it in English. Usually this is a good indicator of the ethnic majority of the community. I enjoyed praying there and they have very decent facilities, mashallah. After jummah we went to MCC Full time school in Morton Grove, IL. Its principal is a long time friend – Habib Qadri. He defiantly taking Islamic schools to new “heights”. He is not only the tallest principal of a school that I know but one of the coolest. He seems to be able to relate to the youth very well and enjoys teaching and educating the 500 or so students that are enrolled in the school. We did the same thing there and then signed some autographs for the kids. But since this was the last school we were touring we couldn’t leave with out a good ‘ol game of basketball against 786. See 786 beat us in soccer in the Manchester trip – ON CAMERA. So we had to set the record straight. Alhamdulilah the record was set straight. Ok inshallah Josh and Naeem will write about the second part of our Chicago/ISNA experience this year. More soon inshallah! |
| The Amazing Second Leg |
| August 9, 2006 |
| Ok I guess its my turn to hit up a blog. So we just finished the second leg of the US tour. I am actually writing from back in Virginia. But I think this weekend was one of the most exciting part of the tour and the US tour in general was one of the most successful tours we have done to date. I say this because this series of events was the first of its kind in the USA. We have had bigger and more elaborate tours in Europe and the Middle East, but since we were born and raised in the US, it was so encouraging to see this happen successfully. I believe Islamic relief raised around 1 million dollars for the tour. Just the fact that our efforts will help the thousands and thousands of our brothers and sisters suffering around the world makes me so happy and proud of our community in the US. I can’t help but feel the pain for our brothers and sisters and I want to help in anyway – and this is one way that we can. But in addition to this, I feel that we have finally found a way to reach the vast majority of the so-called “Eid Muslims” through these events. Our show on Sunday in LA was one of the largest crowds we have performed in front of in the US, excluding ISNA and maybe a few other conference performances. But a good number of the people that attended seemed like the type of Muslims that you would see on Eid or maybe not involved in the community as much. And they were enjoying it very much. Many came up to us afterward and mentioned how much the music and the words inspired them. They say that the percentage of Muslim that actually attend regular functions at their Masjid or their local Muslim community center is very small (I’ve heard 5-10%) -compared to the people who claim Islam as their religion but don’t really practice much. Scholars in the US have been searching for ways to reach this group – I think we have found a way, alhamdulilah. Our performance in Chigago was also a unique experience. The venue was an outside venue that was near the bank. The sound system was great mashallah. The environment felt also very warm and inviting – seeing my brothers and sisters out there under the stars. It reminded me of the old days where righteous would address the people in the open places and exhort believers to righteous actions and a stronger relationship with Allah. I hope we can do more outdoor events such as that. There is something about being outside in nature under the stars that adds a spiritual effect. So overall the event was a good experience and a well needed one for our community here in the US. Afterward we had to go shoot a music video which was an experience in itself. I think I will leave that to Naeem or Joshua to write about. It was great being able to sing with exceptional artist such as Sami Yusuf and his crew, Nazil and of course the surprise visit by 786. Inshallah we can help our community to develop themselves spiritually and become more fruitful members of this society and the world at large. Ameen. |
| Native Deen in record breaking concert in Dallas |
| July 30, 2006 |
| As-salaamu-alaikum, This is Joshua signing in for his first blog. Of course we can never seem to leave work in time to make it to the airport early. But Al-hamdu-lilah we always make it. I can't tell you much about the plane ride because I normally go to sleep before we take off. But once we arrived, it was nothing but Southern hospitality from the volunteers. I have been to very few places where people have been so willing to help. The hotel was very comfortable, thanks to Islamic Relief looking out for the artists. But these trips are not about the hotels. We rarely remember the hotels. We always remember the crowds. We remember smiling faces, loud "Takbirs," and sold out venues. So this tour will be in our memory for a while, since every venue is sold out. We arrive at the venue, I don't know what the name of the place is...then again, I never know. Most of the time when people ask me where is Native Deen going this weekend, I tell them to check the website. That's what I do when I want to know where Native Deen is going. It never matters to me where I am going. I'm more concerned that when I get there, the people get something from our lyrics and our performance. You can ask Naeem and Abdul-Malik (AM) sometimes I get to the airport and don't know what our destination is. But enough about me, lets talk about the show. As soon as we arrive, I jump on the ironing board to get the wrongles out of the clothes. Got to look sharp on stage. Otherwise people talk about you when they go home. We go check out the stage. Looks nice and professional. And for those out there who have not seen us perform on a proper stage, you really have to. It is a whole different show. We do so much more with good lights and curtains, etc. The set up crew is running late so we get out of there way since there is only one hour until doors open. After Native Deen gathers together to go over our set, I try not to think about the show after that. It's easier for me just to run out on stage without a lot of forethought. Our intro has me running to the stage from the crowd. So I take my place sitting in the back waiting for me cue. I'm already looking through the crowd for two kids to bring to the stage. Anyway, Naeem and AM call me up so I do my regular diving roll onto the stage and grab a mic and get the show going. I was in a pretty bouncy mood, so I decided to jump over this guy in the front row when I leaped back into the crowd. The funny thing is that I grabbed only two kids...only two kids, and brought them to the stage. Then when I turned around, we had about 20 kids climbing on stage. Parents were throwing their kids on stage. We were like, "We have to end this song before it gets crazy up here." AL-Hamdu-lilah, we ended the song with about 12 kids on stage. It was cool. We only had enough gifts for the original two. I remember them. Muhammad from Tunis and Sarah from Somalia. Thanks a lot guys. Enjoy the T-shirts and CD's. |
| Native Deen and Sami Yusuf Rock New Jersey |
| July 30, 2006 |
| As-salaamu-alaikum, Everybody had a lot more time for sound checks this time. I felt like it was going to be a good show. And it was. But the best memory about this trip were the people who came back stage to say hello and let us know how much they enjoyed the show or how upset they were for missing it. One family drove 3 hours to come and missed most of the show. So we all gave them the VIP treatment and made sure they felt at home with us backstage. We ate some good food and just talked. It was really nice. Insha-Allah the organizers hooked them up to get seats at the Boston show next week. Hope to see them there. We have never done anything like this in the U.S. before. If you have not bought your ticket for one the shows on this tour, you better get one. Its only getting better. Nazil it getting warmer with the crowd. Noor is singing like one voice. Sami ....Sami is always Sami. He's a class act. And Native Deen. Just come and see our drummers do their solo. Nobody forgets that. May Allah bless Islamic Relief for their efforts in putting this together. Thank you for using us to help the orphans and people in need around the world. |
| Columbus, makes the 20th.... |
| May 12, 2006 |
| Salaams, Alright it's your brother NA to the EEM, dailing in for the blog spot. So last weekend we were in columbus for the myna event. A couple of things made this event extra special. One it was an event for MYNA, an organization we know and love and hope Allah brings her back to full strength. AMEEN! Also this is our first time performing there, other then at a isna convention. Oh man I just remember something, columbus is the first place we performed together (Naeem, Josh, Abdul Malik) like a million years ago. Way before native deen was even thought of. And we were on our second show in a row with 786, we played DC with them last week. I look at those guys like our younger brothers, and they alway push us to try harder. Because their sound is just amazing, five part harmonies , I'm so jealous. Anyway. Oh the venue "The Southern Theatre", I didn't know why a theatre as far north as Ohio would be called southern, but hey whatever works for ya. But the venue was beautiful, something out of like the 30's, really ornate and had a warm feel to it . One cool thing happend after sound checks, we decide to do a song together with 786. And it went off really well, they back us up on the song Small Deeds. Having all those voices on that song really made it soar! I felt it was a strong show, we had a great time, and we had both of our percussionist on stage. Tariq "Snare" on the drum kit, and Shahid on Congas. Those guys are amazing, I like to call them the Brooklyn Sound, even though shahid lives in manhattan. Oh well. After the show we got to connect with the audience and sell some CDs. It got kinda hectic for a bit, but it's always good to talk to the fans, see what worked, what didn't. And see what our work means to them. So we sold a grip of CDs, signed a bunch of autographs, and packed our junk and headed to the hotel. Normally when your on tour with a bunch of groups there is a jam session or something But I was SOOOOO tired from all the touring and work we've been doing. So when I saw 786 in the hotel lobby, I gave them my salaams and headed to bed. I'm getting old. Or is it that I only slept 2 hours the night before. So I wanted to give shouts to all who helped us, to the young sister working our booth who said she'd never wanna be famous because of the autographs( rocking a RAVENS HAT, B-MORE where I rest at). I thought that comment was cute. To my man Riyad shama for keeping the hope of myna ALIVE. To sister muhajibeen for all her efforts. To my man the cell phone king, I forget your name, but he picked us up from the airport, and help dispell the myth that Bob Evan resturant puts pork in everything. To everyone involved, we pray Allah is pleased with you all and your efforts, and pray he aids you ALWAYS. Oh one last thing, the 20th, columbus made the 20th show we've done in the last two month ( and a couple days). Thank you ALL for making each and every one of those performances something we learned and benefited from. Jazaks!! Salaams and keep the faith, naeem |
| Islamic Relief UK tour 06 - intro |
| April 23, 2006 |
| Alhamdulilah, we have just returned from a great trip. We traveled to six cities in about 9 days. Im feeling a bit under the weather physically but spiritually I am very pleased with our trip. We left Tuesday afternoon April 11th. Our first gig was at the Concert Hall, Glasgow Thursday, 13th April. We arrived the day before but we used that time to rehearse our show. The first show in was OK in my opinion. The crowd was great and we had good audience participation. But usually it takes the first show to iron out all of the kinks. Our second show was amazing. The St George's Concert Hall, Bradford on Friday, 14th was packed to the fullest. When we got on stage it was an amazing feeling of brotherhood and cooperation. Inshallah the next blog will go into more detail about our arrival to the UK, meeting all the IR staff, and in depth details about our first and second show. Stay tuned! |
