Where are you Dude

The new song by the Istanbul Hip Hop group Tahribad-ı İsyan.

VZ, Zen-G, and Asil Slang (their real names are Vaysi Özdemir, Burak Kaçar, and Asil Koç) met in 2006 during their first year of high school in Sulukule, a neighbourhood which is perhaps Istanbul’s most infamous example of aggressive gentrification gone wrong. As young teens, they bonded over a mutual appreciation of the less-than-acclaimed movie You Got Served, a 2004 American movie about competitive street dancing. In it some narratives of mainstream hip hop – rags to riches, art made on the streets, competition and competitive bravado — play out in dance-offs.

Growing up in the isolated worlds of Istanbul’s poorer neighbourhoods the boys were instilled with that combination of longing and resentment which can either propel or petrify. Music, like that offered by Oral, was a therapy and a distraction from perilous behaviour. But hip-hop, as presented by narratives like You Got Served, was more than a diversion. It was, no matter how remote, a future outside of Sulukule. In this narrative, an artist’s hardscrabble upbringing is an advantage, providing inspiration and, most importantly, authenticity. In the glossy grit of You Got Served a tough life wasn’t pitiful, it was real, and realness was the key to success. VZ, Zen-G, and Asil Slang couldn’t have predicted that their big break would come about far from the streets of Sulukule, on the pristine walls of an Istanbul art gallery.