‘Muslim ban’ not music to ears of musicians
Before he staged a professional comeback last week, the rapper Kayem had disappeared from public life for two years.
A US citizen by birth who remembers his relatives’ suffering at the hands of Moamer Kadhafi’s regime in Libya, he was lying low on legal advice after the US authorities crippled his career by putting him on a no-fly list.
He blames profiling for the scrutiny he receives at airports.
“I’ve been on lockdown,” the rapper — who used to go by Khaled M. — said at South by Southwest, the pre-eminent global media and cultural festival in Texas where he made his reappearance. After initially planning to wait until summer, he changed his mind after President Donald Trump issued a ban on travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries in January, raising fears of future travel headaches.
At least eight foreign performers were turned away attempting to travel to the US for South by Southwest. And among those artists who were able to play, worries are growing about how tougher immigration rules will affect their careers and the music world more broadly.
“One of the major problems with the ban is that even if it’s stayed, it’s very difficult to consider working with artists from those countries,” said Matthew Covey, an immigration lawyer who produced a South by Southwest showcase, ContraBanned, featuring musicians with ties to countries on Mr Trump’s list.
Mr Covey is executive director of Tamizdat, a non-profit cultural support organisation for artists encountering problems at the US border.
He described an especially stubborn customs officer about whom Tamizdat documented six cases: “Five-foot-six (1.7 meters), moustache, bald, didn’t like DJs, didn’t think they were real artists.”
Another group on its way to South by Southwest, the Italian post-punk band Soviet Soviet, said its three members were handcuffed and detained overnight with common criminals after being refused entry at Seattle Airport.
Cherine Amr, lead singer of the Egyptian-Canadian metal band Massive Scar Era, which was turned away at the border, said being denied access to US events represents a massive impediment for artists. “Any musician here knows that in order to make it in the music business — especially for the metal scene — you have to make it in US,” she said on Facebook.