‘This is Iraq’: Dubai rapper I-NZ takes musical aim at US invasion
When Childish Gambino released the viral video for his single This Is America, depicting police brutality alongside themes of racism and inequality, Dubai rapper I-NZ took it upon himself to do the same for the country of his parents: Iraq.
Released to coincide with American Independence Day on July 4, his take on one of the music videos of the year has already amassed more than 600,000 views on YouTube.
Beginning with an old Iraqi man playing the oud, the video goes on to show dead Iraqis draped in American flags, hooded parents surrounded by barbed wire and masked gunmen fist-bumping US soldiers.
I-NZ, a 33-year-old Iraqi-Kiwi whose real name is Majid, aims to use Gambino’s song to send a message to the world about what has happened since the US invasion.
“Ultimately, I want people to remember what Iraq has gone through from 2003 until today,” he tells The National in his first English language interview. “As soon as I heard [the song], I knew there was an opportunity to use Childish Gambino’s platform to get our message across.”
Iraq has emerged from a threeyear occupation by ISIS militants, in part helped by the US withdrawal of its troops in 2011. But Majid wants the memories of the years-long American occupation before that to remain.
“Just because the media aren’t holding a magnifying glass to Iraq any more, doesn’t mean that people aren’t still dying,” he says.
The old man’s oud notes are brutally cut short by a gunshot to the chest. A US soldier is seen forcing the young Iraqi, clad in an orange jumpsuit, to shoot his compatriot.
“It represents the transition from the old and beautiful, to the new and ugly, depicted by the soldiers who are forcefully pushing the country into a war that it wanted no part of,” he says.
The visuals are striking and bring back the most haunting images of the Iraq War, the conflict in which hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed. So too are the lyrics.
“Take your clothes off (rape)/ Takin photos (ghraib)”
They allude to incidents that brought the harshest of condemnation on the US.
“What made the reality of war hit me on an extreme emotional level were the iconic images that were published during and after the war. We attempted to bring a few of these images back to life in the music video,” Majid says.
Former US president George W Bush is also shown holding up a banner that reads “Mission accomplished”, mocking his famous speech delivered just six weeks after the invasion in 2003. The war would continue for years in spite of mass protests against the invasion.
For Majid, filming the video was a complex task, creating three scenes and calling on dozens of extras to shoot them in a single day in a boiling-hot Emirati warehouse. The entire process, from conception of idea to delivery of the production, took about two weeks.
“If this music video can have a positive impact on just one person, then I will feel vindicated,” Majid says.
The final scene shows an Iraqi man left to sweep up a large pool of blood, suggesting how many Iraqis feel today: that they have been left to clean up the chaos of the US invasion.
“It just goes to show you the painful and disturbing reality of war,” Majid says.