Serbi Serbi: Difference between revisions

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 "''Serbi Serbi'''" is a single from [[Khaled (musician)|Khaled]]'s album ''[[N'ssi N'ssi]]''. "Serbi Serbi" means "Pour me, pour me" in Khaled's native [[Arabic Language|Arabic]] dialect.
-In December, 2004, Khaled came to Los Angeles to put the final touches on the U.S.
-release of his album Ya Rayi. He sat down with Banning Eyre and Sean Barlow for a
-lengthy interview, over three hours of thoughts and recollections. As a mid-summer
-feature, hot on the heels of the Khaled and Friends tour, here follows a part of the interview:
-BE: This is interesting. In the beginning, you are songs were very much identified
-with freedom, including the freedom to drink.
-Khaled: No. No, truthfully, and Arabic, my language, it’s not like a European or
-American language. No. When one says drinking in Arabic, what is beautiful is that
-this means to drink life. I am drunk with life. And in French we say intoxicated with
-love. When I’m in love, I am drunk, intoxicated. You see what I’m saying?
-BE: You mean you are using language in a poetic way, like in Arabic poetry.
-Khaled: Yes. We always talk about that. But when a European or an American
-sings about drinking, they are singing about alcohol. For us it is a metaphor. Even in
-my songs. Like in the song “Serbi Serbi.” We were just talking about that song. In
-“Serbi Serbi,” I’m talking with a server. I’m in love. The woman I love has left.
-What can I do? I take medicine. But there are some who have been poisoned. It’s
-the same thing: medicine, alcohol—it’s poison. So I say, what can I find to relieve
-the pain? I am at a bar, and I’m talking to the server, and I’m saying, “Serve me.
-Give me what I crave. Just to the point where I die.” Because I am sick. But the
-same time, I sing, “Serve me, because today I must get drunk,” but happily, there is
-something that pulls on all of us Muslims, and that is respect for our mothers. So, at
-the same time, I sing, “Happily, my mother is waiting for me.” That’s a revelation. It
-wakes me up. I sing, “Drink, drink,” but after a moment I say, “Ah, no. There is a
-limit.”
-BE: And all that is in the song?
-Khaled: Yes, I sing that. In all my songs I sing that. Whenever I sing about alcohol,
-in all my songs, I also talk about my mother, and as I am married, my two daughters.
-I say, “There are my girls. They must eat.” They mustn’t see me like this, because
-they will copy me. Children are what? They are influenced by their parents. If they
-see Papa drinking at home, they will drink. When they see someone who smokes at
-home, they will be influenced. In order to become big, like an adult, you have to
-smoke.
-BE: Khaled, listening to talk about this, I have the impression that maybe you are a
-bit misunderstood by people.
-Khaled: No. I would not accept that word. Not misunderstood. It’s just that we
-haven’t often had the opportunity to ask these questions. And more than that, for me,
-I haven’t always wanted to answer these questions. You know why? Because for me,
-in the eyes of Europeans, or Americans, above all they think, “He is happy.” And that
-gives me the image that I want to give to Europeans. And it is true. For Europeans
-and Americans, when you say, “Khaled is a Muslim, and he sings about alcohol.
-That’s beautiful. For a Muslim to sing about alcohol. Maybe I should see his
-country.” They won’t find my country to be like Iran or Saudi Arabia. Because I
-didn’t grow up like that. No. And that’s why I never wanted to talk about this,
-because of people see me is happy, I think that’s good. Because I want people to feel
-welcome to come and see where I come from. Come. Come, see what it’s like with
-me, what is happening. When you come to my home, one European comes to visit,
-he’s going to drink more than he drank at home. He drinks more than he drank at
-home!
-BE: But I understand that you yourself stopped drinking.
-Khaled: Because that was my choice. I don’t want to influence people. I don’t want
-to be a fundamentalist. That’s it. It’s the same thing. When you talk about alcohol
-and religion altogether, that’s fundamentalism. That’s for fanatics. I am not a fanatic.
-I made my choice for myself, for me. I said, “No alcohol. Stop. Stop.” Why?
-Because when I was young, my father drank, my father smoked, and all of my
-entourage, I started taking up cigarettes because I was influenced. I tried alcohol
-because I wanted to taste what my father had tasted. You see? So why did I stop
-alcohol now? Because I have my daughters, and I don’t want my daughters to be
-influenced by me. I don’t want that. Because they will copy me. And about my
-songs. I don’t sing hate. I don’t sing politics. I don’t sing songs I tell people to go
-attack those terrorists or perhaps these other ones are not good. I don’t say, “Wake up
-and start a civil war.” I could say that. I could. Like Bob Marley and others who
-sang about politics, pure and tough. Those are artists and they can do it they want.
-That’s their right. I respect that. Everyone has their manner of singing. Everyone
-has their way of passing the message. I respect that, even if I don’t like it. Respected
-anyway. Because there are people who say they don’t like what I say. But I wanted
-to respect me. That’s why I respect them. For example, there is a group in France
-who sing in their shows about the police. “They are evil. Let’s go get them.”
-Between you and me, who likes the police? Nobody. I agree completely. But if we
-didn’t have police in our cities, we would not be protected. Even if we don’t like
-them, we need them. We need police. You see what I’m saying? Even if you are
-attacked, and you call out, “Help me!” and they come, but they come late, it’s OK.
-You need police in the city to keep order. When I was young and I went to the movie
-theater, I saw, for example, Bruce Lee. At the time, was 12, 14 years old. I went to
-the cinema, and that marked me. That marked me. I went to the cinema, and I saw
-Bruce Lee: Waaaaaaah!! At the end of the movie, I went out of the theater, and
-started hitting all my friends. Yaaaaaaa! I was hitting everybody. Because I saw that
-and I wanted to do like him. People will do what they see and hear artists doing.
-That is why I don’t want to pass a message that is not good. I don’t want to influence
-people.
 == Track listings ==