User:Katiehargrave/Mutamassik

{{db-bio}} A young female DJ from Egypt. Mutamassik means, tenacious, stronghold in Arabic. She specializes in Sa'aidi Hardcore & Baladi Breakbeats. Her beats, a mix of [Egyptian]], Afro-Oriental,hip hop, bass and syncopation of hardstep .Her sound sources are rich; afro-oriental punk roots in a rich broth of hip hop , garnished with junglistic bass and syncopation, punk jaw electronic hip hop roots raggamuffin pan-african derivatives.

Her Name

In Arabic, it means tenacious, or stronghold, as in someone who hangs on firmly to their beliefs. The extreme case of this is fantaticism. To Egyptians, mutamassik has a religious or cultural connotation, usually old-fashioned. For Saudis, it can mean a "holding"

Bibliography

Born in Italy to an Egyptian mother. Mutamassik came to the United States when she was five, and moved to New York City when she was 22. She had lived in West Virginia, Ohio and Pittsburgh. In 2000, Mutamssik went to live and work in Cairo for a year. She currently lives back in New York City. She officially started DJ-ing in 1995. Through college, she worked in the library, in the music resource center. Her job was to "play people music, dig out parts of scores (not to mention mindless data entry)..."

She wanted to become a DJ because "it seems natural because of (her)  music library days." She also mentioned it was mainly because she would go out dancing, and eventually wanted to hear music that she liked. After she came back from the trip from Egypt before she moved to New York, she brought a suitcase filled with cassettses. She wanted everyone to hear the Egyptian dance music. She went around her friends' houses to play the cassettes. In 1995, she got an offer from SoundLab. 

Music

Mutamassik's parents had a huge influence on Mutamassik's music view. Since young age, her house was filled with music, mostly African, South American, and everything in between. In her interview, she mentioned James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Muhal Richard Abrams, Chopin, Tarantella, and Oumm Kalsoum. She started playng piano early in her life and then switched to saxaphone, and violin.Her older brother and her were into hip hop until she was around 12, and when she was 13, she became more into punk rock. She also was amused by classical European music, especially Baroque. She said, in her interview " I can still point to my influence in its mathematical, relentless rythmicality, counterpoint, etc." This led her to study cello at 15 and join some punk-rock/experimental bands playing cello and drums all through college.During her college, she was in Bands such as Telecorps, Pledgedrive, Year Zero, LPN, Schick Strings, etc and also had friends who invited her to guest on their radio shows. She started by playing cassettes of Egyptian folk music and reciting some absurdist political manifestos. She DJs strictly sampling from vinyl and cassette. Her intention at first, was to "exalt these old, crusty Egyptian tapes, sort of re-master and remix them. Mix them with hip hop beats to draw the musical dots very clearly."

Gender Issues

When asked about gender issue in an interview, Mutamassik said "No, although I'm sure there's some scientific argument that my ovaries and estrogen have something to do with something, but if that were the case, I would say then that I must have a high level of testosterone. I also think so much of it is how we've been socialized. You know, the stereotypes that girls sing and are melodic, and therefore melody is feminine, and rhythm is hard and belligerent and aggressive, and therefore masculine. But when you look at how many cultures the women have been making the drums and beating them as well, you realize that we're living in a secretive Masonic society or something that has tried to make official rules to some old invented game between men and women. I really don't think gender has much to do with my creative impulses. I know this to be true from my earliest memories of those impulses. There was and is something so incredibly pure and transcendental about art. It goes so far, way beyond hormones and tits and dicks and twats, quite frankly. I just stick to this truth that I knew when I was little and not get caught up in bullshit.

It's interesting that just based on my sound and name people have mistaken me for a man. I used to get a great kick out of it because I felt somehow that I had a very strong, present legitimacy in people's minds - moreso as a man than a woman - now I realize how sad this truth is - what it says about how we think about sex. In my opinion, the more interesting people in the world are those who recognize both their female and male aspects. That's why I can't get with neither the self-pitying whining girly circles, nor the man-hating dykes, nor the gash-fearing fags, and especially not the "manly"-type pigs."