Brilliant advertisement. Brilliant message.

What a great message and awesome execution. Hats off to DDB, very persuasive work.

The Faculty: Muslim Music You Should Know About

Disclaimer: Taqee Khaled, one half of the superstar Muslim hip-hop team The Faculty, was once an active member of MuslimTees where he left his legacy with the Somali Star design. We have a personal relationship but this record is seriously hot fire! Thus the reason I’m writing this post.

If you haven’t heard of the Muslim hip-hop duo The Faculty consider yourself missing out in a major way. Well here’s the introduction. Meet The Faculty, a fresh new take on genre dear to all of our hearts: Muslim hip-hop.

While the team is new, the players are well experienced in their respective domains. Mohamad Elmasry, a 13-year veteran to rap writing, peppers the track with raw and intelligent lyrics reflecting the state and aspiration of today’s Muslim youth when he’s not working on his PH.D in Journalism and Mass Communication. Taqee Khaled lends his voice to act as a melodic counterbalance to Elmasry’s flow; Khaled is no rookie to music, he plays the piano, saxophone, tabla, and guitar.

The Faculty, composed of Taqee Khaled and Mohamad Elmasry, are the latest Muslim hip-hop group to hit the scene.

While the group is Muslim, the lyrics do not overwhelm the listener with Islamic overtones. Actually listeners will have to listen carefully in order to catch the full meaning behind these lyrical gems like on one of my favorite tracks ‘Like Rain’ Elmasry raps, “Who’ll be present at the sentencing, of all the weakened souls/I was present at the witnessing a long time ago/You bore witness too man – don’t act like you don’t know/You could probably find the record cuz that’s just the way it goes.” Writing it out does not give it justice.

In that verse Elmasry is referencing two specific events detailed in Muslim tradition: the Day of Judgement and the Islamic belief that all souls bore witness to Allah as their Lord prior to the creation of humans. Even if you don’t believe, the rap verse allows the listener to relate it back to their own experiences.

The track is backed by a smooth jazz-like beat and Elmasry’s reflective rap on this track reminds you of a conversation you would have with a close friend late at night.

Another noteworthy track is ‘Faces in the Crowd’ the hook is especially addictive with Khaled crooning behind a popping tabla beat, “And if it’s truth you’re looking for, then hold the prism to the colors in and white within the spectrum within yourself and ask ‘Was it worth the price?‘ ‘Was it worth the delusion to understand that this was all a dream?’“

 

At the end of the day The Faculty delivers on their introduction on their website offering “music that reflects deep political consciousness and spiritual awareness, all wrapped neatly with a mix of hot beats, dope delivery, and smooth harmony.” Professionally produced and well thought out, for a mere $10.50 The Faculty is definitely ‘Worth the price.’

Salaam. Z.

 

Check out their website FacultyProductions.com and make sure to taste some samples.

Great ISNA 2008 and….RAMADAN CLEARANCE SALE!

Ramadan mubarak!

Jazaak Allah Khair to everyone that stopped by the MT booth at ISNA! The team told me a lot of great things about the people they met there. Going to ISNA, or any convention is a lot of fun because you get to really connect to the customers you serve and see what kind of impact your product has on them. It is also a great time to get feedback on how your company is doing and where you can improve. We are in debt to everyone who took our survey’s for $1 off, a couple of minutes for you provide us data we spend lots of time reviewing to try and improve our services.

We love hearing stories from the people who wear our shirts, from the compliments they receive to the questions that people have about the meanings behind our designs. We’ve often heard our designs provide a

Ledo talking shop with customers

conversation peice for people to share more about Islam and the particular culture they come from. It is always a treat to hear young people recant stories on how observers were surprised their shirt came from a Muslim company.

The reaction to our new collection, MT Essence, was a big hit. This collection was the debut of our lead designer Zamin Dharsi to much praise. Khaled ‘Ledo’ El-Sawaf mentioned in his post-ISNA report that, “Zamin’s new line definitely made a strong statement and definitely gave us a new direction with regards to our designs.” Needless to say, you’ll see a lot more of his work inshaAllah.

However, in order to get more of his shirts on our line-up we need to make some room for them. That’s why we’re running a sale to move some of our older products. Check MuslimTees.com to see all the shirts that are on sale – sale prices are only good as long as we have them in stock.

As the winds down we hope to be adding more designs, more products, and more web functionality. If at any time you have any suggestions, comments, or criticisms we’d love to hear them – that’s the only way we grow!

Salaam. Z.