RISING STARS. The Sound of Reason, a duo from Montreal, Canada, are rising stars in the world of Muslim pop music. The hip-hop group consists of Ku (left) and Francis. (Photo/Elijah M. Hasan)

By Taimur Khan
The Asian Reporter

It’s late on a surprisingly mild November night, and the dimly lit ballroom in Portland State University’s Smith Center is packed with a raucous, ethnically diverse crowd anticipating the headlining hip-hop act’s entrance. That perhaps a third of the 250 or so people in attendance are wearing hijabs — the traditional Muslim headscarf — makes this event seemingly an anathema, at least according to common-sense takes on the character of Islam a la Christopher Hitchens.

The group that has attracted these mainly Muslim youth is The Sound of Reason, a duo from Montreal, Canada who are rising stars in the world of Muslim pop music, as their recent performance at a charity event in London for over 10,000 people attests.

Montreal natives Francis and Ku, both 25 and converts to Islam, formed the Sound of Reason during their college years in 2005. Though they have been good friends since meeting on the first day of high school, it took mutual dissatisfaction with the vacuous state of 21st-century hip-hop, and Ku’s burgeoning interest in beat making, to bring them together in the studio.

"[Francis] is the vocalist and is a genius with the melodies, and I was like ‘wow, this could really work,’" said an optimistic Ku, the Persian-Canadian producer and rapper of the group. (Though don’t call him a rapper to his face; he prefers the less commercial descriptor, poet.) "As time went on we were saying ‘wouldn’t it be great if one of these 50 Cents or Eminems would actually talk about something with a message?’ We listened to the mainstream and the way it was going and talking about all sorts of nonsense. It was nice music, nice beats, [but] any content was very negative and destructive, and we decided to be the sound of reason, to bring a change to mainstream music."

While the group’s raison d’etre is not dissimilar to that of the standard hip-hop purist languishing in chat-room obscurity, The Sound of Reason have the potential to become international stars due to their don’t-call-it-a-niche market: young Muslims born and raised in Europe and North America. In Europe, Muslims are the fastest growing segment of the population, and pop music that is Western in form but with content adhering to Islamic values is increasingly popular with a demographic hungry for artists that understand and speak to their situation.

Both members distance themselves from the "Muslim Rapper" label and feel their religious beliefs only provide a foundation for their message of social justice.

"We don’t want to be categorized as a Muslim group," says Ku. "The message we’re putting out, the Muslims appreciate it because they can relate to it. But this is a message that needs to be heard by everyone."

Adds the Irish-Canadian Francis, "We’re in music and we’re Muslim. Whatever people want to categorize that as, they can. In our music, [Islam] is not in your face."

Sonically, the music employs a boom-bap percussive spine with lots of pretty, introspective live acoustic guitars filling in the spaces, and ranges in style from down-tempo R&B to double-time anthems influenced by Southern rap. Lyrically, spiritual issues are dealt with in an oblique, almost Sufi-esque manner in which God, political struggle, and love are interchangeable and sometimes indistinguishable. Their disdain for mainstream music and political apathy are much more explicit themes, and feature continuously on their self-titled debut album. Aside from the song "Palestine" and the rare Arabic phrase, a cursory listen belies surprisingly few overt references to issues that could be described as "Islamic." Still, for the majority of their fans, the group’s religious identity is an important aspect of its appeal.

With near-constant continent-hopping performances, Ku and Francis have learned that life on the road poses challenges that non-Muslim musicians would probably not have to consider.

"It’s not what I thought it would be. It’s a lot more complicated," says Ku, shaking his head. "Like women asking you for crazy requests. I didn’t think about that initially, and how to counteract that. Sometimes a girl will just jump on you and take a picture for Facebook or something. I know there’s at least three pictures on the internet of girls all over me, and people are thinking, ‘look how these guys get down!’" Perhaps their fans understand the travails of stardom more than they realize. One recent discussion topic posted on The Sound of Reason Facebook page reads, "Girls that scream at the concerts??? Eww!"

Though it wasn’t a problem at Wembley Arena in London, which stopped serving alcohol for the benefit concert, the two always make sure there are alcohol-free areas at the venues they play, in accordance with its prohibition in Islam. The group has managed to make successful compromises on the issue. "We’ve had a show at a big festival where the alcohol is in one tent and we’ll be on the other side of the festival. We can work with that," says Francis.

Other challenges have been more metaphysical than logistical. Despite the rich and diverse musical traditions of all Muslim cultures, not to mention the profound Islamic influence on hip-hop, the place of music in contemporary Islam is still a regularly debated gray area. Very conservative Muslims have confronted the duo over the compatibility of Islam and music, a debate that hasn’t changed the way they approach making records.

"We respond by saying, ‘if you’re of the mindset that music and Islam don’t mesh, we respect that,’" explains Ku. "But I would say for each individual to not just go with the crowd."

A few days after the show, as Ku and Francis walk through downtown Portland on a crisp evening amid banter about their impressions of the city ("Uh, where are all the people?"), Francis explains the group’s vision:

"We want to make people more aware of the world they live in and their surroundings, whether it be music, faith, politics, whatever. If there’s a problem, people should be reading into it. If we can do that, at the end of the day, we’ve accomplished our goal. We’re here for a reason, let’s find out what that is."

To learn more about The Sound of Reason visit <www.thesoundofreason.com> or <www.myspace.com/thesoundofreason>.