[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:00.19,0:00:06.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Al Jazeera Anchor: [Speaking in formal, literary Arabic] ...Tunisians and because of the quality of the singing that he presented that talked about the deposed president personally.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:07.36,0:00:11.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So he was arrested during the society-wide protests a few weeks ago.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:12.84,0:00:14.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,El Général: Mr. President!
Dialogue: 0,0:00:14.42,0:00:18.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Here, today, I speak in my name and the name of the people and everyone who lives in misery.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:18.21,0:00:21.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,2011: this man is still dying of hunger.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:21.12,0:00:23.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He wants to work to survive, but his voice is not heard!
Dialogue: 0,0:00:23.60,0:00:26.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Go out into the street and see how the people have become animals.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:26.31,0:00:29.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Look at the police with batons. Thwack-thwack-thwack! They don't care!
Dialogue: 0,0:00:29.10,0:00:31.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There is still no one to tell them the word "stop."
Dialogue: 0,0:00:31.78,0:00:34.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Even the law that's in the constitution, put it in water and drink it.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:34.67,0:00:37.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Every day I hear of a man's case decided by the sword,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:37.81,0:00:41.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,even if the official knows that he is an honest citizen. I see
Dialogue: 0,0:00:41.13,0:00:43.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the police beat women for wearing headscarves.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:43.27,0:00:46.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Would you accept that for your daughter? I know my words make the eye weep - I know!
Dialogue: 0,0:00:46.47,0:00:49.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But you're still a father. You would not accept evil being done to your children. Alors!
Dialogue: 0,0:00:49.41,0:00:51.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This is a message from one of your children
Dialogue: 0,0:00:51.69,0:00:54.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,who is speaking with you of suffering. We are living like dogs!
Dialogue: 0,0:00:54.26,0:00:57.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Half of the people live in humiliation and have tasted from the cup of suffering.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:57.07,0:01:01.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Mr. President, your people are dying. So many people are eating from the garbage. There, you see...
Dialogue: 0,0:01:02.19,0:01:05.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,AJ: And joining us today in [Al Jazeera's Tunis] studio is the rap singer Hamada ben Amor.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:06.03,0:01:10.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I mean, as he is known, "El Général," as I wish to greet him from the beginning.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:10.13,0:01:10.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,G: May peace be upon you.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:10.92,0:01:18.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,AJ: Hamada, this genre of music, how can it influence people and reach them?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:18.100,0:01:24.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,G: [Speaking in very colloquial Tunisian Arabic] In all honesty, right now, because of rap, the people in Tunisia came together. You understand?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:24.73,0:01:27.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It speaks in the name of the people and it in the name of the "why?," the Tunisian people,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:27.13,0:01:29.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the problems that are happening in the country. You know what I mean?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:29.53,0:01:34.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And this, I mean, I'm still a Tunisian rapper, you know? I spoke in the name of the entire [Tunisian] people in the song.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:34.46,0:01:39.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And it reached the president of the country and, in this way, I was arrested.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:39.26,0:01:42.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,AJ: Was it your first directly political song?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:42.32,0:01:45.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,G: No, no, no. I sing about politics but this, for the public, is the most famous song.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:45.95,0:01:48.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,AJ: The most famous song. When they arrested you, what did they do to you?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:49.14,0:01:56.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,G: In all honesty, they took me to the Interior Ministry. I was questioned for three days. You know? Interrogated.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:56.60,0:02:00.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They liked to say, "Who's the leader? Who's writing this?" Know what I mean?
Dialogue: 0,0:02:00.55,0:02:03.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,AJ: You mean, "Who was it who wrote these words?"
Dialogue: 0,0:02:03.07,0:02:05.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,G: I mean, [state security] knew that I worked alone.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:05.25,0:02:08.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,AJ: Were violent methods used on you in the investigation?
Dialogue: 0,0:02:08.46,0:02:11.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,G: No, no, God be praised! AJ: No, they didn't use any... G: No, no.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:11.65,0:02:20.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,AJ: Now, you have become famous. What can rap music contribute now to the transformation of the new Tunisia?
Dialogue: 0,0:02:21.14,0:02:26.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,G: By God, I see so much that is lacking in Tunisia right now, in a new Tunisia.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:26.67,0:02:32.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I see so much that is lacking in the new transitional government and I will try to give [Tunisia] something more with rap,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:32.67,0:02:36.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,not in the voice of government officials but in the voice of the Tunisian people.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:37.15,0:02:42.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,AJ: Being named "El Général" - where did that come from? In Tunisia there was a general, but that general was Ben Ali!
Dialogue: 0,0:02:42.15,0:02:52.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,G: That's true. It was because the leading rappers weren't singing about politics, you know? I chose it because I would sing about politics.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:52.67,0:02:57.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I chose this name because it's strong, because it's a symbol...a political symbol.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:57.60,0:03:06.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,AJ: The political significance of rap...did it have a specific political color? G: Huh?
Dialogue: 0,0:03:06.94,0:03:13.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,AJ: I mean a...a specific partisan color that meant liberal or whatever?
Dialogue: 0,0:03:13.22,0:03:21.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,G: Color? No, no, no. I mean, I'm a person with no party. I work in rap and only in rap. You know?
Dialogue: 0,0:03:21.22,0:03:24.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'm not a politician but I sing about politics. You get what I mean?
Dialogue: 0,0:03:24.31,0:03:28.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,AJ: In the era of the 1970s and 1980s there were political songs in Tunisia, in the universities.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:28.38,0:03:34.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There were Cheikh Imam, Marcel Khalifa, and other Tunisians as well.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:35.100,0:03:40.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, have politics in Tunisia become necessarily entangled with rap?
Dialogue: 0,0:03:41.62,0:03:48.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,G: No, it's not entangled with rap. But, because rap is, right now, the closest way to...
Dialogue: 0,0:03:48.58,0:03:59.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,All of the people are listening to it now. Rap has become the most well-known form of art - not just in Tunisia but in the whole world. But it's near the roots.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:59.82,0:04:02.71,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,AJ: Are you currently engaged in the production of a new song?
Dialogue: 0,0:04:02.71,0:04:07.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,G: God willing. Two days ago, a new song came out. Its name is ta7ya tunis ("Long live Tunisia").
Dialogue: 0,0:04:07.70,0:04:08.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,AJ: ta7ya tunis...
Dialogue: 0,0:04:08.54,0:04:17.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,G: It's about the reality of the current time. God willing, we'll get our freedom.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:17.75,0:04:26.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,AJ: Thank you very much, Hamada bin Amor, the famous Tunisian rap singer El Général. You are most welcome here.