47Soul may have one upped their previous viral, socially-conscious pop anthem ‘Dabke System’ with 'Border Ctrl', a shamstep/reggaeton banger that arrives as a single off their latest album Semitics, which dropped earlier this week.
Bridging the gap between Middle Eastern rhythms and Latin-American reggaeton/baile, the beat for 'Border Ctrl.' bends the aforementioned genres into an incredibly polished, high energy hit that would bump confidently in either region. Featured artists Latino London-based rapper Fedzilla and British-Palestinian “first lady of Arabic hip hop” Shadia Mansour deliver what are by far the hardest verses on the track, leaving the catchy choruses and pop-sensibilities up to 47SOUL.
The music video shows 47Soul, Shadia Mansour, and Fedzilla performing through a variety of different locations, most notably the Palestine-Israel Wall and the Mexico-United States Border Wall.
“Stamped document,
Rejected permit,
Together we face injustices of the state,
Palestinian, Latino, Andean
will not be silenced” (translated from spanish) - Fedzilla
When considering the song lyrically and instrumentally, Border Ctrl comes across like an explicit call for unity between the peoples of Latin-America and the Middle East, disguised as a pop song. Historically speaking, both Middle Easterners and Latin-Americans have experienced restricted travel, persecution by colonial forces, and seperation via apartheid walls on what used to be open, native land, and 47Soul (and collaborators) hold no punches back
“This queue shows their hate
This queue shows their barbarity
This queue shows their ugliness
It describes how they would welcome Joseph
He wouldn’t get further than the wall” (translated from arabic) - Shadia Mansour
Overall, Border Ctrl succeeds in once proving that socially conscious music can also be catchy.
For more on the group, check out the interview 47Soul earlier last year:
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