Though it's almost 2 months old, this article in Paste on the Palestinian hip-hop trio DAM and the Israeli roots septet Sheva caught my attention when I found the magazine curiously lying about the kitchen. A few comments worth making:

• "[DAM] began to see hip-hop as an outlet...to confront day-to-day life inside what they refer to as the 'occupied territories.'" Oh, I'm sorry, guess I didn't realize that they actually are occupied territories.
  
  
• "In a region wracked by centuries of strife, bigotry, and ethnic resentment..." Because everyone knows that Jews and Muslims have never gotten along. And Jim Crow sure didn't have the ethnic resentment characteristic of Palestinians either.
  
  
• While DAM is recognized as one of the founding groups of the Palestinian hip-hop movement, why not mention other popular acts like Ramallah Underground or G-Town? Or the documentary Slingshot Hip-Hop (which, I confess, is still on my to-watch list)?

And Mark A. LeVine's Heavy Metal Islam is the featured review for nonfiction in the same issue.