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Stephan Othman Said () (born May 30, 1968), aka Stephan Smith, is an American singer-songwriter,
rapper Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...
, writer, and global activist. He hosts ''borderless'', a
docuseries Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. * Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...
about people on the front lines of change, produced by difrent:, Inc. where he travels the world, meeting people through music and discovering stories of courage and creativity. His musical style bridges pop,
hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...
, rock and world
folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...
in a border-breaking sound of unity. His lyrics advocate global equality, social justice and reconciliation and cited for reinventing social-activist music for the Internet generation.Bessman, Jim (May 10, 2003)
"Servicing Global Justice"
''
Billboard Magazine ''Billboard'' (stylized in lowercase since 2013) is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to th ...
'' p. 66.
Said is fluent in English, French and German and also sings in Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew, Hungarian, and other languages. He is the founder of difrent: a platform for music for social change.


Musical career and personal life


Early life

Said was born in
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
, Ohio to Mohammad Said, a
Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
Iraqi physicist and Monika Smith, a
Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
pianist and women's rights organizer from
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, Austria. His name is drawn from German (Stephan meaning voice/Greek honor/crown) and Arabic (Othman, meaning chosen one; and Said meaning happy or enlightened). He has three older siblings: Leila, Rob and Nadja. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to the Appalachian country of Western Pennsylvania. When Stephan was two years old, his parents divorced; his mother married Frank Gutowski, a former Jesuit priest, and Stephan grew up as Steve Gutowski. The children all studied music from an early age; Stephan took up the piano at the age of three and the violin at the age of four. The family home was a meeting ground for people of all religions, ethnic, economic, and political backgrounds. The family moved to Richmond, Virginia where he attended St. Christopher's School and also became an Eagle Scout. The summer of his junior year, he attended the Governor's School for the Gifted and received an invitation for early entry into the
Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
Program at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he briefly joined a quintet under the direction of Ellis Marsalis at age 17. After less than one semester he left to tour with Alternative/ Punk bands Always August and The Office Ladies of SST Records, and played with groups including Firehose,
Sonic Youth Sonic Youth were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1981. Founding members Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar), Thurston Moore (lead guitar, vocals) and Lee Ranaldo (rhythm guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of ...
, Dinosaur Jr., The Meat Puppets and other Alternative and Punk bands. In 1993 at the invitation of The Fugs, Stephan performed several Appalachian folk songs at the Naropa Institute in
Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...
, Colorado where he came to the notice of beat poet Allen Ginsberg and producer Hal Wilner. Ginsberg urged Stephan to move to New York City, where he became his mentor.


Early career (1994–1997)

Said moved to New York City's
Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...
where he built singing-songs of social change and helped start several old-time, bluegrass and Irish traditional music sessions. He recorded and appeared with the rock group Ween, Rufus Wainwright, played the fiddler in a video for Leonard Cohen's "Dance me to the end of love", and became a fixture at demonstrations for human rights, independent media, housing rights, and environmental issues, scoring underground hits with songs like "It Rose From The Dead" for the
squatter Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not Land ownership and tenure, own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estima ...
and community garden movements. Allen Ginsberg and folk legend
Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
became Stephan's mentors and ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...
'' called him "the heir apparent to Woody Guthrie". As major label interest in his career grew, Stephan was told repeatedly by industry executives that he could "never have a career in the United States with an Arabic name". With great difficulty, and much to the dismay of colleagues like Jeff Buckley he stopped performing under his given name around 1997, and, started using his mother's maiden name and performed as "Stephan Smith".


''The Ballad of Abner Louima'' (1997)

Said first broke into national press in 1997 with the anti-police brutality single "The Ballad of Abner Louima" with
Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut album '' Horses'' made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fu ...
on background vocals. With less than 100 copies printed, the ballad charted in the CMJ Music charts, aired on the Howard Stern Show, and thrust Stephan into the folk music limelight. In a ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' full-length feature article folk legend
Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
compared the rapid spread of Stephan's song, accomplished without the backing of any label, to that of the civil rights anthem "We shall overcome."


''Now's the Time'' (Rounder, 1999)

Said's solo acoustic debut album, ''Now's The Time'' was released on Rounder records in June 1999, and Stephan intended it as a call to action for the 1999 Seattle demonstrations against the WTO, which he helped organize, and where he performed, appearing in Deep Dish TV's documentary Showdown in Seattle. Stephan toured extensively in support of "Now's the Time", opening for
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
,
Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter known for his solo work and his collaborations with Art Garfunkel. He and Garfunkel, whom he met in elementary school in 1953, came to prominence in the 1960s as Sim ...
, and fellow Virginian Dave Matthews. Though the album draws equally on folk, rap, r&b and rock, the music industry received it mainly as folk, often with specific reference to Woody Guthrie.


''Proclaiming Jubilee'', Universal Hobo (2000–2001)

Produced by Grammy winning producer John Alagia, Dave Matthews,
John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but he left for Atlanta in 1997 with fellow guitarist Clay Cook, with whom he formed the short-liv ...
and
Jason Mraz Jason Thomas Mraz ( ; born June 23, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He rose to prominence with the release of his debut studio album, ''Waiting for My Rocket to Come'' (2002), which spawned the single "The Remedy (I Won't Wo ...
, ''Proclaiming Jubilee'' was a genre-crossing pop album aimed at bringing an urgent call for a more just and equal global economy directly to a wide audience on the new millennium. The album met with opposition at record labels for its lyrics about social change, and was never released. In response, on April 16, 2000, the date of the Washington A16 protests against the IMF and
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...
, Stephan released A16, a 2 -song EP from the album with artwork by friend, award-winning graphic artist Eric Drooker, as free mp3's on his web site and on the Independent Media Center; the label responded by dropping his contract. The album ''Proclaiming Jubilee'' was scheduled to be released at last in May 2011.


''The Bell'' (2002)

With the support of friends, Said founded his own record label, Universal Hobo, in 2002 and had another major hit: ''The Bell''. An update of the old folk ballad "The False Knight Upon the Road", it was recorded with members of Spearhead and Ween, and
Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
on spoken vocals.Accompanied by a video from filmmaker Kurt St. Thomas featuring live footage of anti-war demonstrations around the world, it was released publicly as an mp3 on Stephan's web site on September 11, 2002, the first anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center. The song rapidly went viral on the pre-YouTube web. At home, the New York Times called it "one of the first major songs to oppose the war in Iraq". Guerilla News Network called it the "anti-war anthem of our generation". The song enhanced Smith's reputation as one of the most outspoken American musicians. Re-released in February 2003 as an EP with liner notes by historian Howard Zinn and cover versions of the song by DJ Spooky and others, it was covered by Dave Matthews during his 2003 solo tour and topped the NPR All Songs Considered list of songs on the war. Following a performance at Joe's Pub in New York City, ''Billboard Magazine'' wrote "With his rough-hewn good looks and mythic songwriting, Smith is the closest thing to this generation's Woody Guthrie."


Touring to build global movement

The Bell pioneered the use of mp3's and online music videos for social change. But, in the context of the war on terror and following the infamous radio ban and CD burning of the Dixie Chicks surrounding their anti-war stance artists and managers could not afford the risk of having Stephan, outspoken Iraqi/Arab American with the biggest antiwar hit, open for them. Nearly impossible to get gigs and or retain a booking agent, Stephan started the non-profit Universal Hobo Touring, with the help of non-profit education professional Amy Hufnagel. Universal Hobo Touring organized tours of performances at benefits and conferences for peace and justice groups and student organizations helping to build the
global justice movement The global justice movement is a network of globalization, globalized social movements demanding global justice by opposing what is often known as the “Economic globalization, corporate globalization” and promoting equal distribution of econo ...
.


''New World Worder'', Protest Records (2003)

In April 2003 Said released a full-length solo album, ''New World Worder''. He also collaborated with Thurston Moore of
Sonic Youth Sonic Youth were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1981. Founding members Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar), Thurston Moore (lead guitar, vocals) and Lee Ranaldo (rhythm guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of ...
and Zach de la Rocha of
Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to Rage) was an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1991. It consisted of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim ...
to launch Protest Records, a web archive of contemporary protest songs, for which one of the album's songs, Business, was released on opening day.


''Slash and Burn'' (Artemis, 2004)

Said then signed with industry legend Danny Goldberg at Artemis Records. His first album backed by a full band, '' Slash and Burn'' (2004) merged pop, rock, country, and rap, combining love songs with political poetry, which garnered critical acclaim. Several songs, such as the singles "Taking Aim," and "In The Air" criticize not only war and inequality but the role of the music industry in censoring protest and playing culprit to global inequality. The single "You Ain't A Cowboy," a send up of President Bush, was released to with TrueMajority as an MP3. ''Billboard Magazine'' called it the first MP3 ever released for a political action committee – resulting in hundreds of thousands of downloads in the first two weeks. The album also includes a ballad in the name of Lee Kyung Hae, the South Korean farmer and organizer who died at the 2003 World Trade Organization demonstrations in Cancun. Mexico. The lyrics to this song were used as the prologue to the Peter Rosset book ''Food Is Different: Why the WTO Should Get out of Agriculture''. During this time, Said earned his Masters in International Affairs at The New School and began publishing opinion articles in the media on globalization, social change, protest music, and censorship. When
Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...
said that he felt compelled to release his 2006 album Living with War because young protest singers weren't picking up the torch, Smith published articles on the censorship of socially engaged music in mainstream music in the
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...
and in '' The Progressive'', stating "Where's the voice of protest? It's in MTV's trash can. Where are today's protest singers? They're on the "don't add" list at corporate radio stations, where they've increasingly been placed since FCC deregulation paved the way for the monopolization of the industry." He also became a spokesperson for the
Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties. It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...
, and Freemuse, the World Forum on Music and Censorship, and attended the Third Freemuse Conference in Istanbul in 2008.


difrent (2007–2010)

In 2007 Said returned to the studio to begin work on a new album, and social change initiative, difrent. Produced by Grammy winner Hal Willner, the album brings together an all-star cast of musicians in support of Stephan's message of global equality and peace, including jazz horn legends Lenny Pickett, Howard Johnson, Art Baron and Earl Gardner as well as Cindy Blackman, Rob Clores, Jane Scarpantoni, Kevin Hunter, George Mitchell, and Yousif Sheronick. He formally announced his plans to release the album under his given name, Stephan Said.McQuiston, James (September 14, 2008)
"Stephan Smith Reclaims Stephan Said as Real Name"
NeuFuture Magazine.


Discography


Albums

* September 2011 – ''difrent'' – Stephan Said * June 2005 – ''Slash and Burn'' – Stephan Smith Band (Artemis Records) * April 2003 – ''New World Worder'' – Stephan Smith (Universal Hobo/ Synchronic) * September 2002 – ''The Bell'' single and video, internet release * 2001- ''Proclaiming Jubilee'', unreleased * June 1999 – ''Now's the Time'' – Stephan Smith (Rounder)


EPs

* February 2003 – ''The Bell''with Pete Seeger, DJ Spooky, Tara Nevins (Universal Hobo/Synchronic) * April 2000 – A16- 2 song EP (Universal Hobo) * 1998 ''The Blank EP'' – Stephan Smith, featuring Patti Smith


Singles

* 2004 – ''World to Come'' – Stephan Smith * 2005 ''Lee Kyung Hae'' – Stephan Smith * 2003 – ''Business'' * 2002 – ''The Bell'' – Stephan Smith, Pete Seeger, Dean Ween, Mary Harris * 1997 – ''Ballad of Abner Louima'' – Stephan Smith, background vocals by Patti Smith


Various appearances

* 2004 – ''Wichita Vortex Sutra'', Allen Ginsberg, Artemis Records * 2002 – ''Cornerstone Sampler'' * 1994 – ''Chocolate and Cheese'', Ween * 1997 – ''The Mollusk, Ween''


Film/video

* 2010- ''difrent'' – Stephan Said * 2006 – ''The Peace Patriots''- Turning Tide Productions, with Steve Earle, Ani DiFranco, Saul Williams and others * 2000 – ''Showdown in Seattle: 5 Days That Shook the WTO'' * 1995 – ''Dance Me To The End of Love'' – Leonard Cohen, directed by Mark Pellington


See also

* Folk-rock


Notes


External links


Official downloads
{{DEFAULTSORT:Said, Stephan 1968 births Living people American anti–Iraq War activists American folk guitarists American male guitarists American folk singers American male singer-songwriters American rock guitarists American rock singers American rock songwriters American people of Austrian descent American people of Iraqi descent Iraqi anti-war activists Musicians from Cleveland Appalachian music Singer-songwriters from Ohio Guitarists from Ohio 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians