October 14 - Rap Holy War

They called it the Rap Holy War and it was the biggest rap feud since Tupac and Biggie. Instead of East Coast/West Coast, it was East Jerusalem and the West Bank, with Hasidic Jewish rapper Hershel "H-Bomb" Horowicz and Muslim rapper Ahmet "MC Jihad" Abdullah hurling lyrical bombs at each other on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and onstage. Neither of them had a record deal, at least not at first. But they had an audience because theirs was one of the most over the top, incendiary, hateful musical wars ever waged. And as the egregiousness of their taunts escalated, so too did their numbers of Facebook friends, Twitter followers, and views on their increasingly polished YouTube clips.
Every clip H-Bomb and MC Jihad did went viral. Everything they put out from their home studios got remixed, parodied, and exhaustively pored over by pundits of all viewpoints. It was massive.
And it was all a hoax.
Yes, Ahmet was Muslim and yes, Hershel was Jewish, but both were secular. Moreover, they were good friends who'd met in film school (in their native New York City) and hatched the idea of a large scale performance art project in the vein of Andy Kaufman. Thus, the Rap Holy War. They were compiling everything they did for an eventual documentary.
At first they were thrilled by the level of attention they were getting, but they sensed that it was becoming too big (and too serious) too soon, so they tried to make their videos so outrageous that everybody would know it wasn't for real and then they could take off their masks and let the world in on the joke.
Only problem was that the more outlandish their act got, the larger their following became. To Ahmet and Hershel, their rap feud was so obviously satirical, and yet people took everything they did completely seriously. Their personas were fake, but their fans were real.
On some level, Ahmet and Hershel had both hoped their histrionics might cause people to cast a more critical eye toward their stances on the Israel/Palestine issue, but playing the world's biggest media prank was their bigger aim.
And it was working--a little too well. Yes, they were huge Internet sensations, but they were also the targets of protests, hate mail, and death threats both ridiculous and credible. A public appearance in London was marred by violence. Windows were broken, several people were arrested, and eight people were taken to the hospital.
At that point, Ahmet and Hershel pulled the plug. They came clean on YouTube, their websites, and whatever media outlets would interview them. They told the whole story of what they were doing, and they thought that would be the end of it.
But it wasn't.
A large sector of the population had been galvanized by the mythology of H-Bomb and MC Jihad, and once it had been set in motion the movement couldn't be stopped. Abdullah's Army and the H-Bomb Squad, as their (numerous and growing) respective fan bases called themselves, grew in strength and boldness. Ahmet and Hershel urged calm and restraint. When that didn't work--when their followers didn't listen--and they begged them to stop for the love of God, Abdullah's Army and the H-Bomb Squad turned on them too.
By then both groups had begun producing their own talent that was very much in the mold of the original H-Bomb and MC Jihad, only far more extreme and 100% serious. The potential had always been there. It just needed a catalyst.
Violence escalated, the movements grew and spider webbed. Militant groups on both sides co opted the music and turned it into pro-us, anti-them anthems. Everything became radicalized. Lines were drawn. It was impossible to stay neutral. Nobody listened to reason. Everyone was forced to choose a side. Everyone went all in.
For Ahmet and Hershel it was all a mixed blessing. They were shocked and sickened that their performance art experiment had taken on such an ugly life of its own, but at the same time it was all amazing documentary material.
The death threats against Hershel and Abdul grew in credibility. First they stopped going out in character. Then they went into hiding. Then they came out of hiding with a new roughed up look, claiming to be the "real" H-Bomb and MC Jihad and calling for a de-escalation of tensions, which nobody paid any mind to. They either didn't believe them or they were unable/unwilling to hear reason. An unholy rap doomsday machine had been set in motion, and it wouldn't stop until it had destroyed them all.
A rap battle was set for Jerusalem. The pundits called it Rappageddon. Abdullah's Army convened at the Dome of the Rock, and the H-Bomb Squad at the Wailing Wall. Both groups arrived en masse and ready for anything.
It was a riot.
By the time it was over, the two sides had completely destroyed each other. All the emergency rooms in Jerusalem were packed. Scores were arrested. Three people were killed. Of all who were involved the Rap Holy War, only Hershel and Ahmet, the two pranksters who had set it all in motion in the first place, emerged unscathed. They had been hiding out in Queens when it all went down.
In the wake of the Rap Holy War, Ahmet and Hershel were investigated and interrogated extensively by numerous law enforcement agencies, and the public and the media denounced them as recklessly irresponsible, but ultimately no punishment was sought. They had been stupid and crass, but they had also genuinely tried to defuse the situation. No formal charges were filed.
After a few months had passed, they quietly put their documentary together and released it to mostly positive reviews. It made the rounds on the festival circuit, but never caught on in a huge way. By the time it came out, the world had moved on to the next thing and the Rap Holy War had mostly been forgotten.