I don’t usually do threads but today I wanna tell y’all why these 20 seconds of footage of a kid in a blue and red jacket stage diving at a Bad Brains concert at CBGB’s in NYC in 1982 are important. Then I wanna tell y’all this kid’s story.

This footage is important because it might be the earliest documentation of a Palestinian kid engaging with American culture (or more correctly, counterculture.) That kid’s name is Najeeb “Geeby” Dajani and he’s my new hero. He was already a legend before ‘82, tho.

In 1979, the year after The Clash first sang “standing in Palestine lighting the fuse,” Geeby’s graffiti tag, ME62, was immortalized in the cult classic film ‘The Warriors.’ Not bad for an 18 year old, right?

Fast forward to 1983, Geeby’s graffiti friends had a hardcore punk band called Frontline and needed a new lead singer, so Geeby came to the rescue. Here’s Geeby singing “Never Get Too Comfortable” with Frontline.

Frontline were one of the most exciting bands of the New York punk explosion and kids like young Adam Horovitz (pictured) idolized both the band and Geeby. Horovitz’s band, The Young & The Useless, and another called Beastie Boys were once excited to share a bill with Frontline.

Horovitz soon joined the Beastie Boys who became a rap group and released the best selling debut rap album of all time.

When the young Beastie Boys would go to Frontline shows, they would stage dive and slam dance to a song that Geeby wrote called “Feel Like A King”

Adam “MCA” Yauch of the Beastie Boys had kept a cassette of Frontline songs in his pocket for nearly 10 years, and, in the early 90s, when the Beastie Boys wanted to return to their punk roots, he got his band mates to cover “Feel Like A King,” turning it into “Time For Livin.”

By this time Geeby had joined a rap production team called Stimulated Dummies (a name coined by Busta Rhymes) and made records for Golden Era groups like Brand Nubian, 3rd Bass, and MF DOOM’s first group KMD. One of their biggest records was Brand Nubian’s “Step to the Rear.”

In the 2000s, Geeby found himself hosting a radio show called Forty Deuce on East Village Radio, where his decades-old NYC legend led to a cameo role on the hit HBO series ‘How To Make It In America.’

Sadly, Geeby passed last year after a battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease


My cover story for @palestinianmag attempts to honor his legend and legacy with stories from members of Bad Brains, Beastie Boys, and Stilulated Dummies

Available here:
https://www.palestineinamerica.com/magazine-1/music-edition-2020