| I'm actually fairly ambivalent about this whole issue, but the fact that these rap moguls are as arrogant as a US vice president does tend to tilt me toward condemning their appropriations. Diamanda Galas is a bit less forgiving about the issue (scroll down):
Diamanda Galas - Letters & Essays
(She writes just like the Sagittarius friend I recently "broke up" with because I could no longer tolerate her senseless tactlessness aimed at me, her alleged friend. Of course, I've got more than a dash of Sagittarius fire in my own chart.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZiTJd5TJRk
Also, pretty funny that I can honestly say I was listening to Timbaland sh*t in the early 90s before it even came out, because I was listening to Warda and Abdel Halim Hafez and even boring Mayada Hennawy--and lots of Baligh Hamdi compositions. The specific songs in question, in some cases. (I have a ton of Warda CDs. Was very into her at one point.) I remember standing in a middle eastern grocery store watching a Samira Toufic videos and some African-American kids came in and started asking me if I understood the words and so on. They seemed amused, but I'm not sure if they were really laughing at it or not. But I remember thinking at the time: yeah, just wait in a few years hip-hop producers will be borrowing from this music. Didn't take long for that to come true. Timbaland wasn't the only one doing bong hits and listening to Arabic music in the early 90s.
A trippy old Baligh Hamdi song (performed by someone he was married to at one time):
Warda - Men Baid | 
