This song features London MCs Kano and Bashy plus the Syrian National Orchestra For Arabic Music. Kano, who previously collaborated with Damon Albarn on his album London Town, told Q magazine March 2010: "The track I'm on is called 'White Flag.' I've never heard anything like it before. It's got me and Bashy rapping on it but it's not a grime sound. It's very uplifting, it makes you smile. I'm pretty sure we're going to be the first people ever to rap over The National Orchestra of Arabic Music. I've been a fan of Gorillaz since Demon Days. When I got the opportunity to be a part of it I knew it had to be done. Me and Bashy were sick with the flu when we were in the studio. We weren't feeling great, the music was out of our comfort zone, it could have been a complete disaster. But Murdoc says we captured something that day. He says it's amazing."
Bassist Murdoc commented on this track on Gorillaz's website: "This one features the National Orchestra For Arabic Music. Plastic Beach was intended to be a worldwide collage. Via the guests I brought in and used, I could take little snapshots of the world. 'White Flag' was recorded in Beirut, around the end of March 2009. Over there, the Israelis like to fly their jets really low over the city once a month. It's called 'sabre-rattling'. If they fly low and fast enough, it creates a sonic boom effect, taking out all the windows in the area. This faintly surreal experience in Beirut and Syria got rolled into various themes on the album. What I wanted to do was then add a British counterpart. And who would fit the bill better than the British grime artists Bashy and Kano? What they bring to this is great."
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