Rap: Why is he so popular in the Arab world?

Arab rap artists have also tried to voice their problems. But they struggled to win over a new audience and gain media attention that would help promote their work. Production companies have also not paid attention to this type of music and still neglect it.

Social media was not then a reliable tool for disseminating music production independently of the commercial market. Thus, most Arab rappers continued to rely on independent self-production.

Producer and rapper, Palestine “Method” tells the BBC:

“It was not easy to convince people to listen to rap, it was strange music for them.”

“Method” is one of the founders of the “5th Brigade”, the Palestinian group launched from Lebanon and comprising five young men. The band’s songs spoke about the details of daily life in the refugee camps in Lebanon, the issues they face and the wars in Gaza, Iraq and Syria.

This group found resonance and interest among followers or supporters of the causes supported by the group, and its listeners were not limited to the rap audience.

Besides the content of the songs, and the adaptation of the Palestinian language and dialect to the rhythm, the music played a role in convincing ears that were not used to it.

“Reaching people was a major goal,” “Method” explains. “We used to make an effort to select the musical samples.”

In 2008, “Katiba 5” released its first version, entitled “Welcome to the camps”. The group ceased production after all of its members traveled to Europe.

“Technique” worked with his wife, flautist Nissam Jalal, and French musicians on a project called “The Others” and other musical projects, including the latest album “Dwyer”.

The method says that the new experience and the new location automatically force a change in the content of the speech. He moved to talk about immigration, racism and his personal experience in France after leaving Lebanon, “There is no place to avoid running into politics, because the social situation pushes you to the political position. “

Lebanon witnessed the emergence of more than one group in the mid-1990s, such as “Reverse Traffic” and “Beirut Strip” a few years after the declaration of the end of the civil war.

Perhaps one of the most significant Lebanese experiences was the group “Al-Tafar”, with its first release in 2009. Al-Tafar in the Lebanese dictionary are those wanted by the court for criminal reasons and who are hidden from view.

Also, with the support of “Battalion 5”, the group made up of two young men, Jaafar and Nasser al-Din, sang in their local dialect, the dialect of the Bekaa region of Lebanon.

It was new in its direct political content and was more daring in raising several issues inside Lebanon. For example, to speak of a permanent confrontation between the authority and “the populations of disadvantaged areas”, or to evoke the behavior of the security forces in these areas and call for rebellion.

We can hear songs “Al-Tafar” coming out of a public minibus circulating between the capital and the Bekaa, or in a cultural café in Beirut or in a car in which young people who are not necessarily fans of music move. rap”.

Jaafar, a member of the group, believes that the reason for the interaction with the group is due to the description of the reality that people experience and the melodies of popular music that blend with the beat.

Jafar told the BBC: “Today I am changed in some words or in some of the situations that we have dealt with previously. We used to sometimes comment on certain actions of a country that we only see under the army form. “

Mazen Al-Sayed, nicknamed “The Head”, has adopted a different musical style since its inception, in cooperation with producer and designer Jawad Nofal “Monma” in his debut album “Kashf Al Mahjoub” in 2012.

The teacher is not satisfied with the political and social aspects of the problem, but, through his words, he delves into the human experience of the individual through his description of events. His songs are not limited to business and problems in Lebanon or his city, Tripoli. In a song, you can see the Arab concerns as if they were a concern. He adopts classical Arabic in several of his songs.

In an interview with BBC Extra, Al-Ras says he does not put himself in a Lebanese “narrow identity”, and in his post After the Defeat in 2018, he discusses what he called defeats in more of an Arab country after the uprisings of 2011.

“Al Ras” released two songs to coincide with the unprecedented protests that took place in Lebanon in October 2019, “Chouf” and “Al Nar”. And he sang in his first musical performance at the sit-in square. Interaction with his songs was evident during the ceremony and on social media.

The song “The Fire” shows scenes of protesters, demonstrators and major protest stations, in addition to the feelings emanating from participating in such events, events that Mazen also experiences on the streets.

The same goes for Ja`far al-Taffar, who participated in the same concert in the sit-in square in Beirut and sang in the demonstration squares in other neighborhoods outside the capital, in direct contact and popular with rap music.

He also took part in the New Year’s party, which took on a political and demanding character from the sit-in place in Beirut, and was broadcast on the screens of local television channels. And he released a special juvenile song called “Forbidden”, also in cooperation with “Method”.

In November 2019, Moroccan rapper Simo El Gnaoui was arrested for the song “Long live the people”, and the outcry over the arrest prompted more people to search for and listen to the song.

In Syria, it was not possible to broadcast rap songs with critical political content until 2011 due to strict state control in the treatment of artistic works. As a result, many Syrian voices left Lebanon after leaving Syria due to the war. Examples: Al-Darwish, Bou Kalthoum, anonymous soldier and others.

Also in Egypt, home to a large number of rap performers and producers, censorship is strict on all kinds of artistic work, leaving little room for rap artists to talk about politics.

It should be noted that the continuous cross-border experiences shared between Syrian, Palestinian, Lebanese and Jordanian artists, and the availability of simple video filming techniques, have contributed to the dissemination of their works.