When It All Started: Arab Hip-Hop

When It All Started: Arab Hip-Hop

Arab-Americans have been regularly involved in hip-hop in the United States where the genre originated including Los Angeles-based producer Fredwreck and Miami-based DJ Khaled, before Arab hip-hop emerged as a separate music genre. Although, American hip-hop music began to see popularity in the Arab World in the early-to-mid 1990s, History shows that Northern African Arabs, mostly residing in France, the epicentre of European hip-hop, were the first to begin making the music that constitutes the Arabic hip-hop genre. For example, the Super Saian Crew and IAM had Arab members. The music, a product of the French banlieue’s beur and noir communities, was a blend of traditional American hip-hop, the French styles popular at the time, and Rai, a popular music style from Northern Africa. French hip-hop rose to popularity partly because of Francophone radio broadcasting requirements which begun in 1994, that established quotas for all stations of 40% of daily broadcasts to be in French.

It was gathered that groups began to emerge in Palestine in the mid-90s, including popular group DAM. DJ Lethal Skillz was promoting new local groups such as “Aks El Seir" at around the same time. Meanwhile, In Egypt, hip-hop was less popular, but a small buzz led emerged which gave way to the popularity. In 2004, the first hip-hop show took place there when the RZA, member of the Wu-Tang Clan, performed in the Siag Hotel in Cairo alongside Kinetic 9 of Killarmy, a Wu- Tang Clan affiliate, Cilvaringz (a Moroccan-Dutch, and the first Arab to get signed by an American rap group) and Saleh Edin, an Arab Moroccan rapper.

In 2006, Arabic hip-hop solidified its mainstream presence in the Arab World with "Hip-Hop Na", a reality TV show on MTV Arabia hosted by Fredwreck and Qusai, a Saudi Arabian Artist. Hip-hop, both Arabic and American, is followed and created to varying degrees in most of the countries of the Arab world, including places where social and political restrictions make this difficult. For example, Saudi Arabia is home to the group Dark2Men, who competed in the “Hip-Hop Na” reality show. In addition, break dancing has also become a popular pastime in the kingdom.

It is difficult to establish numbers for albums sold or listenership by demographic in the Arab world due to the lack of reliable statistics. Furthermore, viewership of satellite TV in the Arab world cannot be accurately quantified. However, we can discern popularity through marketing techniques utilized by satellite television providers. According to a 2007 report, "more than 85 percent of urban households in the Arab world have satellite television," a forum that has expanded to include music channels such as MTV Arabia which at the time planned to offer a hefty dose of western hip-hop and much of the same youth-lifestyle programming MTV beams across the U.S.

Female hip-hop

Female artists such as Shadia Mansour from Palestine and French-born Lebanese rapper Malikah, are very eloquent in the Arabic Hip-Hop art form, then we have the Egyptian EmpresS *1 the "First Female Egyptian Rapper" in Egypt that is more on the African tip giving credit to both her African and Arabian roots. Female hip-hop artists are involved in a number of outreach activities in the Arab, African and International World. In 2010 EmpresS *1 was invited from Egypt to Khartoum, Sudan by the Ministry of Culture, Studio One and Space, for a workshop and also to perform at Beit el Fenoon, working with young Sudanese rappers, poets and singers from different parts of Sudan. EmpresS *1 has also done similar work in the UK, Brazil and Egypt. Shadia Mansour Arabia's "First Lady of Hip-Hop" pays regular visits to Palestine to help with musical aid throughout the war.  

Today, both male and female Arab hip-hop artists have evolved overthe years and are now diversifying the hip-hop culture in the Arab world. The "Arab Hip-Hop Festival" which is expected to take place in Qatar's City of Doha from the 3rd to the 5th day of April will be billed as a major milestone for Arab Hip-Hop. The three day event aims to bring together  and connect major Arab  Hip-Hop stars including Malikah, the Arabian Knightz, MC Thaer, El Far3i many up and coming artists in the MENA region, to perform at the outdoor festival and also discuss how to promote the hip-hop culture and develop fresh talents at the indoor conference. 

The 3 day event will create a unique platform to develop new talents in the region who will grow to become the genre's next top celebrities in the Middle East and North Africa region. The "Youth Enterprise", who are the organizers of the festival say they will focus on making AHF a regular event.

For more information about the Arab Hip-Hop Festival: https://tinyurl.com/pceey9h  

For discounted AHF2014 tickets, please visit  http://www.q-tickets.com/         

(Credit: Wikipedia's archives for facts)