CAIRO, April 14 — Egyptian rapper Dareen is a whirlwind of sharp verses and curly hair on stage, bringing the Cairo crowd to its toes and a contemporary perspective to Egypt’s male-dominated rap scene.
Her raps movement over eclectic beats impressed by her childhood in Alexandria, the coastal metropolis dwelling to lots of Egypt’s greatest rap stars, together with the massively fashionable Wegz, a male rapper on a speedy rise after a 2022 World Cup efficiency in Qatar.
In Alexandria “we make artwork, however in Cairo, it’s a complete business”, Dareen, 21, instructed eNM, her shiny pink nails protruding from fingerless leather-based gloves.
And the business is booming. In 2022, Wegz was probably the most streamed Arab artist in the Middle East and North Africa on the music platform Spotify.
“The influence of rap might be seen in our charts, our wrapped knowledge and in all key cultural occasions,” mentioned Mark Abou Jaoude, Spotify’s Head of Music for the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.
Last yr, 60 per cent of Spotify’s most-streamed Arab artists had been in the hip-hop style, which incorporates rap.
“We’re additionally witnessing an growing variety of rap artists touring Europe and the United States, which serves as proof of how followers worldwide, together with diaspora communities, are connecting with the style,” Abou Jaoude mentioned.
For a very long time, Egyptian rap had “an underground standing”, in response to music researcher Amr Abdelrahim.
But now occasion boats on the Nile River in Cairo blast Wegz by means of the Egyptian capital, and rappers are getting multinational promoting offers.
“The professionalisation of their craft has impacted how they make music and the verses they write, but in addition their goals,” mentioned Abdelrahim.
“This is the primary technology that’s seeing their elders make massive cash from rapping.”
And the style’s women performers — out of the highlight for years — are vying for a bit of that success.
Dareen’s personal track Leila — which talks about her disappointment with fellow artists — has near 180,000 views on YouTube.
Although Cairo’s line-ups more and more function women rappers donning fashionable streetwear for larger-than-life performances, there’s nonetheless a category divide for them to cross.
Manhood, energy, cash
Far from the working-class African American communities the place rap was born half a century in the past, the Egyptian model and its viewers are nonetheless “on the margins, as a result of they’re center and higher class, whereas ‘Mahraganat’ is way more fashionable”, mentioned Abdelrahim.
Mahraganat, which is extensively fashionable in Egypt the place it is named ‘electro-shaabi’, has turn into musical shorthand for Egyptian youth expression.
“You want solely stroll round Cairo” to listen to it, Abdelrahim mentioned.
In “all of the tuktuks, all of the shops, what you hear” is Mahraganat, with its mixture of synthesised beats, conventional devices and blunt lyrics celebrating manhood, energy and cash.
An straightforward inventive alternative for rap’s rising women is to attempt to imitate that very same machismo, however their lyrics appear to forged a wider internet.
In her newest album “Kawabes”, or nightmares in Arabic, Dareen raps about “the melancholy and temper swings” that “observe break-ups”.
Stepping off stage to raucous applause, she says she desires to speak about “every part”, uncensored, even her most susceptible moments.
But rapping as a girl is an uphill battle on a number of fronts.
Egyptian rapper Dareen performs throughout a live performance at American University (AUC), in downtown Cairo September 30, 2023. — eNM pic
‘Not taken severely’
“Claiming our freedom as rappers is tough, whether or not from our households or from society,” Dareen mentioned, including that the business is “removed from peaceable” and harsh on women.
“We’re not taken severely, they suppose we don’t have issues when it’s the precise reverse, particularly right here in Egypt the place we’re pressured to cope with harassment and fixed obstacles.”
Egypt’s conservative, deeply patriarchal society causes most women to shrink back from professions in the general public eye.
And in the macho world of rap, “to evolve, it’s important to frequent the identical locations, to combine into the networks of artists and producers, an completely male world,” Abdelrahim mentioned.
While extra women are moving into the style’s highlight, they’ve come largely from extra well-to-do echelons of Egyptian society.
According to Abdelrahim, nearly all women rappers come from the higher class, the place women and women typically get pleasure from extra freedom with much less worry of social stigma.
“You can see extra social variety in the male rap scene,” Abdelrahim mentioned, the place artists hearth insults at these from privileged upbringings versus their very own working-class backgrounds.
Their women counterparts, in the meantime, stroll a tightrope between rap’s boastfulness and the modesty demanded by society, side-stepping American hip-hop’s model of sexuality completely.
“Assuming an overtly sexual femininity” — like women rap stars Cardi B or Megan Thee Stallion — “isn’t doable” if the performers need to be seen as worthy of respect, mentioned Abdelrahim.
“Because finally they’re judged by each society and their households.” — ETX Studio
