Not too long ago, I ventured out of my evil lair and made my
way to Metro Al Madina for a performance that was taking place that night
called Gharam Wa Intiqam (Love and Revenge).
Gharam Wa Intiqam is an audio-visual project by rapper and producer Wael Kodeih, a.k.a. Rayess Bek and photographer Randa Mirza a.k.a. La Mirza, with Kodeih performing live electronic and instrumental hip hop beats that sample classic Arabic pop and tarab music and Mirza VJ-ing a selection of clips from classic Arab cinema, from raunchy makeouts to action-packed chases, and a whole lot of bellydancing.
After the show, I started connecting some dots… The material that Rayess Bek played had a lot of similarities to other stuff I had been hearing locally for the past year or so: instrumental beats that walk the line between electronic music and instrumental hip hop with a prevalent interest in reviving and reinventing classic Arabic music and culture.
The art of sampling tarab and setting it to a beat is nothing new for local hip hop producers, it's almost a rite of passage, however creating instrumental compositions in that style, designed to hold up on their own in the absence of a rapper and be their own thing, is a bit of a breakthrough. Sample choices, dialogue clips used, even different rhythms, all the elements that go into the composition become very crucial choices and indicators of skill and personal taste. And that's why I feel a certain trend is brewing: Retro Orientronica Hop… or something.
For this reason, I'm going to highlight three of these artists who I feel most strongly demonstrate this style and talk a bit about what each of them brings to the table. Now these aren't the ONLY artists doing this type of thing, but they are ones that I've been aware of for some time, and they fit a certain criteria, which is to have released or performed multiple compositions in this style, not just a one-off trial or single track on an album. It has to kind of be their thing, not their only thing, but an extensively practiced and perfected thing nonetheless.
Rayess Bek
Might as well begin with Rayess Bek himself. For years I only knew Rayess Bek as a rapper, both for his solo work and as part of his original duo Aks'Ser, although he did produce his own beats, but so do a lot of rappers. Eventually he put his production work front and center in 2012 with Goodbye Schlöndorff, a previous multimedia project of his centered around audio messages recorded onto cassette tapes and sent by individuals to relatives during the Lebanese civil war, which Kodeih mixed into his own electronic hip hop beats.
When I attended the performance of Gharam Wa Intiqam, I got the same feeling I did with his last performance: This. Is. Awesome. The beats were a bit more hip hop than electronic with the sampling of tarab, Arabic pop and dialogue, from mostly Egyptian cinema; all in all very reminiscent of trip hop.
While Goodbye Schlöndorff was about relaying the experiences of unknown individuals, Gharam Wa Intiqam was more of a tribute to vintage Arab pop culture with all its charm and cheesiness. The greatest proof of this is that the track that closed off the show was a rework of the Grendizer theme with samples from the Arabic dubbed version most of us grew up watching. Speaking of old school Arabic-dubbed anime…
Al Rajol Al Hadidi
Al Rajol Al Hadidi (The Iron Man) is the alias of an unknown producer who gained some exposure in recent months, and I seriously have no idea where he's from or anything. How did I find out about him then? Well he followed me on SoundCloud and I curiously checked his profile and found his awesome EP Thouhour Wa7sh (The Monster Appears).
There's a strong MF Doom influence, as evidenced by the use of dialogue snippets from Arabic-dubbed anime that invoke a sense of danger and mystery. Doom used similar clips from Marvel comics cartoons of the 60s and 70s to create this mythology of his Doom character as a great villain (based on the Fantastic Four's deadly foe Dr. Doom of course). Al Rajol Al Hadidi however doesn't create a fictionalized version of himself, but instead paints a picture of a world of sci-fi adventures, with monsters, time machines and more.
Unfortunately, Al Rajol Al Hadidi's second EP Babel did not continue with the established theme of vintage sci-fi adventure, but was instead just the standard affair of beats with samples; good beats, but not Thouhour Wa7sh good. Kind of ruined my hopes that his material would be more consistent, and expand this nostalgic sci-fi world he set the groundworks for in his previous EP, but we will just have to wait and see what the man of iron has in store for us…
Hello Psychaleppo
Last but not least there's Hello Psychaleppo, the current project of Syrian producer and musician Zimo, who has made this style his thing way more than Rayess Bek or Al Rajol Al Hadidi have, with two cohesive albums already under his belt. Hello Psychaleppo's whole body of work revolves around the concept of marrying modern electronic music with Arab folk styles, from tarab to Bedouin.
I don't want to put people on pedestals or anything, but in my mind, the recent popularity of this style, trend, approach, movement, whatever was kind of kickstarted by Hello Psychaleppo's 2013 album Gool L'Ah. I know Hello Psychaleppo did not invent the very concept of fusing Oriental music with electronic beats, but creating a whole album with that intent certainly did ignite a spark and get some people inspired in my opinion, as evidenced by what Rayess Bek and Al Rajol Al Hadidi have put out since.
Or it could all just be a big coincidence, what do I know…
Gharam Wa Intiqam is an audio-visual project by rapper and producer Wael Kodeih, a.k.a. Rayess Bek and photographer Randa Mirza a.k.a. La Mirza, with Kodeih performing live electronic and instrumental hip hop beats that sample classic Arabic pop and tarab music and Mirza VJ-ing a selection of clips from classic Arab cinema, from raunchy makeouts to action-packed chases, and a whole lot of bellydancing.
After the show, I started connecting some dots… The material that Rayess Bek played had a lot of similarities to other stuff I had been hearing locally for the past year or so: instrumental beats that walk the line between electronic music and instrumental hip hop with a prevalent interest in reviving and reinventing classic Arabic music and culture.
The art of sampling tarab and setting it to a beat is nothing new for local hip hop producers, it's almost a rite of passage, however creating instrumental compositions in that style, designed to hold up on their own in the absence of a rapper and be their own thing, is a bit of a breakthrough. Sample choices, dialogue clips used, even different rhythms, all the elements that go into the composition become very crucial choices and indicators of skill and personal taste. And that's why I feel a certain trend is brewing: Retro Orientronica Hop… or something.
For this reason, I'm going to highlight three of these artists who I feel most strongly demonstrate this style and talk a bit about what each of them brings to the table. Now these aren't the ONLY artists doing this type of thing, but they are ones that I've been aware of for some time, and they fit a certain criteria, which is to have released or performed multiple compositions in this style, not just a one-off trial or single track on an album. It has to kind of be their thing, not their only thing, but an extensively practiced and perfected thing nonetheless.
Rayess Bek
Might as well begin with Rayess Bek himself. For years I only knew Rayess Bek as a rapper, both for his solo work and as part of his original duo Aks'Ser, although he did produce his own beats, but so do a lot of rappers. Eventually he put his production work front and center in 2012 with Goodbye Schlöndorff, a previous multimedia project of his centered around audio messages recorded onto cassette tapes and sent by individuals to relatives during the Lebanese civil war, which Kodeih mixed into his own electronic hip hop beats.
At the time, I considered Goodbye Schlöndorff a huge step forward for Arabic
instrumental hip hop and developed a newfound respect for Rayess Bek as a
producer: this guy wasn't just going to produce to rap over, he actually has
some stories to tell through sound, and I'd like to hear them...
 |
| Rayess Bek |
When I attended the performance of Gharam Wa Intiqam, I got the same feeling I did with his last performance: This. Is. Awesome. The beats were a bit more hip hop than electronic with the sampling of tarab, Arabic pop and dialogue, from mostly Egyptian cinema; all in all very reminiscent of trip hop.
While Goodbye Schlöndorff was about relaying the experiences of unknown individuals, Gharam Wa Intiqam was more of a tribute to vintage Arab pop culture with all its charm and cheesiness. The greatest proof of this is that the track that closed off the show was a rework of the Grendizer theme with samples from the Arabic dubbed version most of us grew up watching. Speaking of old school Arabic-dubbed anime…
Al Rajol Al Hadidi
Al Rajol Al Hadidi (The Iron Man) is the alias of an unknown producer who gained some exposure in recent months, and I seriously have no idea where he's from or anything. How did I find out about him then? Well he followed me on SoundCloud and I curiously checked his profile and found his awesome EP Thouhour Wa7sh (The Monster Appears).
Al Rajol Al Hadidi has a super tight atmosphere built around himself and his work.
In his hip hop beats, he samples quite a
bit from classic tarab but a lot more from 60s and 70s era pop music and
soundtracks from television of that period, with synthesizers and more Western
instruments, that still have that distinct Oriental vibe.
 |
| Al Rajol Al Hadidi, I wanna high five you man, but... |
There's a strong MF Doom influence, as evidenced by the use of dialogue snippets from Arabic-dubbed anime that invoke a sense of danger and mystery. Doom used similar clips from Marvel comics cartoons of the 60s and 70s to create this mythology of his Doom character as a great villain (based on the Fantastic Four's deadly foe Dr. Doom of course). Al Rajol Al Hadidi however doesn't create a fictionalized version of himself, but instead paints a picture of a world of sci-fi adventures, with monsters, time machines and more.
Unfortunately, Al Rajol Al Hadidi's second EP Babel did not continue with the established theme of vintage sci-fi adventure, but was instead just the standard affair of beats with samples; good beats, but not Thouhour Wa7sh good. Kind of ruined my hopes that his material would be more consistent, and expand this nostalgic sci-fi world he set the groundworks for in his previous EP, but we will just have to wait and see what the man of iron has in store for us…
Hello Psychaleppo
Last but not least there's Hello Psychaleppo, the current project of Syrian producer and musician Zimo, who has made this style his thing way more than Rayess Bek or Al Rajol Al Hadidi have, with two cohesive albums already under his belt. Hello Psychaleppo's whole body of work revolves around the concept of marrying modern electronic music with Arab folk styles, from tarab to Bedouin.
The music is heavily electronic, covering genres like dubstep and drum n' bass
in its own little way, with some dub and hip hop influences as well. Zimo incorporates
the traditional Arab sound through samples from classic tarab and speech clips
of chants and phrases, borrowing the voices of tarab legends such as Oum Kalthoum and Abdelhalim Hafez, as well as composing his synthesized melodies in a distinctly Oriental
scale.
 |
| Hello Psychaleppo |
I don't want to put people on pedestals or anything, but in my mind, the recent popularity of this style, trend, approach, movement, whatever was kind of kickstarted by Hello Psychaleppo's 2013 album Gool L'Ah. I know Hello Psychaleppo did not invent the very concept of fusing Oriental music with electronic beats, but creating a whole album with that intent certainly did ignite a spark and get some people inspired in my opinion, as evidenced by what Rayess Bek and Al Rajol Al Hadidi have put out since.
Or it could all just be a big coincidence, what do I know…
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