REVOLUTIONS have soundtracks. Soviet-inspired "mass songs" whipped up socialist fervour in China in the 1930s. Half a century ago, Cuban rebels were pimping up traditional folk tunes with political lyrics. In 2011, Arab hip-hop artists responded quickly to turmoil in the region, their tunes wired to the region’s political pulse.
The songs of these previously less-known artists blasted through the streets during the protests that unseated north African dictators. Tunisia's El Général and Egypt's Arabian Knightz released tracks in the winter of 2011 that became protest anthems. Both criticised the region’s dictators and called for change.
More recently, tracks have expressed young peoples’ disillusionment with the results of the revolutions. Tunisian rapper Weld El 15 gained notoriety for his recent song "The Police are Dogs", a rant about the police and the state of his country since 2011. "It was believed that there was a revolution in this country, but in reality we got screwed," he raps. He then compares his country with Afghanistan and describes his peers as the "stop studying and smoke the shit" generation. The grim description is anchored in some truth. Anecdotal evidence suggests drug use among Tunisia’s youth has spiked.
In November one of Libya’s rappers, Ibn Thabit, released "We Are All Born in Nine Months" (a Libyan phrase meaning "we are all equal") in which he bemoans the rise of violence and "supposed revolutionaries rollin’ with AKs" in his tumultuous country.
In the West rap and hip-hop are associated with bad behaviour. Some Arab tunes promote religion and ethics. El Général’s recent single, "I Wish" calls for sharia law and a borderless Arab world. In "Dirty Game", a song about Tunisia’s rap scene, he portrays himself as an artist with morals. "We do not use the language of the junkies like in some neighbourhoods," he sings.
In Egypt, MC Dahab, a devout Muslim, has become popular for raps with religious flavour. In one recent single, "Forward", he tackles the moral corruption of modern Islamic society and mourns the damage that Middle Eastern conflicts have inflicted on Muslim civilisation. He criticises Islamophobia as "contempt from fools and cowardly souls".
In a sign of the struggle for change, criticising the authorities is almost as risky as before the Arab uprisings. Weld El 15 is due to contest a sentence to jail handed down in September for performing "The Police Are Dogs". The police have arrested Abidi Nejib, the DJ behind Radio Chaabi, a Tunisian pirate station. Egypt’s police recently raided the studio of rapper and Muslim Brotherhood member Abdullah Sharif whose songs criticised the leader of the country’s military, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, as well as liberals.
