Over the last year, NPR has quietly produced a few solid pieces on Arabic music. There were the previously linked stories on Moroccan rapper El Haked, and of course the Hanitizer's interview with Robert Siegel on All Things Considered. Western interest in Arab "protest music" has greatly increased since the beginning of 2011, but I commend NPR for its coverage of Arabic music, both related and unrelated to protests in the Arab world.
Case in point is this October piece about some of the great underground sha'abi music coming out of Egypt. I don't think the guys covered in this piece are necessarily major secrets, but they're not Amr Diab either. Rappers, DJs, and producers like 'Amr HaHa, Sadat Rap, Alaa Fifty, and DJ Islam Chipsy are the big names coming out of this scene right now, and the music they are making has a very global feel, while also sounding unmistakably Egyptian.
As the NPR story points out, these artists are gaining exposure primarily from playing at street weddings, which has made them immensely popular amongst a certain subsection of Cairo's population. As far as I can tell, most of these artists are not affiliated with record labels or distribution deals. Their sound is being disseminated by word of mouth and youtube. Their popularity has skyrocketed over the last year, and they're now very in demand in Cairo, playing large shows at venues like Al-Azhar Park. In October of last year, 'Amr HaHa, Figo, "alaa Fifty, and El Sadat Rap headlined the Park's El Geneina Theater, followed two days later by DJ Islam Chipsy
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