6.8: Hip-Hop is Revolution

Hip-hop, with its historical focus on the underprivileged, has served as a good artistic vehicle for the political messaging for the oppressed to voice their experiences and grievances. In the early 2010s, the Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings, and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world. It began in response to oppressive regimes and a low standard of living, starting with protests in Tunisia (Noueihed, 2011; Maleki, 2011). The poetic traditions of North African peoples are inter-woven into modern forms of expression, and hip-hop in North Africa became a soundtrack for widespread social revolution.

Definition: Arab Spring

In the early 2010s, a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions spread across much of the Arab world in response to corruption and economic stagnation. Starting in Tunisia, the protests spread to five other countries: Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen.

Rappers and hip-hop artists from Algiers to Cairo began to cast a critical eye on their governments and unelected dictators for years and in the wake of political unrest across the region, young Libyan exile Abdulla Darrat created a website called “Khalas!” or “Enough!” as in — enough of Col. Muamar Gaddafi. From the music, there was a call for Libyans to take to the streets on February 17th, 2011. The date commemorates two instances in recent Libyan history when Gaddafi’s regime cracked down brutally on dissent. It was Libyan-American Darrat who spent early 2011 glued to his computer and his phone. The 28-year old watched as Tunisians rose up in protest against their dictatorial government leadership. It was at that time that Tunisian rapper El General wondered out loud if protests might spread in a track called Long Live Tunis (2011). “This is a message to other rulers,” El General raps. “Those who have been betrayed,” he continues, “Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Morocco…all must be liberated.”

Stemming from the Arab Spring making its way to Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Egyptian hip-hop artist Ramy Donjewan’s hip-hop song Against the Government (2013) where he raps, “Your blood, the government’s shedding it” (Elkady, 2013). Then, in Algeria, Double-Kanon composed a hip-hop “letter” to Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and asked, “Mr. President, I have brought to you a message from the young,” Double-Kanon says. “The young are only thinking about immigrating out, the majority see their futures and they look foggy… Enough!” The lyrics create a sense that there’s a shared experience between the people that the Arab dictators rule. A

Figure 6.10. Graffiti style artwork illustrates a vibrant North African hip-hop culture in Algeria

(Muhammed amine benloulou . (2023, September 3). Hip-Hop culture of Alergia. Wikimedia commons. ttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HIP_HOP_CULTURE_OF_ALGERIA.jpg)

Syrian American hip-hop artist Omar Offendum’s debut album, SyrianamericanA, was released before the Arab Spring. He first started performing, making beats and rapping about the kinds of things any college kid would rap about such as partying, smoking and other college life activities, Offendum realized that his music could be a tool. His rap content started to speak to immigrants who, like himself, found themselves within new surroundings identifying as Syrian, Arab, Muslim, and also, as American” (Olivesi, 2014). Living in Los Angeles, rap is something Offendum grew up listening to, and he was able to draw connections to his studies of Arabic poetry. There was an opportunity to address bigger political issues important to his community and with America's involvement in the Middle East, his rap would sometimes note what it was like growing up as a Muslim and Arab in the West.

Then, halfway through his college career, the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks amplified the attention he was getting, and Offendum realized that his rap was a lens, a powerful tool to shed light on Arab American perspectives, and bringing people together. At the start of the Arab Spring Offendum believed that there was a hopeful idealism, almost a euphoria surrounding the revolutions, and that Arab youth were pushing back against the fatalism of the older generations’ fatalism. But in the end, his parents' generation warned that in the Middle East, one shouldn’t get too hopeful watching as Syrian President Assad used chemical warfare against his own people. The civil war continues to rage in Syria. Offendum notes, “I think we have privilege here [in America] and I try and recognize that as a sense of responsibility” (Olivesi, 2014).

Now the focus of Offendum’s lyrics reminds people that beneath all the tragedy taking place in Syria, his focus is to shed light on the very real human suffering. In the same vein, Libyan rapper El General asked a prescient question that has relevance still today, “Will they stand against the enemy? Will they sacrifice as they did in Tunisia?”