Egyptian hip hop is a form of hip hop music in the North African country of Egypt which draws inspiration from both regional and global events.
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After hip hop made its first debut in America, it became a worldwide phenomenon, influencing music in all corners of the globe. Hip-hop in Egypt was unheard of in the 1990s, but in the 2000s it emerged as developing and increasingly popular genre throughout Egypt. One piece of technology that helped spread hip-hop throughout Egypt was cable. It was used in almost every Egyptian home, which allowed Egyptians to gain access to a large number of music oriented channels that helped spread awareness of hip-hop. Music channels such as Melody Hits and Mazzika soon emerged. They mainly incorporated American hip-hop into Egyptian music.
After this initial blending, an underground hip hop scene emerged in Egypt and groups such as Y-Crew, MC Amin, 3oMaR A.k.A Mre5y, hesama and OMaR x Aka Eks became popular. Egyptian solo rappers emerged as well, such as Princess Emmanuelle a.k.a. EmpresS *1 in 2001.[1] She gained the title of "First Female Egyptian Rapper" in Egypt, and recently appeared on the Sabah el Kher ya Misr live morning TV programme.[2] Other groups such as MTM and Arabian Knightz [3] also surfaced and made their debuts in the media.
Egyptian hip hop is distinct from other hip-hop genres around the world, as it tends to use traditional instruments such as the Oud and the Egyptian flute to add a Middle Eastern and Pharoanic beat to music. The Islamic religion has also had an effect on hip hop in Egypt. The Qur'an is a book consisting of laws and rules Muslims must follow. Since Egypt is a predominantly Islamic society and the government follows certain Islamic laws, the society expects a limit on certain things such as showing off one's wealth, the objectification of women, causing evil to one another, displays of hatred, etc. There are also many Christian Coptics in Egypt and they too have very close morals and values as the Islamic faith, especially in the villages such as Upper Egypt where the objectification of women is also an issue.
An Islamic verse states, “God advocates justice, charity, and regarding the relatives. And he forbids evil vice, and transgression. He enlightens you, that you may take heed.”[4] This verse tells Muslims that good and evil are not equals and to always perform good actions towards others. Muslims can interpret this "evil" as the objectification of women, showing off the "bling", doing inappropriate things, or anything else involved with consumerism and capitalism.[5] In general, Egyptian hip hop focuses purely on expressing one's feelings about injustice, social taboos, identity, and to resist the capitalism and consumerism of the West, though not all Egyptian rappers ascribe to following the traditional moral rules of the Islamic faith as outlined in the Q'uran, and match their lyrics and behavior more towards the American styles.
Hip Hop in Egypt is divided into two types (Underground Hip Hop and Media.). There are many Egyptian rappers that have influences from the Egyptian artists like Mohammed Mounir and Amr Diab, they are also influenced by rappers all around the world like Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, The Game, Tupac etc. Hip Hop that depends on media is not popular. Underground Hip Hop was not accepted by people in the beginning. Egyptian rappers mostly talk only about the problems facing Egypt, poverty and the government. Underground rap in Egypt is divided into other types, like Harmony and Hardcore. Harmony has a lot of rappers which are sometimes most famous than others, which is concidered the hardest type of rapping because it depends on how fast the artist is. Hardcore artists are the most famous rappers in Underground rap, their rap skills depend on their flow. Rappers like MC Amin, Y-Family, Egy Rap School, Mak-D, 3adam El En7yaz and Cairo City G'zz are concidered the best Undeground rappers by many fans.
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