Arabic Rap sends a message

The ability of artists to lyrically articulate the growing rage amongst disgruntled youth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has seen the emergence of politicised rap as a hidden weapon during the region’s Arab Spring.

Music has always played a pivotal role in many of the world’s social movements, so it was of no surprise that the youth-driven uprisings that ousted three long-standing leaders in the Arab world included a strong musical component.

Among the most powerful forms of music to emerge during these protests has been Arabic rap. 

"There are of course other forms of music that have the ability to transform messages but rap is an outspoken way of addressing what’s wrong in your society and having the voice of the streets be heard," Martin Fernando Jakobsen, creator of the youth-based initiative for Palestinian youth, Turntables in the Camps tells IPS. 

"In the case of the uprisings that took place in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), it was political dissident rappers that had an impact because of their ability to echo the people’s suffering."

Read it at IPS
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