I Love Hip Hop In Morocco

      In Morocco there is revolution taking place. Not a typical revolution that we have seen in the past with fighting, wars, and terrorist but rather a revolution for social acceptance through music. This small group of artist is fighting for the recognition and acceptance for hip hop. The generations in Morocco have been taught that music is nonsense and that people need to be mature, study, and get a job that fits into society. As a whole, the country has no money and no available jobs, and they are not allowed to speak out against the state or even their religion.  This makes it extremely hard for these artists to speak out about what they believe and what they love. These hip-hop artists decided to organize a festival which they hoped would have the power of starting a movement for social change. It’s through this organized festival they hope to get their music out in the hands of the people and inspire them to demand a change for their home country.

The first artist introduced was DJ key who is Morocco’s number one DJ and after seeing his skills as a disk jockey it’s easy to see understand why. To DJ key hip hop is his love but also his way out. He talked about his life before hip hop as an architect and said that everything was fine then said that “rap fucked up his life”. He grew a passion of rap and knew he had to pursuit it because if he denied this passion he denied his own identity. DJ key expresses how hard money is to come by and that the life of a Moroccan rap star is not that glorious as the life of an American rap star. To me this just justifies how passionate artist like DJ Key are about hip hop because they willing enter this career knowing that it’s not going to pay a lot and that most likely they will be looked down upon by their society. The reason that they carry through with this lifestyle is because they really believe that it can make a difference and that by allowing the youth of Morocco to be immersed in a little part of American culture everyone will benefit from opening their world views. H-Kayne is another popular Moroccan artist that tries to use his music to bring about cohesion, so that they may be better able to help people. H-Kayne hopes to make it out of the country one day through his music career and he wishes to make it big in order to help out other rappers like himself and better impact his country. He cares dearly about the society and youth under him and wants them to be able to express their thirst for freedom of speech and freedom of expressing their thoughts. One of the most interesting stories of a rapper from Morocco is Mot De Passe’s Fati Show. A lot can be taken from this female rapper as she tries to change how society sees Moroccan women and one of the Mot de Passe’s members explained that rap does three things. First it speaks truth, second it speaks truth, and third it speaks truth.  Fati believes that she has something to prove because of the stereotype that rapping is for boys and not girls and uses hip hop to express what she believes to be the “true” women your supposed to be. Not only does she face the oppression of being a rapper in a society where is not accepted but she also faces the disrespect of being a women outside the realm of what Morocco says women should be. It makes sense to me why her favorite rapper is Eminem because basically he is a minority in the rapping world just as she is. Who would have thought that an artist like Eminem would be the hero of a struggling rapper in Morocco as she tries to change her countries fundamentals? This is just one small example of how the US can affect the far reaches of the world in ways that people would never have expected. The intersecting thing that caught my attention was that Fati’s parents are accepting of her side rapping career. They say as long as she’s a good student and that she prays, they believe in what she does and they agree that it is a realistic goal to change how women are viewed.

America plays a large role in the Moroccan hip hop festival and the actions of the American embassy reflect their foreign policy. The American embassy in Morocco agreed to sponsor this ten thousand dollars event through coke which both was a good idea and a bad idea. This was a good idea because this way of peaceful diplomacy is an improvement from what the US has been known to do. They funded a non-violent music event that help Americanize Morocco and in a sense symbolically put the US behind the Moroccan people as they fought for freedom of speech. This funding could also be seen in a negative way from the governments’ perspective as the US directly funded a “rebellious” event, encouraging the need for government and social change.

            DJ Key explained the main conflict preventing hip hop from becoming popular in Morocco is between religion and rap and says that in Morocco there are two things and only two things that are important/sacred, the throne and religion. Music hasn’t found its place in this society yet because it’s almost impossible for both rap and Islam to coexist. The Islamic faith supported by the Imams, or religious leaders, states that music has no place in their religion and more importantly freedom of speech has no place either. This makes it extremely hard for artist in Morocco to make it big and express their real feelings because they always face the threat of persecution for denouncing their faith and speaking freely about their country. The community at large believes hip-hop is forcing the citizens away from important core religious values, but theses hip hop artist see it as a way to open ones perspective and better improve the lives of the youth.

            The reaction of the crowd at the concert easily showed how appreciative the Moroccan people were for this event. It showed how they all agree in their thirst for freedom and accept some western customs. I love Hip Hop in Morocco shows promise for the relationship between America and the Arab people as we begin to let go of the old mindset of the Islamic and Arabic people and agree to recognize them and join in their fight against tyranny in their own countries. The common ground and sharing aspect of music between nations can bring them together and help them both realize that they really aren’t that much different.