[This article is Part 2 of 2 in this series on music politics in the wake of the 2011 Arab Uprisings. Click here to read Part 1 of the Post-Arab Uprisings: Music Politics series.]

 

A Real Mutation, a New Generation 

In the post-Arab uprisings era, Arabic alternative artists, especially in the Gulf, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon, became a recognizable medium for promoting a specific individualist lifestyle based on fetishizing identities and commodified music catered to satisfy immediate needs. Rappers started spitting bars in advertisements for mobile phone companies. Western corporations like McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and Red Bull co-opted talents and turned them into mascots for their brands. The content of Arabic rap songs became increasingly filled with personal boasting and aggressive libidinous alter-egos promising to crush and kill and slay some (un)known other(s). However, in the Mahraganat variants, one felt the vibrations of a low-frequency wobbly nihilism fed by a gnawing envy against the monied elites. 

Egyptian Mahraganat music came to my attention around 2015. One night I was DJing at a party in Beirut when someone asked if I could play Mahraganat. I spent the rest of the night downloading and playing this wild genre, firing the dance floor until the early morning. The music of Mahraganat appealed to me when I listened carefully and felt that this genre was produced by ear musicians. Those who come from impoverished neighborhoods with an instinctual talent to pick up tunes by ear and compose from there on budget laptops tend to create wonders. Continue reading here on Jadaliyya