Arabic hip-hop

Arabic Hip Hop is a subgenre of Hip Hop music, originated in Arabic-speaking countries.

Hip Hop originated from the African-American culture, which influenced the emergence of Arabic Hip Hop itself. Their shared common experience of oppression inspired them to break the musical norms of the Arab culture and gave way to a new hybrid genre of music: Arabic Hip Hop.

This subgenre encompasses many musical elements that have developed in different Arab communities and countries. It combines the rhythms of Western hip hop together with the local culture, such as its language, dialect and instruments. It also takes local issues into account. 

It has been used as a social, cultural, and national form of expression by artists who are looking for a way to express themselves freely and to provide a critical perspective on both their ethnic community and the larger society they feel pressured to fit into. This branch of Hip Hop has been used by artists to express their different perspectives on ongoing political events and struggles in their own countries. Its ultimate goal is to facilitate dialogue among groups with opposing ideas, but it also serves as a means of communication for young people who rebel and seek political change.

 Palestinian Hip Hop 
A subcategory of Arabic Hip Hop is Palestinian Hip Hop, which refers to Hip Hop music produced by Palestinian artists. It first emerged in 2001, as a response to Israeli occupation, erasure and repression of the Palestinian population. It aims to maintain Palestinian identity, to protest, educate, mobilise population. Historically this has been done through poetry, fiction, film, and music, and hip hop serves as a mean to continue this tradition of resistance. 

Hip Hop became a kind of Palestinian Al Jazeera, which gave voice to the political, economic, social, and cultural struggles Palestinians face. It has grown into a powerful tool of nonviolent resistance against Israeli occupation. Through their lyrics, Palestinian Hip Hop artists speak directly to local communities, sharing their experiences of life under occupation and what they describe as “apartheid” in Israel.

The Hip Hop artists located within the 1948 Israeli borders are often referred as "48 Palestinians". Through Hip Hop this new generation articulates and critiques a complex citizen-subject positioning known as "present absentee": Palestinians who remained inside Israeli borders after 1948 but whose legal and national presence are denied. They try to connect Palestinian communities: the ones residing inside the Israeli state to the ones located in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, to create a sense of unity to resist the common colonial struggle.

 References 

Category:Hip hop genres
Category:Music
Category:Middle East