Dreamlike states, magical realism, and suspended reality. Enjoy a new mind-bending list of music videos from rural and urban Egypt ranging from light-hearted pop to grim electronic dance music.
This list of videos highlights the diversity of sounds and visuals in Egypt’s underground music communities. They represent myriad production models, visual perspectives, and aesthetic visions. Though all distinctly different, in this collection one could venture to trace a continuity, an ethos that hints at the shared reality of living and creating in contemporary Egypt, and of suspending that reality. Most videos are from Cairo, however, this list also incorporates artists from other cities including Minya and Ismailia.
It has become trendy to portray Egypt’s urban environments in music videos, with an emphasis on popular neighborhoods and grittier aesthetics; although undeniably alluring, there is much more to the visual world of Egypt and its artists. That is not to say that the metropolis of Cairo, in all its vastness and intricacy, is not an admirable source of inspiration for creative generations of past and future – surely it is. It is a hallucinatory clash of eras past and future, electricity weaving through crumbling ruins.
Indeed, some of these videos allude to that. Others are less implicit, reflecting more on inner worlds or more divergent sources of inspiration. Some edge toward irony, or reject notions of budget in favor of simplicity and capturing time and place as is. Through this aesthetic and directorial diversity, we can identify consistent themes of etherealness, dreamlike states, magical realism, and suspended reality.
Music: ABOsahar
Track: Msh 7az Laa Shatara (HIZZ, 2019)
Direction and Camera: KZLK
Editing: Donia Fares
A producer and wedding MC from an agricultural community in Minya, a Nile-side city south of Cairo, ABOsahar entered the Cairo underground scene via HIZZ, a Cairo-based collective and record label. Since then, the mysterious and eccentric character has risen from the bizarro nooks of the Egyptian internet and HIZZ parties to playing upper-class weddings, music festivals, and international collaborations. That rise hasn’t kept him from his regular Instagram Live improvisational broadcasts from his rural studio.
ABOsahar’s music is an intriguing take on Egyptian chaabi, which he produces on a desktop computer. Riding on tastefully minimal beats, ABOsahar joins trancelike chaabi keyboard melodies with generously reverbed wedding MC (nabatshi) vocals, performing live with a QWERTY keyboard. «Msh 7az Laa Shatara», from his album The Caveman (2019), shows him in the verdant farmlands from where he hails in Minya, interspersed with revelers at a chaabi wedding.
Music: Kahareb
Track: Laila Matina (2019)
Art Direction and Design: Ahmad Hammoud
DOP: Haya Khairat
Director: Aida El Kashef
Photography: Rania Shereen
Production Manager: Amina Allam
Choreography: Mirette Michael
Kahareb is a band from Cairo led by music scene veterans Youssef Atwan (songwriter, previously of Like Jelly) and bassist Mokhtar El Sayeh, and backed up by many more familiar faces. They produce light-hearted, often comedic pop with various influences, including currents of Arab rhythm and melody. Kahareb began to gain popularity largely through their spectacularly glittery, colorful, and whimsical videos, of which no two are the same.
«Laila Matina» is about a lively night with a loved one, and the video portrays a constantly moving portrait of wedding guests, each one executing their own repetitive, minute choreographies in a sort of festive glitch. While this is a single, their debut album Malhamet Debba came out in 2021.
Music: MOUSV (Prod. Mohaimen)
Track: GHOYOUM (2021)
Direction: Marwan Morsy (FOTOMETRO)
Cinematography: Tarek Effat
Editing: Marwan Morsy and Tarek Effat
Coloring: Ahmed Elshafey
Mousv Sam (MOUSV) is one of the artists riding the tidal wave that has been the rise of trap in Egypt. His more moody, introspective style makes him stand out against the bravado that is predominant amongst his peers. In fact, he partially gained notoriety for rapping about personal issues and mental struggles when acknowledging such issues was still rarely addressed in Egyptian rap. This is especially showcased on his mixtape OV. While still indulging in shadowy malaise, his debut album ELSAHABA (2021) sees MOUSV taking a more self-assured step into the limelight, cementing his artistic notoriety.
In «GHOYOUM», he paints a picture of being dazed and in a fog, confused about right and wrong, and lacking foresight. The video places MOUSV in the contrasting though equally lonely environments of a cluttered and neglected bedroom, an abandoned police station in Ismailia, and a desert canyon, perfectly capturing the feeling of being lost in a haze.
Music: Rozzma
Track: Sheyaka (Acid Arab Records, 2017)
Alter-ego of producer Hussein Sherbini, Rozzma is a time traveler who was last on Earth 7,000 years ago. His sound is a sort of demented chaabi filtered through left-field electronics. In the past, he has labeled it Cairo rave bass.
Since 2015, Rozzma has released some pretty electric videos, and though difficult to choose one, «Sheyaka» is a personal favorite. A spin on the Cairo street scene trope, we see a hallucinatory version of the city where Tutankhamun’s 22.5 karat gold mask is ubiquitously projected, theoretically in protest of its modern-day relegation to the increasingly worthless 1-pound coin (rozzma means «stacks» in Egyptian colloquial, as in stacks of money). Rozzma dances and taunts from rooftops like the mischievous psycho he is.
Music: Nadah El Shazly
Track: Mahmiya (2018)
Composed and arranged: Nadah El Shazly and Maurice Louca
Story, visual design, and direction: Marwan Elgamal
Painting: Marwan Elgamal
Editing: Marwan Elgamal, Mazen Elgamal
Animation: Marwan Elgamal, Mazen Elgamal
Additional assistance: Yamen Elgamal
Nadah el Shazly is an artist from Cairo. She is a vocalist, songwriter, producer, and sound artist who drinks from the deep wells of Arabic music to fuel her surrealist sonic wanderings. «Mahmiya» is off Nadah’s album Ahwar (2017), a marvelous, seminal work of contemporary Arabic music that incorporates a complex tapestry of musical input from many musicians, most notably Maurice Louca and Sam Shalabi. Both key characters in contemporary Arabic avant garde music, Maurice is best known for his solo work and his role in groups Lekhfa, The Dwarfs of East Agouza, and many more. Sam Shalabi is an Egyptian Canadian composer and major player in music scenes in Montreal and Cairo, and is also a member of The Dwarfs of East Agouza.
The video for «Mahmiya» was done by painter Marwan Elgamal. The eerie song, seeing Nadah’s mysterious, rich voice float over a lilting saz melody, slide guitar, and piano, speaks of a protectorate. A girl traverses a chimerical dimension, and as she interacts with her surroundings, they oscillate, as does she. The girl, the world, and the music breathe in and out of each other, contracting and swelling in a dance of transformation.
