Rap Beyond Resistance : Staging Power in Contemporary Morocco

189 Pages·2017·2.686 MB·English

by  Moreno Almeida, Cristina

Rap Beyond
Resistance
Staging Power in
Contemporary Morocco
Cristina Moreno Almeida
Pop Music, Culture and Identity
Pop Music, Culture and Identity
Series Editors
Steve Clark
Graduate School Humanities and Sociology
University of Tokyo
Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Tristanne Connolly
Department of English
St Jerome’s University
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Jason Whittaker
School of English & Journalism
University of Lincoln
Lincoln, Lincolnshire, UK
Pop music lasts. A form all too often assumed to be transient, commer-
cial and mass-cultural has proved itself durable, tenacious and continually
evolving. As such, it has become a crucial component in defining vari-
ous forms of identity (individual and collective) as influenced by nation,
class, gender and historical period. “Pop Music, Culture and Identity”
investigates how this enhanced status shapes the iconography of celeb-
rity, provides an ever-expanding archive for generational memory and
accelerates the impact of new technologies on performing, packaging
and global marketing. The series gives particular emphasis to interdisci-
plinary approaches that go beyond musicology and seeks to validate the
informed testimony of the fan alongside academic methodologies.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14537
Cristina Moreno Almeida
Rap Beyond
Resistance
Staging Power in Contemporary Morocco
Cristina Moreno Almeida
Deparment of Digital Humanities
King’s College London
London, UK
Pop Music, Culture and Identity
ISBN 978-3-319-60182-3 ISBN 978-3-319-60183-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-60183-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017947725
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
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A
cknowledgements
This book owes much to the generosity of numerous rappers, graffiti art-
ists, cultural actors, and rap fans throughout Morocco, as without their
enthusiasm and help I would not have been able to complete it. Along
the road, colleagues and friends at SOAS, LSE and King’s College
London, in London, Spain, Morocco and elsewhere, have always been
ready to share their time and thoughts, for which I am extremely grateful.
I would like to express my immense gratitude to Dr Karima Laachir,
who believed in this project since its conception and in my potential
to pursue it. She has encouraged me throughout with patience, energy
and passion, providing me with invaluable advice and suggestions while
allowing me to strive for my own thoughts. I owe advances in my work
also to the comments of Dr Ayman El-Desouki, as well as Dr Laudan
Nooshin and Prof. Said Graiouid. Once I had conceptualized the book,
Dr Shakuntala Banaji not only encouraged me towards finishing the
manuscript, but her sharp critical eye pushed me to think deeper and
beyond. Thank you Shaku! I cannot thank enough my good friend and
colleague Dr Racha Chatta, for taking time to read thoroughly parts
of the book and provide me with her insightful comments and over-
all support. I cannot fail to mention Dr Mònica Rius, who inspired me
many years ago in Barcelona to pursue my path in academia. Her sup-
port has not lost its strength in spite of time and distance. Scholarships
from Fundación La Caixa and Ouseley Memorial initially partially funded
the thesis on which this book is based, and for these I am extremely
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
grateful. I am also especially grateful to the British Academy Postdoctoral
Fellowship Scheme for believing in my project and providing me with
the support to elaborate Chap. 6 of the book.
I owe much of my sanity during these seven years also to my friends
Dr Vishal Vora, Samia Ben Tekaya, Jacqueline Lallave, Dr Maria Lopez
De Cunha, who have helped me get through. I am deeply indebted
to Natalia Hernández, Viviana González, Annie Greene and Dr Aula
Hariri for our unfailingly profound conversations about this book and
beyond. During my five years living in Morocco, my friendships with
Amanda Ortíz, Paulina Gómez and Dr Salima Massouli became inval-
uable. I cannot thank Amanda enough for her constant love and gen-
erosity. In this long process, I am indebted also to my family in Gran
Canaria and Casablanca, who have always been patient and understand-
ing of the needs surrounding such a long and demanding endeavour. My
mother Gloria has always inspired me to fight and work hard, cheering
me up with words of encouragement and giving me strength to finish
the work (¡gracias mamá!). I am also grateful to my brother Javier for his
sense of humour, putting a smile on my face when I most needed it, and
to my father Óscar for believing in me since the start. I would also like
to thank my mother- and father-in-law, Aicha and Abdelhafid, for their
much-needed support, love and care during the conception and writing
of this book in Casablanca and later in London. Finally, I will never be
able to thank enough my husband Omar, who has always been by my
side, patient and positive during my many hours of distress, listening to
my troubles and helping me in every possible way; I thank him for con-
tinuously inspiring me to do better with his infinite love and kindness.
c
ontents
1 Introduction: The Straightjacket of Resistance 1
2 Deciphering Moroccan ‘Cool’ 21
3 Rap and the Revival of Patriotism 51
4 Branding Patriotism, Commodifying Resistance 83
5 Visual Representations of Power: Urban Spaces and
Rooftops 113
6 Economies of Resistance 145
Final Remarks 169
Appendix 173
Index 177
vii
l f
ist of igures
Fig. 3.1 Logo of the association Matkich Bladi 66
Fig. 4.1 Snapshot of music video “F.Y.” (2012) by rapper Chaht Man 105
Fig. 5.1 Cartoon criticizing Festival Mawazine 117
Fig. 5.2 Cartoon presenting Don Bigg as a co-opted rapper 121
Fig. 5.3 Cover image of DBF Studios 124
Fig. 5.4 Poster of Machri9 al Anwar in Casablanca 2013 131
Fig. 5.5 Poster of Festival L’Boulevard 2013 133
ix
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: The Straightjacket
of Resistance
In December 2010, after Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in the
Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, popular public demonstrations of dis-
content with long-time rulers and dysfunctional systems of governance
quickly propagated across countries in North Africa, the Middle East, as
well as Europe and beyond. At the time, many media outlets channelled
protesters’ grief through hip hop culture, especially featuring rap music
and graffiti. From Morocco to Syria, from Bahrain to Tunisia, many of
the stories that appeared in international media, such as The Guardian
or Le Monde, highlighted the significance of rappers and graffiti artists in
conveying the message of the protests.1 The French newspaper Le Monde
(January 11, 2011) in an article entitled “Le rap, porte-parole de la jeu-
nesse tunisienne”2 (Rap, the Spokesperson of Tunisian Youth) granted
political weight to rappers by claiming they were not only expressing
youth concerns, but were being closely monitored. In the midst of this
social and political upheaval that affected many countries of the Middle
East and North Africa (MENA) region, commentators claimed rappers
became the ‘voices of the revolution’. Ilyana Ovshieva asserted that rap
“emerged as one of the focal modes of youthful self-expression during
the epochal uprising” (Ovshieva 2013: 37); and Nouri Gana argued
that “In a world that is currently shot through with insurrection and
revolt, rap music is not only a part and parcel of the exponential curve
of change sweeping across, among others, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen,
Bahrain, Syria, and Morocco but also an indispensable feature of Arab
culture itself or, at least, of what will have become of Arab culture in
© The Author(s) 2017 1
C. Moreno Almeida, Rap Beyond Resistance, Pop Music, Culture
and Identity, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-60183-0_1