Surfing YouTube a few weeks ago I came across Alfaress. He's a Moroccan-born rapper now based in the States. Check out a more complete bio here on his site. Because he raps in Moroccan darija, his songs sound nothing like the hip hop music coming out of Palestine, Lebanon, or Egypt. Even for most native speakers of Arabic, the Moroccan dialect is difficult to understand, therefore making some of his texts inaccessible. At the same time, however, you can appreciate his flow and the sound patterns and rhymes unique to darija. My favorite elements are the strings of consonants that you don't find in other dialects of Arabic, let alone English, like mzen and bzef.Alfaress is currently working on his debut album, Ana Ntouma Hia ("You, Me and Her") but has a few tracks out now, including two videos on youtube. His myspace page has three mp3s up, including a recent song made in response to Israel's attacks on Gaza, "Koulna Ma3k Ghazza." ("We're all with you Gaza")
Here are the two videos up on the internet. "Ana Almaghribi" is by far the most listened to on his myspace page. "Gharib" is the other single. Both videos were shot in the States. Like many other independent rappers producing Arabic-language tracks, Alfaress has been able to use the internet to get his music out there to anyone looking to listen.
"Ana Almaghribi" feat. Samy
"Gharib"
Also check out this freestyle with Country Boys that's up on YouTube. When juxtaposed with lyrics in English, the darija sounds even crazier. Once you get over trying to understand the meaning of the words, you can really get into his flow and the delivery.
