Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Filling the Head: Listening to Rap in Arabic

Filling the Head: Listening to Rap in Arabic

El Zein, Rayya

Paperback

Series: Public Cultures of the Middle East and North Africa

AnthropologyGeneral Racism & Ethnic StudiesHip Hop

ISBN10: 0253072972
ISBN13: 9780253072979
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: Jun 3 2025
Pages: 190
Weight: 0.58
Height: 0.44 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English

When asked what drew them to experimental Arabic-language rap, performers and fans shared a common refrain: various artists or tracks filled their head ('abba rasshom), offering relief from their dissatisfaction, cynicism, resignation, and disgust with contemporary politics and society.

Based on ethnographic research in Ramallah (Palestine), Amman (Jordan), and Beirut (Lebanon), Filling the Head reveals how youths in these cities have maneuvered the challenges of making music while also navigating shifting geopolitical landscapes. Through these everyday experiences of being moved by music or ideas, Rayya El Zein explores how ordinary patterns of motion and emotion provide a space for political engagement when spectacular political movements like protests, strikes, or revolutions feel far away, forced, or otherwise impossible. In contrast to existing narratives that equate rap with popular political resistance against oppressive regimes, she argues instead for affective engagement through istifzaz-provocation or surprise-as well as yearning. Within this avant-garde genre, there is no design to reach the masses with a political message; in fact, as El Zein demonstrates, the refusal of artists to confine their lyrical or musical experimentation to an ethos of resistance creates an aesthetic whose lack of singular politics defines it.

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