Sleiman Damien is no stranger to making hit records. The 33-year-old Lebanese producer continues to be at the forefront of producing Arab pop earworms in the name of a relentless pursuit for innovation.

The credits attributed to Damien run deep in the Arab pop scene, ranging from heavyweights like Haifa Wehbe and AL SHAMI to emerging artists like Nai Barghouti and Ziad Zaza.

The Dubai-based creative remains at the forefront of cutting edge production and an instinctive insistence to push musicians—and himself—to take artistic challenges.

“As a pop producer, you don’t really have the luxury to settle because pop demands versatility,” Damien shares over Zoom from his home in Dubai. “Pop is not just one genre, it’s a multitude of genres that encompasses multiple other genres. Being a pop music producer means being able to work your way around any genre and introduce that into the pot and make it sound like it fits.”

In our debut “Five On Five” series, Damien shares five songs that he feels have defined his signature sounds over the course of his career and why these songs hold meaning for him.

Read more

Weekly Recap

• Moroccan rappers T-Flow and Pause Flow were arrested separately this week by authorities in the country, continuing the troubling ongoing trend of Morocco’s crackdown on outspoken rappers. No formal reasons have been given for either arrest, and it marks the sixth arrest in under a year that targeted rappers. Once again, none of the music and culture publications in the Middle East and North Africa have covered these arrests. I expressed frustration about this previously in this newsletter.

• Tunisian pop artist Latifa and Iraqi crooner Kadim Al Saher are part of the new class of artists formally becoming members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Both artists were among the over 4,000 invited by the Recording Academy to join as part of the 2026 class, including Lola Young, EJAE, and sombr.

• Eddy Maroun, co-founder of the regional streaming platform Anghami, launched a new investment platform in the UAE dedicated to Arabic music catalogs and entertainment intellectual property. IPNation went live on Wednesday with an initial commitment from Influence Media Partners, the New York-based rights company supported by strategic partnerships with funds and accounts managed by BlackRock (given BlackRock’s history, make of that what you will)

New Music

These are some recent releases that are worth checking out as you head into the weekend:

“PILLAVE” by Shaw

“The Day Before Yesterday” by Rima Khcheich

“LESSA LESSA” by Alyoung & Randar

“AHH YA HABILE” by BILLY TSTRK & WAJA33

“Tab3ina” by Ahlam Bakkali

“Ha’ak Alaya” by TUL8TE

“Ahbab” by Kadim Al Saher

“Balaki” by Gharam Electric

“Manzakin” by Draganov & Hajib

“SAWA” by AYA

“Hiyeh” by Al Nather

“Hazimo Ra3d” by DEIMI & GELLO 4031

“MA2SOOM” by ILARIA

“Haseb Haseb” by Cairokee

“Beyn Eedayki” by Michael Hakim

“Ulli Inno Mafi Minni” by Reina Khoury

“AUTOMATEEKI” by Hussob & Bea Kadri

“Daght” by FRIZZY

For Malika La Bendita, the shared influence between Latin and Moroccan music feels closer than their locales suggest. Even outside of the long and often fraught history between Spain and Morocco, the rhythms from the Caribbean and South America remain intertwined with Moroccan shaabi for La Bendita.

Look no further than her latest single “Hoy”, an emotionally upbeat song that revels in life itself. The track serves as a love letter to being alive, to the beauty of earth and what it offers human beings. Sung primarily in Spanish, La Bendita draws heavily from Andalusia and instrumentation while sprinkling in dashes of the darbuka and the appropriate amount of Arabic that does not feel forced.

“I truly believe that there is this bond between North African and Arab people and Latin American people,” she shares over Zoom from her home in Marrakech. “We are so connected, in a very mysterious way because we are so geographically far away from each other, but there’s so much in common.”

She remembers being a child in Morocco when the internet was still a new arrival and discovering Shakira, Ricky Martin and Daddy Yankee almost as if they were dispatches from another world. La Bendita searched for Puerto Rican radio stations online, listened to local salsa groups and began memorizing Spanish without fully understanding the language.

Instead of feeling foreign, the music felt strangely familiar.

That sense of connection is at the heart of La Bendita’s music. A Moroccan singer-songwriter living in Marrakech, La Bendita draws on the cultural relationship between the Maghreb and Latin America to create pop that seamlessly fuses their melodic sensibilities into something shaped by her adolescence.

Read more

For Lebanon’s rap scene to grow and mature beyond its trademark boom bap style, several of the country’s creatives needed to take a risk in crafting a new sound without abandoning the sensibilities of what made Lebanese rap alluring in the first place.

Lebanese rap demanded further distinction from its regional peers in Palestine and Egypt specifically, as those scenes homed in their craft and surpassed their own borders and held greater influence in Arab rap more broadly.

Artists and songwriters certainly played a pivotal role in this transition, wielding their command of Lebanese slang and wit to new lyrical heights that still maintain the punch and pithy that defined the country’s rap scene.

Rappers like Ziggy, Nuj, HADI, and Jamul are among a cohort of emcees providing the sharp and critical flow that speaks to the youth of the country who have known nothing but political upheaval, economic turmoil, electricity outages, and a cultural shift away from Beirut as a hub of Arab music and art.

The genre’s producers, however, are the pillars holding up the country’s new sound and ensuring it thrives and continues to creatively push rap forward.

One such producer in particular helped usher in production that lends itself both to commercial appeal and street credibility.

Enter Aladin, the mastermind who for the last decade has created the defining sound of Lebanese rap, a mix of reckless energy, grit, and haunting melodies over thumping trap drums.

The producer has been behind some of the Lebanese rap’s biggest records, simultaneously building a name for himself while remaining behind the scenes. Aladin has done so with intention as he seeks to elevate recognition for all producers in the way that is common in American hip-hop.

Read more

On Wednesday, K-pop megastar boy band BTS announced that they would not submit their album ARIRANG for Grammy consideration this year, protesting the Recording Academy’s decision just a month ago to create the “Best Asian Pop Music Performance” category.

Each of the members of the group posted a lengthy statement on their individual Instagram accounts explaining their decision, saying in part that they “hope music itself can be heard and loved rather than being distinguished by region or language.”

Naturally, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. responded to BTS with his own statement, expressing his dismay over their decision and defending the creation of this new category for the Grammys as a way to “celebrate the depth, diversity and extraordinary growth of pop artistry coming out of Asia.”

He also notably also tried to clarify that submitting in a genre category does not preclude artists from being considered for the broader general categories (Bad Bunny is a notable and only example of an artist winning in both culture genre and general categories with his album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS).

BTS join a long line of artists abstaining from the Grammys in recent years, including Drake, Jay-Z, The Weeknd, among others.

This announcement from the group, however, comes at a fascinating moment for the rise of global genres and the continued fast-pace access to music across borders. For decades, artists who did not perform in English often felt overlooked by the Recording Academy—downright ignored, frankly—and excluded completely from any sort of recognition for their music.

Read more

Weekly Recap

Moroccan rapper and filmmaker Mehdi Black Wind was provisionally released from pre-trial detention on Wednesday with a hearing scheduled for July 31. Several prominent artists in the country—including rappers ElGrandeToto, Small X, Stormy, Khtek and Don Bigg — signed a petition calling for the immediate release of Mehdi Black Wind and the end of government persecution of rappers over their work.

I wrote a little bit about this arrest and the Moroccan government’s complicated relationship with rap more broadly. You can read that story here.

Rather than share a usual rundown of this week’s news, I want to share some overall thoughts regarding the culture and music media ecosystem in the region as it relates to Mehdi Black Wind.

What struck me since this arrest has been the lack of media coverage in music and culture publications in the Middle East and North Africa on Mehdi Black Wind or the fact that he was now the fourth rapper in under a year to be arrested by Moroccan authorities.

At the time of this writing, several of the glossy Western magazines with affiliates in the Middle East and North Africa like Rolling Stone MENA, GQ Middle East, Dazed MENA, Billboard Arabia, and others have not written or shared anything on their socials about Mehdi Black Wind’s arrest. Only Complex MENA posted about the petition to their Instagram page, highlighting the notable names who signed on.

These magazines’ US counterparts all would have certainly done some sort of story about the arrest and the larger trend happening now in Morocco with this crackdown on the genre. In fact, many of them have written these kinds of stories before with regard to other contexts. They should be lauded for doing that type of music and culture journalism.

More often than not, the regional affiliates of these magazines seem less interested in doing actual journalism and reporting than they do hyping everything around them and only writing about the positive aspects of music in the Middle East and North Africa. There is a growing desire of wanting to preserve a proximity to power and celebrity than there is to interrogate the systems and structures in place. Both types of reporting can and must coexist.

Otherwise, I question the point of having all of these magazines in the region at all if that kind of reporting does not seem valued on a consistent basis.

New Music

These are some recent releases that are worth checking out as you head into the weekend:

“Gol Lbhar” by Yvzid

“Feek Haga” by Donia Wael

“Okey” by Clyz

“Amer” by Yusor Hamed

“Wen El Hob” by Rita L’Oujdia, FRIZZY, & Zouj

“2ool Ya 3amena” by Shehta Karika & Dr. Drezel

“Thawili” by The Synaptik

“Shu Helo El Ehsass” by Yara Mustafa

“KHLSANASLN” by Nada Nader

“Maak Alhaq” by Youssef Al Saadoun

“Bahawel” by Amr Diab

“IGNORANCE!” by NARCY

“Dream Girl” by RealestK

Abdelaziz Stati just wanted to travel to Marseille.

The Moroccan chaabi icon wrote the song “Aatini El Visa” in 1990 conveying the pains of waiting for a visa to be able to leave Morocco and visit his “beloved” Marseille.

In the song, Stati sings about an unfair system that could not process his visa and passport quickly enough to be able to enter Marseille, home to one of the largest Moroccan diaspora communities in Europe.

Upon first listen, “Aatini El Visa”—complete with Stati’s trademark high-energy violin—sounds like an upbeat track one would play at a party or some type of gathering. It begs the listener to dance, despite its rather heartbreaking lyrical content.

“Aatini El Visa” serves as the foundation for Tawsen’s “Visa Oul Passeport”, an updated version of this classic that sees the singer tackling themes of diaspora and growing up with one foot in Belgium (where Tawsen grew up) and one in Morocco (his native roots).

Clocking in at two minutes exactly, “Visa Oul Passeport” carries the spirit of “Aatini El Visa” in that it also contains the same bouncy and danceable quality while simultaneously discussing identity politics.

Read more

Weekly Recap

Here’s this week’s Friday news recap for notable events that happened in Arabic music:

• Moroccan rapper Mehdi Black Wind was detained in Casablanca this week and has been held in custody by Morocco’s National Brigade of Judicial Police. The rapper, who has lived in France since 2017, was in Morocco and preparing to travel back home when he was stopped at the airport and barred from leaving Morocco. As of now, reasons for his arrest have not been disclosed. A highly respected emcee and lyricist, Mehdi Black Wind is one of Morocco’s most outspoken artists, gaining prominence in the 2010s for his politically engaged lyrics. He has remained a vocal critic of corruption in Morocco.

• Several of the region’s major rappers announced upcoming U.S. and Europe tour dates. ElGrandeToto and Stormy will both perform on separate tours across cities in Europe, while Wegz shared concert dates in select cities in Europe, U.S., and the Middle East.

• The global Y2K trend in music now seems fully entrenched in the emerging pop scene in the Middle East and North Africa. The latest artist to take this route is Lella Fadda, who notably departed from rap in her latest release “Mahesh Far2a”. Fadda joins the likes of Saint Levant, TUL8TE, Bayou, and others in tapping into this nostalgic return to early 2000s Arab pop production and aesthetics. TUL8TE quickly found success in his career tapping into this yearning for the past, harkening back to the 90s flamenco-infused pop sound that catapulted Amr Diab to superstardom. While some songs balance that nostalgia with fresh production, the creative direction of some other songs more broadly in this trend have reached parody levels, undermining what makes 2000s Arab pop so endearing in the first place. For better or for worse, this trend is here and shows no signs of slowing down.

New Music

These are some recent releases that are worth checking out as you head into the weekend:

“Hoy” by Malika La Bendita

“ki nhot rassi” by Saintemin

“Fokhar Dhiif” by TACHWICH

“GAWAD” by Zaid Khaled & Hadi Birajakli

“Madina” by Aya Samara

“Cogite” by Soolking & Willylancien

“SHAGI W NDEEM” by Tageel & Mvndila

“Mawasem” by nour

“Baby” by Al Shami

“ZWINA” by Danyl & Franglish

“Pressure” by Husa & Zeyada

“YALLY BEATOUNA” by ZIAD ZAZA, Amjad Jomaa, Sleiman Damien, and Ismail Nosrat

“Talfa Fik” by NovaQueen

“Lw A2dar” by Hasnaa & Aley Eldin Omar

“No Lie II” by O.G. Gang

Weekly Recap

Here’s this week’s Friday news recap for notable events that happened in Arabic music:

• After years of a rumored collaboration and teasing photos together on social media, Saint Levant and Haifa have finally released two joint songs, “Mitsubishi” and “Bahibek”. Just last week, videos swirled on TikTok and Instagram of both artists dressed in wedding attire driving around Beirut (teasing what ultimately became the music video for “Bahibek”). These releases continue a pattern for Saint Levant, who has physically positioned himself with the region’s established pop stars and is seemingly pivoting his sound to something more akin to that familiar Arab pop style. In February, Saint Levant teamed up with Tamer Hosny for a song for Egyptian telecoms company e&’s Ramadan campaign. The singer also released the nostalgia-tinged “Sabah El Ward”, invoking the classic Arabic songs of the 50s and 60s. He’s also been seen in studio with artists like Fares Karam. These collaborations feel like a natural next step for an artist like Saint Levant who now may be trying to broaden his audience base a bit further to a more general one.

• TUL8TE debuted his latest song “Garee2a Awy” at the vaunted COLORS Studio this week, continuing to lean heavily on the nostalgia of 80s, 90s, and 00s Egyptian pop music. The performance follows that of many artists from the Middle East, North Africa, and its global diaspora communities in recent years. The song marks his first solo release since “Seneen” in January, and comes just a month after his collaborative track with Saint Levant “Nano”, which has since garnered 28 million views on YouTube.

• Wegz was featured on the cover for the July edition of YUNG, marking the rapper’s third cover since August 2025 (Billboard Arabia and Dazed MENA also featured him). While the story was beautifully written and the creative direction was executed beautifully—you can check everything out here—it does beg the question of how one artist is able to secure three cover stories in under a year. This is no shade to anyone involved in making these stories happen, and certainly Wegz commands much attention. For what it’s worth, though Wegz is a powerful player in the regional music scene, he has not released any new music since December 2025. This does raise questions about how he or any of the other 8-10 artists who are constantly featured on cover stories seem to be the only ones who have these opportunities. It does raise questions about editorial decision making at these media outlets, and whether they are truly tapped into what is moving in music at the moment. I’ll have more to say about this in the coming weeks in a longer story.

• The 19th annual Jazzablanca Festival concludes this week after stirring performances by some of the region’s emerging musicians and international stars. The festival, which took place in Casablanca, included appearances by Small X, Zeyne, Bab L’Bluz, Faouzia, Danyl, Ino Casablanca, Tchubi, and more. And yes, Ms. Lauryn Hill also performed.

New Music

These are some recent releases that are worth checking out as you head into the weekend:

“Sakakeen” by Noel Kharman & Al Nather

“Salma Ya Salama” by Lena Chamamyan & Omar Alkilani

“KANBOUNI” by Rhita Nattah

“Sam3en” by Triple9

“píntame / رسمني” by Sabah

“SUCRÉ” by ELOSTAR & Synay

“Sahrawi” by Octave

“cHoPpEd ChEeSe!” by Neemz

The opening synths of the song “Njoum” immediately lure listeners into an ethereal space, before a thumping Miami bass-type drum beat blares through the speakers.

The soft voice of Kawtar floats in, almost to disarm the booming bass, setting a more low-key tone to the song.

“Meaya, mli kikounch meaya, Nhsseb koula dqiqa wntsna nhar li ykoun hdaya,” she sings in Moroccan darija, which roughly translates to “when you’re not with me, I count every single minute and wait for the day you’ll be by my side.”)

On its face, “Njoum”, which was produced by Moroccan powerhouse Yo Asel, has the markings of danceable summer love song, akin to the 1996 classic “My Boo” by Ghost Town DJs. The track feels like the kind of song that one would dance to at a cookout or play in the car with the windows down as the sun sets.

Its sung in a way that feels both celestial and quotable, complete with a catchy hook and just enough mixing of English and darija where it does not feel forced or that one language is trying to dominate the other.

For Kawtar, the song exists as a way to break through the endless barrage of Moroccan and Arab artists singing in Arabic over Afropop-type beats—what’s been dubbed “Afro 3ala Arab” colloquially—just to fit a streaming platform’s algorithm.

Read more

Listeners of Arabic music and artists made by artists from the Middle East, North Africa, and the diaspora may be feeling just how pivotal 2026 seems to be for the region’s music. Almost immediately, artists dropped ambitious albums and took risks with their music, both sonically and lyrically.

At times this year, album releases completely overwhelmed and flooded the market to the point of suffocation. The highly anticipated releases of Moroccan rappers Stormy, Dizzy DROS, and ElGrandeToto all came within on week of each other, leaving listeners with barely enough time to truly sit with these albums. Other releases marked comebacks for artists who had taken significant time away between albums—most notably Souad Massi, Tawsen, and Maryam Saleh.

While rap and hip-hop maintain an outsized influence in many ways (for better or for worse), 2026 has seen impressive outputs from artists across all genres, further demonstrating the vast diversity of the region’s musicality.

As we wait for more releases this year, here are the thirty best albums from the first six months of 2026, in alphabetical order by artist (EPs are not included in this list).

Acid Arab, Resonance

Acid Arab, known for bringing Arab melodic sensibilities to electronic production, deliver yet again with their first album in three years, weaving in thoughtful collaborations with artists across the Middle East and North Africa.

Notable tracks: Ma7boubi (featuring Zeina Aftimos), Shahed Mech Shayef (featuring Yasmine Hamdan), El Galb (featuring Cheikha Hadjla)

Al Tase3, Al Tase3

The Lebanese indie rock band released their debut self-titled album with a sound that they describe as “distortion meeting tradition”.

Notable tracks: Nawwar, Zannan, Ishrabu

Bo9al, Tornado

The Moroccan rapper released this mixtape at a time where he says he had been recovering from a physical injury and sought to document his journey back.

Notable tracks: Action (featuring Dollypran), La Fin, Essien

Crashendo, Kol El Layali

Egyptian indie band Crashendo garnered some attention with their 2024 debut album Breaking News, which had been performed in English . This follow-up album is exclusively in Arabic and incorporates elements of reggae, folk, and earworms too catchy to ignore.

Notable tracks: Kol El Layali, Bos Le Fo2, Fa7em

Danyl, ZMIG

Danyl has quickly become one of the faces of a new wave of emerging Algerian artists in Europe and North Africa, ushering in an era of renewed interest in raï music while infusing elements of hip-hop and R&B.

Notable tracks: YA HABIBA, BROUILLON, SLATA

Dizzy DROS, AFLAM

In full transparency, AFLAM is my personal “album of the year” at the moment, with the Moroccan rap OG delivering a masterpiece through his lyrical delivery, poignant thematic storytelling, and thoughtful production.

Notable tracks: DARBEDA (featuring ElGrandeToto), OWN IT (featuring Mehdi K-libre), SIUUU

Dua Saleh, Of Earth & Wires

Sudanese artist Saleh sits at the intersection of experimentation, R&B, poetry, and Afrofuturism—all while, of course, injecting their own gothic outlook that often influences their own worldview. On Of Earth & Wires, Saleh conveys an urgent message to humanity as the world grapples with crisis after crisis.

Notable tracks: Flood (featuring Bon Iver), Anemic (featuring Gaidaa), Firestorm

Flenn, ALMA

Algerian rapper Flenn quietly dropped an album that features heavy doses of introspection and bravado, unafraid to take aim at his competition while simultaneously contemplating his own place in the rap scene.

Notable tracks: Anissa, Vent, Eazy Life

HADI, Al Fam Wal Fakkayn

The Lebanese rapper may just be one of the sharpest lyricists in the regional hip-hop scene, with poignant songs about war, displacement, and fighting a system that discards its people.

Notable tracks: Al Sawt, Taa Marbouta, Hajamo

Hleem Taj Alser, Mission Impossible

Sudanese rapper Hleem Taj Alser released Mission Impossible early in 2026, a 12-track output that set the bar for his peers in the Sudanese scene and more broadly across North Africa.

Notable songs: Mercedes Benz, Hakawi, Ego

Inez, Farasha

Following her debut album in 2021, Moroccan Dutch artist Inez returns with Farasha, a sprawling 16-song pop album leading with the viral “Dayman Heik” with Jordanian artist Akhras.

Notable tracks: Dima (featuring KeBlack), Ntaya (featuring Nouamane Belaiachi), La La (featuring Tawsen)

Jamul, Nothing Really Happens in Post War Beirut

A clever wordsmith that deftly utilizes trademark Lebanese sarcasm and explicit emotion, Jamul released this timely and urgent album as commentary on the current state of Lebanon and the broader region.

Notable tracks: Aala Amal, Haifa (featuring Ziggy), Prelude

Kiss Facility, Khanza

Sega Bodega’s new duo with singer Mayah Alkhateri reimagines shoegaze by weaving together Arabic-language vocals and ultra-modern club pop, creating something both familiar and gorgeously unexpected.

Notable tracks: Ishara (featuring Aleyna Tilki), Magenta, Kotshena

Koast, 1609

The Tunisian singer-songwriter took time away before announcing 1609 with a paparazzi-style rollout that featured “Missing” posters (Koast had taken some time away from being publicly visible). The result is an eight-track album that sees the artist propel her sound forward pulling elements of 80s pop, early 00s Aaliyah, and house.

Notable tracks: 3AM, Katana (featuring RamsJamsss), Dhab Khaless

Konstancy, City of Angels

The Palestinian rapper’s debut album is both unmistakably Los Angeles in its musical aesthetics and undeniably Palestinian in its blistering lyricism, bridging two places near and dear to Konstancy.

Notable tracks: Watermelon Sweetheart (featuring Lana Lubany), Dreams, Angel

Ktyb, GAGA

The Tunisian rap juggernaut dropped two albums already this year, including a collaborative project with producer John Six. GAGA reasserts Ktyb as a dominant lyricist in the country’s hip-hop scene.

Notable tracks: ZAWADT, HETTA MENNI, EEE

Maryam Saleh, Syrr

Experimental Egyptian artist Maryam Saleh quietly dropped one of the most sonically ambitious albums this year, her first full project in nearly ten years.

Notable tracks: Nafas, Wanas, El Fetra

Najm, Fallen Angel

A rising star in Moroccan melodic rap, the masked artist Najm released this highly-anticipated follow-up to his 2025 album SAV!OR, featuring only one notable collaboration with ElGrandeToto.

Notable tracks: MURDA, GHALAT (featuring ElGrandeToto), RO7K

Norhan, RUSTED GOLD

The Egyptian American singer released her anticipated debut album filled with catchy pop tracks that weave English and Arabic throughout each song.

Notable tracks: ALBAK BAEED, NASEEBI, I’D RATHER LOVE

RealestK, Forgive to Forget

Lebanese Canadian crooner RealestK had significant momentum in 2022 and 2023 before taking some time off to release Forgive to Forget. The artist, however, made sure this album was worth the wait, as it showcases his raw talent and ability to thoughtfully convey his vulnerability.

Notable tracks: Breathe, Dangerous, Angels

saüd, High Octane

Saudi rapper saüd brings boom bap to the forefront of this star-studded project, with appearances by Busta Rhymes, WESTSIDE BOOGIE, and Rapsody.

Notable tracks: Be the Way (featuring Bas & The C!rcle), Good Fellas (featuring Belly), BIG (featuring Kojey Radical & Rapsody)

Snor, Miracle

Following six years of releasing singles sporadically, Moroccan rapper Snor dropped his long-overdue debut album in April, contemplating fame over predominantly trap production.

Notable tracks: Chabba, Ajali (featuring Wegz), Ghalat (featuring 7liwa)

Sofiane Pamart, Movie

The acclaimed Moroccan pianist and composer released a sprawling 20-track acoustic piano journey, a soothing and emotional palette cleanser for listeners stuck in the mindless algorithmic feed. Movie also boasts collaborations with Christine and the Queens, J Balvin, and NBA all star Jimmy Butler.

Notable tracks: Watching You (featuring Celeste), Piano Sonata (featuring J Balvin), Like an Angel (featuring Nelly Furtado)

Sons of Yusuf, Battle of the Black Gold

The Kuwaiti rap duo tackle geopolitics and societal issues head-on in this album, keeping the conscious hip-hop of the 90s alive and well.

Notable tracks: GCC, Black Gold, Is This Everything

Soof & ThanksJoey, Tree of Life

Arab American rap OG Soof and powerhouse producer ThanksJoey team up for an urgent socially conscious album that explores heritage, protection of nature, and prayer.

Notable tracks: Birds Of Hope, I Hope The Angels Sing, Follow The Sun

Souad Massi, Zagate

French Algerian singer-songwriter Souad Massi has been a mainstay in poetic folk music, delving deep into her own personal insecurities. Zagate explores the artist’s pain and anger as a means to find hope and courage in her life.

Notable tracks: Ana Inssan, Samt, Sawt

Stormy, DESPERADO

Following up on his critically acclaimed 2024 album ICEBERG, Moroccan rapper Stormy displayed his sonic versatility and lyrical depth with DESPERADO, topping streaming charts.

Notable tracks: SKI, CANDYSHOP, KILOWAT

Tawsen, Chokran,

Moroccan singer Tawsen returns with this long-anticipated project that features some of the best pop and R&B work of his career. The artist set a standard here, and it boasts appearances by Fares Sokkar and Inez.

Notable tracks: Visa Oul Passeport, Mitad (featuring Sabah), Estanna (featuring Fares Sokkar)

Teen Idle, A Heart So Tender

The New Jersey-based Egyptian American singer/songwriter incorporates her love for classical Arabic music and 90s grunge music to create “rock music with a pop sensibility.”

Notable tracks: California Cowboy, Letters, Infinite Sea

TIF, SAVASHUIA

French Algerian rapper TIF followed up on his acclaimed 2023 album 1.6 with this project in May, marking a return to the scene after taking some time away.

Notable tracks: TSAWER, MINUIT D’APRÈS, FREEMIUM

Subscribe now