Revolutionary Road: Music From Carthage To Cairo

The audio for this feature is no longer available.

Join NPR's Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep as he travels this month to Tunisia, Libya and Egypt to tell the stories of North Africans one year after the Arab Spring. As Steve makes this journey, NPR Music will feature some of the music he is hearing along his travels — in cafes, clubs and on local radio stations.

The music of this region is as diverse as its culture. Don't be surprised when a song by Rihanna or Bruno Mars pops up alongside Egyptian pop stars Mohamed Hamaki and Amr Diab — that's the model for Tunisia's first privately owned radio station, Mosaïque FM, which divides its airtime between Arabic and international hits. Similarly, Cairo's largest English-speaking radio station, NileFM (its Arabic counterpart is NogoumFM), programs heavily from the same Billboard charts we do here.

Egypt, Tunisia and Libya have a thriving underground music scene as well, though you'd be hard-pressed to hear much of it on air. People share this music — which ranges from death metal to hip-hop — primarily through YouTube, flash drives and social media. Since the revolution, political and socially minded hip-hop has experienced an explosive awakening through acts like Egypt's Arabian Knightz and Libya's MC Swat. In Benghazi, rapper Malik L. sees a rise in artists who rap in English (learning English had been banned under Moammar Gadhafi), though Malik, a native English-speaker, prefers to rhyme in Arabic.

Elsewhere in this mix, you'll hear sounds that make up the extensive tapestry of popular music in North Africa. Rock and hip-hop artists incorporate the traditionalist sounds of Oum Kalthoum and Abdel Halim Hafez; Libyan reggae bands in Derna model themselves after Bob Marley; and Cairo's historic street singing — sha'aby -- is mixed with hip-hop, dubstep and electronic beats to create Egypt's current dance craze.

Songs In This Mix

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.