Moroccan Hip Hop - Chronology

Chronology

Moroccan's hip-hop and urban culture history dates back to the mid-1980s, when, after hip-hop's emergence in Western culture, Moroccan immigrant youth in Europe transferred the new musical style back to Morocco upon their returns home. Of course, it took some years for Moroccan rappers to find a comfortable balance between traditional Moroccan music and Western rap, and it took time for them to find the right linguistic style, which ended up being a combination of Classical Arabic, tamazight(berber), darija (darija), French, and English, but the result of experimentation and growth was a musical genre that could truly be identified not as simply "rap," but specifically "Moroccan rap." After its explosion in Morocco's music scene, Moroccan rap underwent the same critiques as Western rap had been subjected to: it was too decadent, it was uncouth, it was the music of thugs and of rough streets. It was slowly accepted, however, by the general public and the media. The democratization of Morocco, beginning in the late 1990s, especially helped to expand acceptance of the new musical genre.

Rap and urban music have since gained a following in major urban centers in Morocco. Moroccan rap, a favorite genre for many Moroccans, especially Moroccan youth, speaks out and protests on social and political issues.