Gig Review: Hip Hop Legacy (Egypt)

‘Hip Hop Legacy’ a show celebrating the hip hop scene in Cairo took place at El Sawy Culturewheel in December. The show took place in collaboration with the American Embassy in Cairo. Triplew.me’s correspondent Muhannad Salah was there and came back with this review - read below to find out more…

Considering that I’m a long-time lover of Metal music, covering a hip hop event was out of my comfort zone. That being said, and coupled with my journalistic creed of keeping an open mind, this event has introduced me to many a fact about the local hip hop scene in Cairo.

The event started with the dance group, Beat Muncherz. The group consists of four female dancers (Khadiga El Arkan, Noura Seif Hassanein, Shahira Hamdy and Naomi Sobol) and might be the only female-dancing group in Egypt.

Although this was their first performance as a group, they proved to be a solid bunch of dancers (with a little help from two guest-dancers "Bboy CHB" and “Mido"). Noura spoke to us about their routine after the show “it’s a form of art. Some express themselves with painting, singing or music. We do it by dancing. Many people may not be aware that hip hop dance is influenced by many styles that came before it such as jazz and salsa."

As with many forms of emerging arts in the scene, hip hop dancing has its fair share of challenges in Egypt – such as the lack of good and efficient dance studios. This fact encouraged Naomi to create an intensive hip hop workshop (“Dancepiration Egypt”) which involved two experienced choreographers from L.A. – the workshop was a big success and from there on progressed into becoming a hub for hip hop dancers in the country.

Following the Beat Muncherz dance routine popular local Hip Hip groups and MC’s took to the stage including Asphalt, El Deeb and Zap.

Despite the mixed and bi-lingual crowds, most performers rapped in Arabic.

“I was raised on hip hop and I always wanted to speak to the people using our language,” said El Deeb after the show.  And it’s no surprise to anyone that Hip Hop as a genre and lifestyle have had its share of misrepresentation in the mainstream media “People in Egypt generally misunderstood Hip Hop because of the way it’s always been portrayed, but even through all that, the scene is very young here – and has improved greatly,” added El Deeb.

After the performances of the local Hip Hop groups, American rappers ‘Legacy’ – took the stage “When I heard that we’re going to play in Egypt - I flipped out!” said a member of the group. The group has been performing for 15 years and has always presented a unique point of view with their sound by using live instrumentation. Their sound is also influenced by a variety of genres from blues to funk and reggae.

‘Hip Hop Legacy’ proved to me that I have so much more to learn about Hip Hop and its manifestation on the scene. As El Deeb said “All we need in the Egyptian hip hop scene is simply a better understanding of hip hop.”

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