Morocco Travel Information

Elizabeth Cestor interview with Hicham Abkari.
Over the past decade, hip hop culture with difficulty trying to survive in the Mediterranean last kingdom. Hicham Abkari explains how, in this interview very frank and fascinating. President of the foundation "Underground", it is also programmer of the Festival of Casablanca and musical director of Theater Mohammed VI: The rap from above as we can listen to the Palais. Not so simple.
You have contributed to the rise of the new Moroccan music scene. Can you tell us more?
In 1999, everything began with the first national championship break dance, designed in the form of battle ", as for example in Germany (The Battle of the year"). There were matches between different groups of breakdancers, and the fighting between rappers sang. It was really the beginning, there were not many groups, both in the breakdance the rap. Everything happened in a small room at Sidi Belyout cultural complex, which has become a mythical place of all rap singers or breakdancers. I had access to the room, but it was not easy to mount all these projects that I worked in this place as deputy director. I still more easily than someone who would come outside offer concerts of this kind because it was not very well regarded at the time.
We also tried to create a discourse around these practices, via the press. We especially television channels which were from time to time. We wanted to give a little visibility and reduce the suspicion that could create this kind of dance or what kind of singer.
What kind of suspicion?
The draws break dancers and rappers imitated some of the gangsta-rappers from New York, which did not go hand in hand with the "local color". Let us not forget that in the center of Casablanca, it is difficult to accept what some call "El Gharbi", ie Western culture because, according to a conspiracy theory, our identity is in danger , Attacked by the West. So we are already in this configuration. We reduction of young people who represent the tip within the West: young cities, suburbs, are not seen in the West, so you can imagine, if you bring this style here! Of course, the speech conveyed against these young people are found in Morocco. This kind of "expression" (as it did not even "culture") is not very well perceived in the West, it was felt as if "westerners sent us their waste." So it was at any time convey a spirit of "tolerance", even if the term is not fair.
This discourse of "difference" began to be used from 2003, especially after the terrorist attacks in Casablanca. From that moment, I would not say it was easier, but say that acceptance of this kind of "culture" (as it then began to talk of "culture") was easier because the utility aspect of this culture has argued to counteract some obscurantist discourse.
In 2003 we created a structure called "Underground Moroccan Federation", which continued our work started in 1999. Everything was easier then to the public structures, for example for local rehearsals, coaching, and not just for entertainment. Before, young people who were the urban dance in the corridors of some galleries or in the street were chased. Even now, sometimes at the Bd Lalla Yacout, asked to déguerpir. A crowd is immediately suspicious. But there was a change after the attacks of 16 May 2003. Before 2003, governments were reactionary discourse openly assumed. Currently no, they can not have this discourse that seems obscurantist, a form of intellectual terrorism, even terrorism itself. Even if they are the same people who are in the same positions, even if the reflexes are always the same, the discourse has changed. It would be of this ilk: "we must open ourselves, Morocco is an open country, where we know the difference accept ... We must listen to young people is a form of expression ...." That is why we see, especially in the media or during official holidays or in the media, television ... groups, hitherto denigrated, become stars, well paid. Meanwhile, he undertook a process of recovery, which is a danger of subversive speech some time ago tends to be recovered. Some pop groups are beginning to have a reactionary speech to go hand in hand with environmental values and thus to become a product that people will ask, or the state, provider of funds, will ask. These groups adapt their speech to the request, to head the customer.
How has it changed hip-hop?
Currently, all the punch with which this movement had started declining. Since hip-hop is more degraded, it is no longer something subversive, it becomes, I would not say the "variety", a musical form among others which can be call in a program where there is variety, where we put a bit of everything. It becomes banal. However, the normalization affects the quality of production. There is also the fact that initially, in 1999, the style and content of the lyrics were making the particularity of rap: the resumption of speech in the street ... Currently, singers aseptisent their speeches so that he operated the radio, on television in the evenings sponsored. Why? One reason is the very structure of Moroccan society, Arab or say obscenities, words raw, not only is not accepted, but it is punishable by law, especially in the press, with Article 69 on the use of obscene words or obscene pictures. In this regard I recall the sentencing to prison fourteen Musicians hard rockers in March 2003 for allegedly "performed Satanic rituals" and "uttered obscenities". They were punished from the press law.
Thus, these singers who say the present life neighborhoods, suburbs, highlight the problems began with songs that owe their notoriety to the use of words everyday insults ... It is now with singers who want switch on the radio, in advertisements. To not be censored, they choose to adapt and control their language. In this way, it is called upon to increase awareness of young people in some schools, for example against drugs. Call a rapper to advise young people not to smoke or take drugs while in hip hop culture in origin, "everyone" takes drugs and smoking, this seems paradoxical. It is therefore an "adjustment of product and automatically adjusts when a product is misrepresented. Therefore we are no longer in hip hop, but in something else.
This may have the most entrenched in the professional circuit?
Automatically. Even if you can not say that there is a professional circuit since there is no market. The target of these rappers corresponds to the younger generations who have no resources. Apart from a few minorities who have pocket money, fans of this genre of music are often not even enough to pay a ticket together. When organizes concerts, many young people remain outside, they wait at the entrance of the hall in an attempt to enter without paying. Yet the price of the ticket does not exceed 30 or 40 dirhams. If you organize a concert of classical music or Andalusian, the audience consists of people who work, they belong to the population, which can buy a ticket. The purchasing power of hip hop fans is much lower.
In addition, the speeches we have carried around this trend is that hip hop is also a look, a dress. There is an informal market. Given that most young people can not spend 100 euros for T-shirts, they will find contremarques on the souks to 8 or 10 euros. The look is very important for a singer or a breakdancer who will go on stage, it must be "obliged to work".
Hip hop has, through access to software pirated music composition, breaking the stranglehold of some elite who could afford to study music theory, take courses on musical culture. With these new software, anyone can now speak a little sampler, arrange music. This has opened access to a cultural form and has reduced, reduce or eliminate the divide between countries that have legal access to these tools of composition and a large slice of the world population has no access there and therefore could not speak. Our goal in encouraging this cultural form was also exonerate young compared to social pressure, "you have an Arab identity, we must conserve and not sing songs that Arab dress not only Arab clothes ..." But also exonerate young hip-hopeurs the attempt of "criminalization" initiated by some groups and lobbyists who have business interests, mercantile, in terms of sales (CDs, software, clothes ...). The aim is to enable the hip-hop to evolve in a healthy and relaxed.
This problem of the recovery came at a time of creative maturity, sometimes these young people have a reactionary speech, sometimes they adapt to the local structure, sanitizer in their speeches, trying even, as some groups such Fnaïre to talk about "traditional rap". But the "traditional rap", does not exist. This is not because we will use traditional instruments that are made of traditional rap. There are also those that are accused of making commercial rap, compared to rap called "underground". The current state of hip hop is characterized by the pursuit of credibility, radio, in formal structures, with sponsors. Finding meaning that credibility be paid, and even well-paid!
Apparently, since the release of radios, there was a craze for this music?
We should not rejoice too, we are not under the free radios to the way French in 1981, nor in that of pirate radio. No, the radios are governed by specifications. Apart from Hit Radio, who spends a lot of evidence of the "young music scene, other radios still have doubts. For example, you will not hear rap on the official radio, that of Rabat, on the other radios either. So from Hit Radio, rarely Aswat, you will not hear rap on the radio. And even if they pass, control antenna is part of specifications. Hit Radio had the bad experience of being ordered to pay 100 000 dirhams for not having mastered the antenna during a talk show with a young DJ who held a speech on the drag and girls, so you imagine a rap song enough flood could not be disseminated. Morocco can not live what happens in France: we can not imagine a group called fuck your mother (NTM), it is not possible. The radios are not "free" radios and "private" offering songs while recognizing that there is a master antenna to have and they can not freely circulate.
For young Moroccan, which represents the rap in terms of social success?
That is a lot. When Hkayne signed a contract with a company, Platinum, was the first rap group that signed a contract with a producer. This began to be emulated. CasaCrew also signed. The Fnaïre s'autoproduisent but they are as professionals, with agents who "bookent" stamps enough. There are also advertising agencies that are beginning to follow these groups rap. Currently, the most famous are the Hkayne, Casacrews, Fnaïre, Zan9a Flow, Fez City Clan. There are many groups, we can recognize more than one hundred throughout Morocco, but there are also groups that does not always work because they s'autoproduisent en home studio and provide autodiffusion on the Internet. There are also individual rappers as Mobydick, Nores, or Bigg. There is a movement, but the number of heads of displays is limited.
Opportunities arise, it is mainly festivals?
Yes, festivals and advertising. In addition, rappers have the piracy. For 5 dirhams you can have 5 albums in mp3. This form of access to culture has allowed the practice hip-hop to make themselves known. We must take into account the Moroccan reality: in many cases, a father can not buy a CD at 250 - 300 dirhams. But he made a tour in the souks, it will find a CD at 5 dirhams. He buys a CD for her children, 5 dirhams, but it does not even know what is inside. It brings this album at home and that is that as people begin to listen to musical forms that use raw terms. Thus, the only way to have access to these forms of expression remains the distribution outside the official pirated form. This speech is valid for films and DVDs as well. Hip hop, like any form of cultural expression, developed in these conditions there. If the source, the Moroccan hip hop a bit the same basis of expression as hip hop American or French, its development has adapted to reality.
How do you help these kids with your association?
We help them with Moroccan Underground Federation in the frame. For example suggesting topics for the lyrics of rappers, because when heard singing "we are Muslims, we have The Book we Koran ..." we say "you are not obliged to sing it for be recognized. If your words contain such things, you move into followers. " Casa Crew sings this particular kind of place. Fnaïre a song that ends with a verse from the Koran. Others point to a passage of the national anthem in their mixtape ... It should be a very small minority of rappers made extensive studies. If they have the level of the tray is already well! Also, they lack the intellectual capacity to analyze society and to hold subversive speech. Therefore, they often bounce which currently correspond to the love of country, patriotism and everything tralala. They say that based on this kind of talk, they will be accepted and we do not blame them to be satanic or be "zigotos" ... There is even a rapper who runs a speech to moralizing girls: 'Remember that you are going to be a mother one day. "
We also supervise in terms of programming, organizing concerts but also by showing them how to make a post, how to organize a party, how to book a room service, etc. We sometimes they interface with programmers: for a commercial that needs a dancer, a filmmaker who needs a soundtrack for an association that needs a rapper for One of its manifestations ... We are also helping these young people to become more professional and self discipline: repeat, arrive on time and not the mariolla. It is not by putting the souk we will become a famous singer. We are also helping in carrying speech, with articles in the press, on television interventions, we seek to give visibility and a serene image in this movement.
How to organize relations between the Moroccan rappers and those elsewhere, including other states in the Maghreb?
We participated in demonstrations in France, including Lille. I was able to meet with official structures, organizers and dancers of Algiers. We had projects with them but failed. However, we maintain relations with European structures, including Hip hop international solidarity, a structure based in Roubaix (France) founded by Frederick Tribalat to promote urban dance in Morocco. They chose Morocco because it suited them, the situation being more flexible than in other Maghreb countries. The advantage is that in Morocco, despite everything, there is more freedom of maneuver in civil society in Algeria or Tunisia. There are also major figures of international hip hop, including New York, trying to raise funds to create an international school of urban dance in Casablanca, in collaboration with the Moroccan Underground Federation. We're looking for a local install.
We have also mounted many courses, especially when I arrived in the direction of the Theater Mohammed VI in Casablanca. We regularly give courses urban dance free. We organized the Battle of Casablanca, from 2005, which is the continuity of championship fameux breakdance. Each year in July, there is a 4-day battle on a mobile stage. It is the urban safari in the jungle casablancaise, with a scene that amounts and dates in different neighborhoods. The crews, teams of young dancers come fight for the price which is a trophy (see photo) and money; it stimulates creativity, and can also create bidding, but we take the risk!
We planned to mount a partnership with a private structure, for castings, Star'Ac kind of rap, to try to stimulate people to assemble groups.
Through dance, graffiti, rap, what are the different forms of hip hop that developed in Morocco ...
Yes, we talked about the rap and dance, but the graffiti has also gained momentum. Our association oversees youth graffiti. Festival of Casablanca [Hicham Abkari which is the artistic director], we brought the great figures of international hip hop, like Joey Starr or figures RnB. What these celebrities come here in Morocco for young people is a form of recognition. It also allows the movement hip-hop to come forward to settle and have visibility. Young people can now enter a hotel with their hip hop clothes, T-shirts so large without automatically be seen badly. This lifestyle is becoming commonplace. Even the word "hip hop" has become a hackneyed term for certain Arabic media press. We are beginning to say "hip hop, or hop hop hop" with sarcasm, but the fact is, they speak at sit-com, on TV the month of Ramadan for example. There is a picture ironic, sarcastic young hip hoppeur with cap in reverse. It makes fun of him, but the fact that we speak, that means it is already part of society.
The benchmark always rappeurs rest of the United States?
The rappers United States have always been a reference. They convey an image of strength, power, these images are conveyed, they sent via satellite, they are still role models, both for fashion and for the pace, flow ... When you see the book of an artist You see always wanted to Busta Rhymes ... Purists will find images of 2pack, but for most, the reference model is jayz or 50 CENT ... Even if the Moroccan rappers sometimes refer to as French rappers IAM, Sinik or Disiz, because they understand their words, their model is the New Yorkers.

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