I've been flingin' this chune right here since circa ~2006. It was around that time that I had developed an insatiable appetite for world music and internet radio was my smorgasbord. Shout out to the station One World on Live365.com for introducing me to a plethora of international genres--including rai.
Rai is a folk music credited to Algeria, but enjoyed throughout the Maghreb (collective name for North African countries comprised of mostly Arab ethnic groups). Like almost any other genre of music under the sun, rai has evolved to become more upbeat and relative to youth. Think Jamaican reggae--> dancehall/ragga; Trinidadian calypso--> soca; 90s R&B/rap fusion-->hip hop.
Sorry for the musicology lesson--I told you guys I'm a culture freak--back to today's chune! Un Gaou a Oran formally belongs under the category of rai but is actually better classified within an off-shoot genre, like those listed above. Not sure what this hybridized genre is officially called but the track appears on a compilation album called Rai-n-b Fever. From the time I heard this song on One World, I was hypnotized... and then I saw the video. *scream* LUV'D IT!! I especially appreciated that it reflected the background cultures of the artists--Mohamed Lamine, 113 and Magic System--who collaborated to make the song Black (African) and Middle Eastern/Arab, both united by French colonialism.
OK, OK, I'm off my soapbox. For your listening pleasure, this right here is Un Gaou a Oran!! Have a blessed weekend everybody!
Welcome to my corner of the universe to share thoughts, inspirations, and questions that arise while on my journey for Jesus. My goal is to encourage, provoke and relate to others in the body of Christ but since I'm a young, single woman, a good bit of what I say will reflect that perspective. We're all in the same struggle but hopefully some of this Holy Hotness can edify (and entertain) us along the way.
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