Read about H-Kayne, a Moroccan hip-hop group in the February issue of Arise Magazine and had to blog about them; admittedly, I have NO clue what they are rapping about (please, if you can translate, please do!) but the video is pretty good and quite hilar. Enjoy the vid and more info about the group when you click.

From meetingpoints.org:

Although markedly distinct from the western canon of hip-hop, H-Kayne has emerged on the contemporary music scene as “hip hop made in Morocco”. Adil (Sif Elssan), Azzedine (Ter Hor), Hatim (HB2) and Othman, the MCs of H-Kayne, are four boys who grew up on the same street in Meknès and found inspiration in rap, scratching, and dee-jaying. They began to mix Oriental grooves with strong rhythms, scratching, and popular texts, spoken in darija (local vernacular), producing an original, contemporary, punchy street sound, against prevailing trends of gangsta-rap. Their first album, entirely self-produced, ‘Un Son de Bled’Art’ earned them attention and acclaim, and the second, ‘HK 1426’, established them on the scene. Their playing with “darija” is a hallmark of their virtuosity; they draw inspiration from the tradition of ‘Meknassi jazal’, or traditional dialectical, rhymed spoken word poetry from Meknès.

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