“In the year 1995, Hamid El-Shaeri decided to release a song called ‘Qeshr El Bondoq Yah’. Around that very same time, Marwan Moussa was born.” The video series ‘Red Bull: Mazzika Salonat’ is a fascinating ongoing experience in Egyptian music. The premise is simple, yet intriguing: two unsuspecting musicians are brought together — like a musical blind date. Once they are revealed to each other, they shut themselves into a studio and have precisely eight hours to produce a track to which they both contribute equally. Earlier this month, an episode was released where the two lucky musicians were Libyan-Egyptian 90s pop singer, producer, and instrumentalist Hamid El-Shaeri, and the young Egyptian rap sensation that has enthralled members of the country’s Generation Z community, Marwan Moussa. With the ever-changing nature of musical trends, a smooth merging of the talents of two men whose heydays are nearly three decades apart cannot be taken for granted. And suffice it to say that Mazzika Salonat’s previous attempts to bring together two apparently disparate worlds of music have not always been successful. And yet, by some miracle, Shabb Shabb, the track that resulted from…
‘Shabb Shabb’: A Blueprint for Ending the Generational Feud in Egyptian Music
November 17, 2021
