Ahmed Ali, better known as Wegz, has quickly risen to become a defining voice in Egyptian hip-hop. Born on 11 September 1998, the 26-year-old rapper has pushed the boundaries of Egypt’s music scene and hip-hop by blending traditional shaabi music, a popular kind of folk music, with modern trap beats. Wegz, a nickname given to him by a friend, grew up in Al Wardiyan neighborhood in Alexandria where he studied at El-Agami Higher Institute of Management Sciences. His first released song on Spotify, released when he was 19, is Batalo Fake (Stop Being Fake, 2017). However, Wegz’s first song to go viral was Bazet (It’s Ruined, 2019), and his first track to gain massive popularity and put him under the media’s spotlight was Dorak Gai (You’re Next, 2019). Dorak Gai was playing at shops, cars, toktoks, weddings, and streets of Cairo at the time. In February 2020, Wegz’s song Bazet was featured in a TV ad for Molto, an Egyptian snack by the food company Edita, bringing his music to every household through television. Then, in March 2020, he released the music video for Dorak Gai, which garnered over 24…
Birthday Spotlight: How Wegz Left a Mark on Egyptian Hip-Hop
September 11, 2024
By Nadine Tag
Journalist
