The Revolution Will Be Televised: Youth, Political Protest, and Hip Hop From The U.S. To Egypt --CANCELLED

The impact of hip hop music has transcended borders and transformed global understandings concerning the relationship between music and protest. This paper will use the emergence of the hip hop movement by Arab youth as a lens to analyze the influence of United States hip hop and its subsequent influence on global hip hop culture. It examines in particular, the Egyptian rap scene and the crucial role of rap music in galvanizing youth to act and in articulating the betrayal felt by many Egyptians from President Hosni Mubarak’s oppressive regime. The use of hip hop as a form of solidarity and a tool against political oppression was brought to the fore during the Arab Spring in 2011, which set off a number of revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa. Rappers such as El General from Tunisia, the Arabian Knightz and Deeb from Egypt, and the Syrian American artist Omar Offendum—frequently point to United States rappers such as 2Pac, Biggie, and Public Enemy as providing inspiration to their craft. I argue that the emergence of rap music in Egypt was fueled by many of the similar exigencies (high youth unemployment, failed revolutionary dreams, and political marginalization) that fueled the development of the hip hop movement in the United States but that its impact on the political establishment has been even greater. The Egyptian hip hop scene that came of age during the revolution showcases how rap music’s influence on citizens and political institutions has dramatically increased in the modern global era. In other words, this paper argues that we can learn a lot about the current state of youth led social movements by examining Arab rap music during the Egyptian revolution.