Finding Hip-Hop in Morocco
Josh Asen traveled to Morocco in search of uncovering hip-hop culture. This 2004 trip was courtesy of a Fulbright fellowship program. His initial intentions were to gather research for writing a paper on Morocco and the hip-hop culture. Upon arriving to Morocco, Asen was amazed to hear Puff Daddy and Eminem playing in conjunction with the traditional Morocco cultural and religious music. This changed his planned course of action.
He would now film a documentary entitled I Love Hip Hop in Morocco. To do this, he enlisted the assistance of his friend Jennifer Needleman. Together they set out to interview hip-hop artists in Morocco to see what these individuals needed most from the music community. The popular response was simple, a need for concerts. From this, Asen branched out by founding the Moroccan hip-hop festival.
He quickly approached the United States Embassy and Coca-Cola as sponsors of this first ever Moroccan hip-hop festival. With sponsorship backing in hand, he set up a festival tour schedule. This comprised of a three-city venue of Casablanca, Marrakech and Meknes. The festival would draw on local musical talents for each venue.
Moroccan artists took to the stage presenting hip-hop music in unique twists as individual as the artists themselves. Hip-hop music broke language barriers. Songs played out in Arabic, French, Moroccan Arabic and English. Additional entertainment such as break-dancers and graffiti artists took the stage with the Moroccan hip-hop artists. Many of these entertainers were part of an underground hip-hop culture that secretly banned together over the last ten years.
As the music festival began, Asen jumped on stage with a video camera to document every exciting moment. 30,000 fans were present at the first venue stop. An additional hundreds of thousands Moroccan fans watched the event on live television. The aim of the hip-hop music festival was to extend a hand to an otherwise unreachable generation. Moroccan youth had little else to hold their attention. American portrayals on television presented only one side of a whole picture. Asen hoped to present Moroccan youth with another view of American culture by founding the music festival. These two generations were able to transcend physical borders by sharing a love of the same genre of music. That was hip-hop.
Hip-hop is a musical forum where young people can express themselves. It gives a chance to present viewpoints that older generations would otherwise dismiss. This sort of empowerment is something the young generation of the seventies enjoyed. The youth of today are welcoming this opportunity to have a voice.
…more on Morocco festivals
by Sam Mitchell
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