Masari: Chyno’s Fresh Track in Arabic

Unfortunately, we’re back to the streets. The tax pause might have been a beautiful, quick victory, but that was a new injustice cooked up by the crooked ruling elite. All the old problems are still there, if not worse. The garbage, the illegal extension of parliament’s mandate (twice, thrice times soon), the Internet, the electricity, the basically everything you can think of.

Unrest is when creativity peaks, and perhaps rap and hip hop are the most influenced by (and influential to) the times. Chyno is a perfect example of this. Chyno and I go way back, and I’ve been a fan of his work for many years.

The moment when I truly appreciated his talent was last summer when I tagged along with him to Fusion festival in northern Germany. I saw the section he was performing at sparsely populated, but only a few minutes in, it was packed, with people shouting praises in German and demanding an encore when he finished his set. We were in some abandoned airfield for a week, in northern Europe, and people were flocking to buy his CDs and meet this Syrian-Filipino, Beirut-based MC. Proud!

He’s just released a song in Arabic, which was very refreshing for me. Have a listen:

I’m putting it on before driving down to Down Town Beirut to protest. Couldn’t be a more perfect time and message tbh, and I’m super glad I got to listen to it early and sharing it with you all now.

I love the multi-layered themes in Chyno’s songs. Dope beats these days often go hand in hand with airhead lyrics. Chyno’s are heavy, witty, full of smart euphemisms and references folks like us (dare I say arab global citizens) can easily relate to. They’re also very ballsy, and of course, a pleasure to listen to and even grind to.

Here’s a couple more of his tracks which I love