Protest through Songs and Poetry: Interview with Mohamed El Deeb (Photo: Mohamed El Deeb)

Could you describe how your musical project began, and the first steps you took with the hip-hop band "Asfalt" and later with "Wighit Nazar" – what was the main motivation for this kind of music and what message did it have for the Egyptian public?

Mohamed El Deeb: It's a funny story how I got into hip-hop. I always enjoyed writing poetry in school. When I was at secondary school we were asked to write a French rap song and submit it as an assignment for the French class. All my colleagues submitted on paper, I was the only one who recorded my rap on a cassette tape over a looped beat, as that was the time when I was really getting into hip-hop. When the teacher played my song in class, all my friends and colleagues enjoyed it and gave me props. I wrote my first rap song in French! I thought to myself, if I can write a rap song in French, which is not my main language, I can also do it in English.

I moved back to Egypt in 2005 from the Gulf, where I had spent most of my childhood years. I found myself speaking and thinking more in Arabic, discovering myself and my culture for the first time. In 2006, I joined "Asfalt", which was one of the first Egyptian hip-hop crews to rap in colloquial Arabic.

I later created "Wighit Nazar" (Point of View), a musical project that included Asfalt band member Mohamed Yasser, and myself. We had a good chemistry going on and we managed to create a respected name in the underground scene. I left "Wighit Nazar" in mid-2010 to start my solo career due to creative differences. The main messages that can be felt in my songs cover identity issues, cultural awareness, sexual harassment, social and political oppression, and reminding my people of the good old days when Egypt was a cultural and arts hub in the Middle East.

How would you assess the cultural climate under the Mubarak regime? What kind of restrictions were imposed upon independent artists like yourself, and how did this affect your music?

El Deeb: Hip-hop music is language that speaks about struggles and oppression. It is based on self-expression and projecting your point of view, regardless of whether people agree with you or not. This made it harder for me to write songs freely during the Mubarak regime; there was a good chance that you'd be locked up for speaking the truth. I had to censor most of my lyrics. I could never say the word 'government' or 'president'. I would always refer to them as 'The Big Guys' or 'The Corrupt People'. I would use metaphors instead of direct name references.

I remember doing a TV interview when I was with Asfalt and the TV presenter stopped us because we chose to sing a song called 'El Ebara Fel Abbara', where we talked about the 'Salam' ferry that sank in 2005 and the 1,000 people that drowned. We then found out that the 'Salam' ferry owners were corrupt and had close links to the Mubarak regime.

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Interview conducted by Arian Fariborz

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