Global Hit

Moroccan music

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For our Global Hit today, we took an unscientific survey of what people in the city of Marrakech are listening to. The World’s Adeline Sire went to Morocco and took a sampling.

The crowded and narrow streets of the Medina, the old quarter of Marrakech, vibrate with the sounds of street vendors, pedestrians, donkey and horse carriages, and swarms of smoky mopeds. But there’s one little shop, off Dabachi Street, that makes itself heard over the chaos of the street.

It’s a CD store, one small corner booth really. It sells Celine Dion albums and Michael Jackson’s “This is It,” but that’s not what plays on the store’s loudspeakers.

This popular tune is from a group called “gaada nachta.” … Adnan who helps out at the store tells me this is a Berber group, and their music is what you’d find in the villages and mountains of Morocco.

Another style that sells well here is Sha’adi music. That’s North African folk music. And the Moroccan master of Shaadi is Hamid Zahir. Zahir sings and plays the oud, the Arab lute.

But if you’re looking for a megastar in Morocco, your man is DJ Kayz. He’s French, of Algerian descent.

DJ Kayz is known for his dance mixes that combine R&B, funk, ragga, hip hop and Rai, a style of Algerian folk music. In fact, DJ Kayz’s CD mixes are sometimes referred to as “Urban Rai”, or “Rai’nB.” And they’re apparently selling like hotcakes in France and North Africa.

And on the streets of the Medina, this music does stand up to the city’s racket.

For The World, I’m Adeline Sire, Marrakech.

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