Unraveling the 'ICEBERG,' Stormy Sets Out to Reinvent Moroccan Rap

Stormy himself, on the other hand, turns out to be an unexpectedly calm person. The 27-year old rapper is in France for a work trip and takes time out of his day to share reflections on this milestone in his career with OkayAfrica. He says that the Brazil trip for the vibrant “POPO” music video is not representative of his usual routine.

“I don’t have a social life when I work,” says Stormy. “My social battery is limited and I’m always home and working. If I’m not working, I’m with my family… at home.” He pauses and laughs. “When it comes to music videos, I feel like it’s the only way for me to go and do something new, so I always shoot videos outside my hometown and country.”

ICEBERG is an album in the old school sense, intended to be listened to as a whole. “The goal was to do a classic album. I spent a year and a half mostly on my own, listening to all albums that came out in the past five years in different regions, Egypt, Tunisia, but especially in the Moroccan scene,” says Stormy. One of the musicians he listened to extensively is Moroccan rapper Dizzy DROS who has a feature on the track “NIKES.”

The projects Stormy kept returning to, stood out for their high quality productions, despite being released at a time when producers were scarce in Morocco. “When we started in 2016, every rapper brought something new to the scene. After that I don’t know what happened, but when I listened to later music, I felt like it all sounded the same.” He concluded that his job was to bring something new to the Moroccan rap scene.

Out of the North African rap scenes, Morocco is known to place a strong focus on lyrical prowess. However, Darija, the local Arabic dialect, is especially hard for non-natives to understand. “For me the lyrics are so important,” he shares. “But the melody is what’s gonna get someone who doesn’t know the lyrics to listen to the song. Our biggest problem is that as Moroccans, we understand everyone, but nobody understands our language.”

He took on this challenge last year in “DOUBLEZUKSH,” a collaboration with Egyptian rapper Marwan Moussa. “I told him we should do something that’s going to sound cool in both our countries. We had to focus on the production side, so even to people who don’t understand the lyrics, it’s a good song. I grew up listening to 50 Cent and Eminem and I didn’t understand what they were saying, but it sounded cool, the music videos were dope, so I was inspired.”

“MARADONA,” the last song Stormy recorded for ICEBERG, which turned out to be the second most popular track on the album, is testament to his ability to capture Moroccan and non-Moroccan audiences through skillful flows and music production. “I got the beat from Egyptian producers Issa & Assouad and started doing some toplines over it. People said they’d never heard a mood like this over such a beat, and hearing that from someone who didn’t understand the lyrics made me think it’s a good song.”

Still, I ask him if it frustrates him when people cannot understand his lyrics. “No,” he says. “I see it as a motivation, because I feel like I have a lot to prove. I’m always thinking about how I'm going to get my music outside of Morocco.” Then he pauses and says, “What frustrates me is that when I go to Egypt, I have to speak English with Egyptians. And with Tunisians I have to speak French. It’s frustrating that we use other languages to talk with the people that are next to us.”

Another standout track on the album is “AMIRA” where Stormy raps over a sample of beloved Moroccan singer Oum’s song “Lik.” His verses address the daily problems young people face, from struggles with addiction to the pressure of social media. Amira is an imagined person and savior to whom he pleads, “help my brothers.”

“Even though I feel like I’m someone that’s hard to influence, I still feel this pressure,” he shares. “Every day you see someone the same age as you living the good life, and you start comparing yourself to these people even though it might not be real. But everyone has a different starting point and a different path. Our imperfections are what makes us special.”

As an artist, Stormy wants to be recognised as a musician in his own right, carving out a space with his own experience instead of being considered the next big thing. He tries to stay away from trends, both on social media and in the music business.

“I don’t see music as a business, I concentrate on the art,” he says about his decision to spend two years crafting ICEBERG against the advice of people around him. “If you’re not releasing, you’re not making money, selling merch, etc. Algorithms are making us think that we should release music every month and post stories every day, but I’m a human being and I need time to get inspired and write good lyrics.”

How does he survive the periods of creativity when he isn’t making money? “I save all my money and reinvest it into my music,” says Stormy. “Alhamdulillah it comes with a return.” The kinds of rewards he looks for are not based on numbers, however.

“I dream of inspiring Moroccan, North African, and Arab kids to achieve their goals and build the life they want. You can do it even though you come from a poor country or a poor area. Take me as an example: it was only me and the mic, I started from nothing and made it out of nothing. Inshallah you’ll do the same.”