Rap Shar3 is Platforming the Best Arabic Street Rap
The compelling rap cipher format from Egypt showcases and connects underrated talents from across the Arabic-speaking world.
In the beginning of the year, videos of Sudanese, Egyptian and Palestinian rap ciphers began taking over the feeds of Instagram users in the Arab world. A masked man standing in the middle of a group of rappers who collectively perform their songs, one after the other. They seem to be friends, their lyricism and passionate performances glue viewers to their screens as video after video goes viral — but we don’t know these rappers.
Who’s the guy holding the mic in the middle? His artist name is Black B and even though he agrees to jump on a call with OkayAfrica, he stays anonymous, sharing his story with the help of his business manager Suhaila Hanno. Black B is a 25-year-old Egyptian musician and the owner and host of Rap Shar3 (Arabic for Street Rap) which he founded three years ago alongside his co-owner and director Omar Mado.
“There was no support in Egypt's rap scene and my friends were extremely underrated,” says Black B. “Sometimes people only look to artists when they’re mainstream and well known, but someone shouldn’t have to be famous to be listened to.”
The first ciphers started out in Alexandria where Black B regularly met up with his friends to beatbox. He’d gather a group by posting stories online, asking them to show up at a specific location. With so much talent in one space, a friend encouraged him to turn these creative sessions into actual shows with professional editing, mixing and mastering of the songs.
With the help of videographer Abdo Raw and business manager Mostafa Fahmy, Rap Shar3 organically evolved into a professional format, reaching a worldwide audience from the U.S. to India. The platform has gained nearly 300,000 followers on Instagram and expanded into a brand that sources different artists from around the Arab world.
Black B finds these largely unknown musicians through his networks as well as social media. He might stumble across an artist on TikTok and invite them to a cipher, and they might just sign a record deal after their Rap Shar3 performance goes viral. The platform has kickstarted a few careers, helping the likes of Ebn Tarek, Wingii, DJ Mubarak and Tommy Gun, to name a few, step onto the regional rap scene.
Once Black B aligns with an artist, they choose a song that works best for the episode and collaborate to bring the episode to life. Most of the musicians only meet through the cipher and learn each other’s hooks while rehearsing. “I choose the artists carefully, so that they match and everyone ends up having a great time together,” says Black B. “They jam out and relate to each other’s cause and passions.”
The episodes’ unique characteristics are made up of the locations — Rap Shar3 is filmed in a different spot every time — and the energy the artists bring to the group. “When we filmed in Saudi, we got stopped with the camera and the process was challenging, we nearly couldn’t do it,” shares Black B. “But we were able to overcome that, which made it even more rewarding. With the Palestinian episode, the artists were adamant and wrote all their tracks ahead of time. The cause is really deep-rooted for all of them, it means a lot for them to be able to perform.”
His favorite episode so far was the Sudanese cipher, because of the way the artists expressed their struggles with their country, families, and nation. “Lyrically, it was so impactful to film the Sudan episode,” he shares. “I had the artists translate the lyrics to me, because they were so powerful and I wanted to understand it fully.”
Rap Shar3 is making grand plans for the future, aiming to highlight underrated artists across the region and, eventually, the world. Black B is currently planning to film in Libya. “There are a lot of strong artists in Libya, both Libyans and Sudanese,” he says. “We could come up with three different episodes there.”
He envisions creating a chain where artists across the region get to speak about the Palestinian cause in addition to their own episodes. “There’s a lot of support for Sudan and Palestine in Libya and other places in the Arab world,” he says.
Afterward, he plans to move on to Tunisia and finally to his personal milestone, Morocco. “It’s the one country that supports us so much, the people there love hip-hop,” he says. “They have the largest and strongest rap scene in the Arab world. I was really taken aback by their artistry, lyrically and culturally.” Black B’s favorite Moroccan rapper is Snor. “He takes me to a different place, even if I don’t understand his lyrics fully, I enjoy listening to his music.”
The community and platform the Rap Shar3 team has been able to build in the past three years are impressive, even more so because they don’t have any sponsors and are driven by passion for music only.
If you’re an up-and-coming artist, look out for Rap Shar3’s Instagram account on which Black B sometimes posts calls for new talents to feature. “I want to showcase people who are not perfectly polished,” he says. “I’m looking to shine a spotlight on different artists in different stages of their career and bring them together through this program.”