College Was Useful...For Once
Drahem by Alienz
Genres: Moroccan Rap, Hip-Hop
Written by: Mehdi El Boukhari
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that title is clickbait i actually find a lot of satisfaction in my college classes and i learn a lot.
anyways i took a class on african films and the 2021 movie Casablanca Beats was shown as part of the curriculum. Casablanca Beats is about a group of young people in Casablanca, Morocco, figuring out life, religion, and personal issues through song, and dance, specifically rap and hip-hop, genres that are a point of contention with more conservative members of the community. it's a great movie i recommend if you like that style of film. although to warn you is that the characters of the rappers of this song are lowkey dickweeds so don't go into it thinking that because they make banger music that they're also perfect characters.
when we screened this movie in class and heard this song the class visibly got more energy. it was not always the most exciting class but for three minutes while the song was playing half of us were bopping our heads to the beat and the other half were genuinely headbanging. it's just that kind of song, with a banger beat and catchy, easily remembered lyrics, even if none of us spoke arabic. i shazamed the song during the screening and told some of my classmates afterward and you would've thought i was jesus the way they cheered for me when i told them the song title.
Drahem is one of the songs that is made in-movie by two of the kids, and imo it's the best one, although the other songs weren't bad either.
drahem is an alternate spelling of dirham, moroccan currency. most of the kids live in some amount of poverty, and the song's lyrics express wishes to have money, to work, to live, to spoil their parents, and even to get married. the song expresses the frustration these kids feel while at the same time remaining a sort of anthem for the moroccan youth in the movie.
the backtrack is a simple repeating drum and i think it's a flute? either way the beat is soft and hard at the same time which lends itself for the double sided nature of the song being both pessimistic about a lack of money and optimistic about having money in the future.
the vocals themselves have been adjusted with slight autotune which honestly lends itself for the two rappers of the song to really blend their voices together as one unit.
i genuinely don't have much to compare it to. i don't listen to a lot of similar music, and the only other arabic song i have saved to spotify is also from this film, called "Angry girls" (also a banger, that one is about misogyny and sexism in morocco and what it is to be a female rapper).
drahem really is its own unique style. all you need to know is that it's an absolute banger and a must-listen song, if not a must-watch movie.
