Katibeh Khamseh

Rap | Lebanon + Palestine

Five well-read, fast-talking, wisecracking young men are putting the social content and political volume back into hip hop. Refugees straight outta the Palestinian camp of Burj al-Barajneh, these five talented twenty-something MCs are the heirs of Public Enemy and its ilk.

As artists who combine Arabic music, political activism, social commentary and, of course, hip hop, they are creating a fresh, dynamic form of political resistance. Their incendiary prose and hard-edged beats do not confine themselves to their geopolitical surroundings; quite the opposite, Katibeh Khamseh look and rap beyond the events of their daily life, taking in the political state of their country(ies), the social condition of the youth, and education, to name but a few.