“Back Down Mubarak!” is in essence what millions of protestors had been chanting in a unified voice for the 18 days that the revolution lasted. But it’s also an upbeat rap song penned and performed by UK’s rising star of hip-hop Master Mimz, who released her track honoring the Egyptian people’s fight for democracy.
Master Mimz
Myriam Bouchentouf, alias Master Mimz, is an interesting character indeed. Born in Casablanca in 1985, she started listening to hip-hop artists at a very early age. “I started at the age of 5 and my passion has continued to increase over time,” Mimz explains. Her childhood and adolescence were lulled by tracks of Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, the Fugees, Salt N’ Peppa, Lil Kim and Queen Latifah, all trademark performers of the late 80’s and 90’s. “At the time there were no Moroccan rappers that I knew of, and I felt naturally drawn to an American-centric type of hip-hop,” she explains.
She moved to London in September 2010 to pursue her masters degree at London School of Economics and Political Science and made a discovery in the UK’s capital that changed the course of her career: a hip-hop karaoke in the basement of a London club. “I went down there for the first time in November, and performed on stage Jay-Z’s ‘Big Pimpin’. It was a huge success.”
On the 1 February, only ten days before Mubarak’s resignation, Master Mimz released “Back Down Mubara,” which she introduced on her Facebook profile page. She explains that she was immediately drawn to the events as soon as they started unfolding. “It has to do with the fact that I can relate to the region in general and to the Egyptian people in particular. As a Moroccan I grew up watching Egyptian movies, listening to their music and their TV shows.”
“As an artist, I felt a responsibility to voice the frustrations of the Egyptian youth in order to give a human perspective on the events. I also thought that rapping in English would give it a broader audience,” she explains.
According to Mimz, the rappers from the Middle East have managed to keep the essence of the old-school American hip-hop. In the Middle East, hip-hop has been very popular for the past ten years and she finds it “amazing to see how many talented young rappers have budded all over the region. I would like to mention particularly Bigg “Tha Don” from Casablanc, who is my favorite Arab rapper, and Shadia Mansour, a Palestinian born UK rapper.
To hear the track go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b61ObSOUQFs
Thanks to http://www.almasryalyoum.com for this article
Hey a friend told me you posted this – thanks for the inclusion on your site and keep up the great blog! As an artist it feels good to know that there is a platform online to support us
-mimz.
The pleasure is all ours and our readers. Bravo for getting things out there.