After a brief hiatus, SceneNoise’s regional music podcast ‘Dawsha’ is back to bring you some of your favorite artists in a highly personal light, peering behind their public personas and into their journeys through the music industry and beyond.

Over the past few years, the music scene in the MENA region has been undergoing an unprecedented boom, going from an industry that was centered around mainstream Arabic pop music, to an industry led by artists who went from making tracks in their bedrooms to becoming international superstars.

We started ‘Dawsha’ to talk about this seismic cultural shift, to get much deeper insights from the artists and industry personalities shaping music in the region but also to have a bit of casual fun, in a whatever comes to mind, heart-to-heart, kind-of-clumsy format.

In this episode, SceneNoise content creator Zaid Kreshan speaks with Lebanese rap icon Malikah about her return to music, and about her thoughts on the public perception of women in the MENA rap scene.

As an early figure in the region’s industry, Malikah’s insights and anecdotes serve to paint a picture of the development of MENA rap throughout the years. In this episode she discusses the pressures she has faced throughout her career, and her optimism on where the music industry is headed.

Watch the full episode here: