Following the glee-inducing news revealed in May that Jordanian-Palestinian talent, The Synaptik, and New York’s soulful Nile flagbearer, Felukah, will be sharing the stage for London’s Shubbak Festival, Middle Eastern rap and trap enthusiasts can revel in hearing that the pair has joined forces to treat us to two new singles.
Ever-unseating the very concept of complacency with their constantly evolving work, the pair convey an illuminating account of what it means to be Arab in the introspective first track ‘Nefsi’, a collaboration also brought to fruition by UK-based music platform, MARSM. Dealing with the issues of misogyny, patriarchy, and personal freedom, the pair express a raw yearning for acceptance.Succinctly encapsulating the song’s theme in the title itself, which translates to both ‘I wish’ and ‘myself’ in the Egyptian Arabic dialect, the pair centre the self in the dual-language collaboration, speaking of loving oneself and being oneself, an often defiant act when Arab identity is coerced to correspond to an abstract--yet overbearing--shape.
Rapping over a dark beat, the fusion of the pair’s integrity produces a refreshing and honest outcome that widens our understanding of their essence and fills the stage further with anticipation ahead of their debut collaboration show.
*Please note that due to recently-announced government travel restrictions, The Synaptik and Felukah show has been postponed to 22nd October 2021.
