2023-12-19 12:23:49
Commenting on a short video on the “X” website, in which a member of a Palestinian family shouts beneath his house that was seized by Israeli settlers in Jerusalem, “We want our clothes and medicines. You expelled us from our house and seized the furniture.”“, books Egyptian rapper Wiggs described in English the behavior of Israeli settlers as “real rats with nuclear weapons.”
From the first moment the war on Gaza began, Wiggs did not stop talking about Gaza and what it was witnessing through his social media accounts, or during his concert tour, as he was recently keen, during a tour that lasted for weeks in America and a number of European countries, to raise the flag of Palestine. And wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh (which he did in his concert in Paris before any war or clash). Wigs called on his fans to chant in English: “Freedom for Palestine,” and he explained on his “X” account, “Using the tour to raise awareness about the ongoing suffering of our brothers and sisters in Palestine.”
In simple but smart words, he explains in a television interview on… Al Jazeera LiveWearing the Palestinian keffiyeh, he expressed his position on the American media’s handling of the war on Gaza, saying: “No one talks to me about America about freedom and democracy… The whole story is that he puts me on the line… and says, ‘This is freedom,’ and as soon as I see him, he says, ‘This is not freedom.’”
One of the last His tweets It is: “Open the Rafah crossing for the sake of humanity.” He may be the only Egyptian artist who wrote that openly, given that this demand carries a responsibility hanging over the neck of the Egyptian authorities. In addition, he is the only Egyptian artist who clearly and influentially announced, from day one, his support for the movement. Boycott products supporting Israel and the Israeli army.
Boycott is prohibited!
The Saudi and Egyptian media tried to denounce this boycott, and made a great effort to dissuade Egyptians and Arabs from the idea, under the pretext that they harm the economy of Arab workers in the first place, as programs Amr Adib On the Saudi MBC channel And Lamis Al-Hadidi In the “Last Word” program, which is shown on the Egyptian “On” channel, which is affiliated with sovereign bodies, Turki Al-Sheikh, head of the Saudi Entertainment Authority, himself blatantly supported McDonald’s restaurants, after their clear losses due to the reluctance of the Saudi consumer, who is unable to speak out. In his opinion publicly.
These words come in an era in which Egyptian artists have become domesticated. They are unable to say honest and heartfelt words that express positions that are not compatible with the authority and are not subject to the calculations of fame and influence. Their scarce words regarding the Palestinian issue can simply be accused of being false. It is known, for example, that Egyptian artists did not dare to Talking about the Palestinian issue only after President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi requested some kind of authorization to reach the voice of public opinion regarding his rejection of the displacement issue.
After Sisi’s speech, demonstrations organized by the security services took place, with some artists saying angry words towards Israel, but all of them remained silent again, when the authorities realized that opening the public space to demonstrations in support of the Palestinian cause might turn against it, with chants that mainly recalled the difficult economic and political situation. In Egypt, in one word, these artists committed themselves to holes.
The influence of Wiggs may be more severe than dozens of official statements, research studies, and the influence of the media. In addition to its overwhelming popularity, music is easier to reach and connect with the masses, as it is a language that everyone understands, anywhere in the world.
Egyptian artists remain silent and fail to exploit their accounts or fame to support the Palestinian cause, with the exception of the artist Mohamed Salam in his famous position in which he refused to participate in the Riyadh season in solidarity with Gaza via a short video, which exposed him to a fierce campaign by Saudi electronic committees and the pampered media personality Turki Al Sheikh, the broadcaster. Amr Adeeb, something that may threaten his artistic career after the huge revenues generated by Egyptian films in Saudi cinemas began to control the choices of producers.
“No one talks to me about America about freedom and democracy… The whole story is that he puts me on the line… and says, ‘This is freedom,’ and as soon as I see him, he says, ‘This is not freedom.’”
Is the door to universality closed and abolished?
The uniqueness of Wiggs’s position does not stop at threatening him inside Egypt, but rather extends to threatening the future of the world that has begun to open its doors to him, so that his sweeping popularity exceeds the borders of the Arab world.
Just two months ago, I posted The New York Timesa report on Wiggs entitled The Egyptian Rapper WEG Wants to Take Arabic Hip-Hop Worldwide, in which she described him as the star of his generation, and Wiggs defined his understanding of his role, saying: “I see myself as someone who is here to show people things that they did not know about.”
The report celebrates Boygues, the 25-year-old young man who became a star without even releasing a full album. He has just concluded his concert tour in the United States of America and “hopes to take his music even further,” without missing from the report to highlight that “the singer Originally from Alexandria, he is one of the biggest supporters of the Palestinian cause among Arab rap stars and singers. He has allocated 10 percent of the proceeds from his concerts in the United States and Canada to benefit relief efforts in Gaza. He also posted a clip on Instagram of his participation in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York City, which demands an end to… “Israeli aggression against civilians and children.”
According to the report, he is “the Egyptian rapper who wants to take Arab hip-hop to the world,” and he is “the most streamed and listened to artist on many of the major music platforms in Egypt since 2020,” and he became “the first Egyptian artist to perform at FIFA World, final.” The World Cup in Qatar a few months ago.” The report continues with a statement by Wiggs, “that he will remain vocal in his support of the Palestinians, and does not intend to moderate his views, while working to reach a broad global audience.”
Wiggs is aware of any danger threatening his dreams, but he does not care. He highlighted the failure of the international Egyptian player Mohamed Salah to support the people of Gaza, except after long pressure, waiting for a humanitarian incident such as the attack on the Baptist Hospital, which would not harm his dreams in the West of obtaining the “Golden Ball,” and it came. His words are neutral, cold, and unsatisfactory to millions of his fans, as they are calculated, and do not speak openly about the Palestinians, but rather turn what is happening into a war between two equal sides.
Regardless of the possibility that this is all Mohamed Salah can do, and no one can force someone else to support a cause (otherwise it is considered an empty bidding), but the fans were waiting for a clear moral position for a star who had always supported him with their hearts and who established part of his popularity by presenting himself as an example to follow. .
With the exception of the video, Mohamed Salah again did not show any sign of support, but his position highlights what Wigs may lose in his journey to a global level that he has crossed the threshold of, and in which he may reach, with his musical language that is compatible with the times, heights rarely reached by an Egyptian singer before, despite all their tireless attempts to do so. .
According to the art critic’s observation Hossam El-Din El-SayedWiggs has applied all the rules of “tackling rap.”
Attack without a filter
Diss in rap is a technique or verbal art that a rapper uses to demonstrate his verbal and creative abilities in writing and singing, and it is used in the context of competition and challenge. It’s clearly aggressive, but it’s understood within rap culture as a natural way to ignite competition between rappers.
This is what Al-Sayed explains its application in Wajiz’s method of supporting the Palestinian cause, as he “attacks the entity with all force and without a filter, which is what we call in Egyptian popular culture a man (whose card has been cut off), even if any of his tweets were translated and published in international newspapers, especially after The New York Times report on his career, “This may prevent him from dreaming of internationalism forever.”
Al-Sayyid adds: “Here is a human being who volunteers a possible, and perhaps certain, financial, professional loss for the sake of an ethical and moral principle, to remind us that man – with this rare and difficult act – is the only creature who may choose certain loss to save his soul.”
What distinguishes Ahmed Ali, known as “Wages,” who has more than 450,000 followers on his account, according to one commentator, is his moral clarity and his presentation of his principles without compromise and in simple, effective words, better than many academics, journalists, and generations whose thinking might stop at a moment’s notice. The Oslo Accords, as they are unable to present new visions or alternatives.
Although the New York Times report made clear Wiggs’s clear support for the Palestinian cause, in the end he only saw lines that might be acceptable from an Arab artist, who speaks in the name of humanity and within a broad trend that condemns the killing of children, but at certain lines described the violations of the Israeli army without thinking. This could have real consequences.
The threat is Egyptian… not Western
The irony is that the threats that Wiggs faced as a result of his support for Palestinian rights did not originally come from the West, but rather from accounts of influencers on the Internet, such as Wael Ghoneim, with whom Wiggs fought a clear battle. Ghoneim had taken a position in which he agreed with the views of Dalia Ziadeh, known for her blatant and clear loyalty to Israel. They were not content with criticizing the Hamas movement and betraying it, but rather they wrote and spoke with all their influence and influence to confuse the rights of the Palestinian people and clearly sympathize with the dead on the Israeli side without… He mentioned his army’s violations against the people of Gaza and the West Bank, and the false call for peace in which there are no two equal parties.
Although Dalia Ziadeh was immeasurably more blatant in her stance towards Wael Ghoneim, the latter turned from the icon of the January Revolution into a clown who took dozens of shocking reactionary positions and, in a deceptive manner, described him as a spy, as he had no difference between being loyal to Israel and treason at all. That level, after a link of insults from Ghoneim, he made a childish move by hacking the old Wiggs account, which bore Ahmed Ali’s name, to put his picture on it in recovery.
The account of Karim Jaheen, another influencer who adopts a completely pro-Israel stance, reveals the mingling of neoliberal brutality with the naivety of enlightenment advocates, such as Khaled Montaser and Ibrahim Issa, as he transforms their fear of political Islam into a lack of distinction between resistance and terrorism, indirectly threatening and punishing the question of its future. To which he responded, and it is permissible:
“You mean the pain of the turn because the future of my family is in danger. What is terrorism, my son? I mean, when you threaten everyone who speaks about the rights of the Palestinian people, a state on their land, with some frost, Europeans sitting and waving 400 nuclear warheads over women who look exactly like your mother and young children dying so that they can take them by force, you will not know it.” All of you shut up.”
One of those whom we call in Egypt “honorable citizens,” a title that has taken on a degenerate meaning, because it has become associated with standing on the side of what is reactionary, obscurantist, ignorant, and tyrannical. He turned the threat into action, posting tweets and posting in it a large number of foreign embassies, describing him as a “terrorist.” And the extremist.”
In the end, Wiggs was forced to delete a number of tweets that might be interpreted in an extremist way, even though he expressed the feeling of millions in Egypt and the Arab world, and even large sectors of the West, as he called things by their names, and he did not stop until that moment in doing everything in his power. His ability to tweet in support of the Palestinian cause and explain it in both Arabic and English.
Sincere emotion is what is marketed and rewarded without great calculations for his fame or dreams. He is still writing More Among the tweets through which he could easily be punished internally and internationally, perhaps the most recent of which is a tweet calling for the opening of the Rafah crossing and a tweet describing the behavior of Israeli settlers in seizing Palestinian homes and expelling them as the behavior of nuclear-armed rats.
Weigz represents a younger and smarter generation that was surprising to the older generations in its ability to understand the Palestinian issue, which was deliberately absent from the Egyptian curricula, and from artistic and media discourse. It was even surprising in its vitality and ability to use modern, effective and innovative means to communicate its voice. He is the rap artist who fought fierce battles with the former captain of musicians, Hani Shaker, and after him, Mustafa Kamel, the current captain, in which he accused his generation of blurring awareness and spreading mediocrity, to show that Wiggs and his generation were immeasurably more aware of the minds covered by “kumkmah” living in another century, He no longer belongs to our time, while Wiggs has the ability to transcend more than the imposed boundaries with his lively, bold and courageous openness to the future.
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