Intik

INTIK - Soldat from zoomalgerie on Vimeo.

Intik (Arabic: أنتيك; pronounced: [æn.ti:k]) is an Algerian rap group consisting of four MCs. The group raps in both Algerian Arabic dialect and French and often drawing upon the violence all four experienced while growing up in turbulent Algeria during the 80s and 90s. The name Intik in Algerian dialect means “everything’s going great”, which is ironic considering the Algerian political unrest which the Intik focuses upon. Intik's front man is the rapper Youss (short for Youssef) with the other members being Reda, Samir, and Nabil.The four started rapping after experiencing the violence in Algeria in 1988, specifically at one protest in which the military opened fire on the assembled crowd of Algerians which included the to-be members of Intik. In an interview Youss discusses the moment when he knew he wanted to rap, "Because I saw [the events in Algeria October 5th, 1988]... I was scared I saw virulent violence with a capital 'V'. It was state terrorism as it's called. A military that shoots the people. And I witnessed it. I even have scars from that... I was young in '88... beaten by the police." This state-terrorism inspired Youss to write about the government. He asked questions and he states that “the more you asked questions, the more you discover. And when you didn’t ask questions, you discover nothing. As soon as you begin to reflect, you begin to have answers.” It’s from these answers that he got his lyrics from and then expressed it in rap. Reda, was already into rap. He was writing rhymes in Arabic as were Nabil and Samir as well. Youss was more into the reggae and ragga scene.The group Intik was founded when Algerian artist [Youss] (who was determined to leave Algeria at the time) joined with the group and just “buckled down and worked”. At the time, Youss was actually just trying to help these men “make a better life for themselves” by getting out of Algeria and heading to France. When Youss knew that he would be coming to France, he said that he wasn’t alone, and that he was a part of a group “just to get the visas”. The group rapped in both French and Arabic. In terms of obtaining rap to listen to when Youss was just beginning his rapping career, he said, “it was really difficult but we had ways of getting hold of the music. There was always someone in England or in France who'd send us cassettes”. The group was discovered by a successful French rap group IAM (band) after they heard them at a festival. Due to the talent, a few well known artists wanted to be featured on their first album; however Intik wanted to create their own success without using already famous artists to help them.Wikipedia