Ilham Al Madfai

Image by Jeff_Werner via Flickr

Born in Baghdad early 40’s. Picked up his Guitar when he was 12. Created one of the first bands in Iraq known as Twisters. Later on moved to England to study Architecture. Played with a group and performed at Bayt Al Baghdadi in London. Returned to Baghdad in 1967. In Baghdad he formed his band, 13 ½ where he introduced the Andalusic style to the Iraqi folklore song. Left iraq in 1979 from there he toured the world with his musical style. Returned back to Iraq in 1991 and later on started his own band known as (Elham Band).Left Iraq in 1994 after 4 Challenging years, where his music reached millions of Iraqis in exile , as well as millions of Arabs especially in Lebanon and Amman.After Great success of His CD Khuttar, Elham Left the US to live in Amman where he would be close to his fans .

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Shadi Aswad

Shadi Aswad is originally from Edlib region , but he is currently living with his parents in Damascus
Shadi`s horoscope is Leo and born in 8/8/1979. He was studying Accounting & commerce in Aleppo University , beside his study for music to develop his talent which started since childhood. Shady's father held a party upon shady succeeded in primary school to discover that shady has a great voice and love to sing. Shady didnt sing until he was 18 when he enrolled in Syrian Song Festival with his own song Gabteni).www.shadiaswad.com

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

Lowkey

Lowkey (via last.fm)

Lowkey (born Kareem Dennis, 23rd May 1986) is a British musician, poet, playwright and political activist of English and Iraqi descent. He first came to fame through a series of mixtapes he released before he was 18, before taking a hiatus from the music business. He would return in 2008 with wider music coverage, featured on BBC Radio and appearing at various festivals and concerts including the Electric Proms, Glastonbury, T In The Park and Oxegen in the build up to his first solo album, as well as collaborating with other famous British musicians to form a supergroup.Lowkey was born in London to an Iraqi mother and an English father. From the age of twelve he began to rap, initially imitating American rappers but soon using his own accent. He began attending the open mic sessions which took place at the Deal Real record shop on Carnaby Street, Central London. The first time he went he introduced himself as Lowkey and was told there was already a regular there by that name; the two had a battle rap over the use of the name which Kareem won.WIKIPEDIA