Coming from the lower rungs of Algerian society, these women, called cheikhas, had little to lose singing risque lyrics and songs about grim urban realities in the dives and bordellos of relatively freewheeling Oran.
The difference is that the singers who gave rai its freedom almost 50 years ago were women. But modern rai, like rock-and-roll, was born in the frustrations of the working class. The roots of rai are in traditional Bedouin music. "After Cheb Hasni was assassinated, all of a sudden everything that he'd made became very available and in demand." "It's human nature to want to hear something that someone is trying to squelch," said Stanley Rashid, who runs Rashid Sales in Brooklyn, a national distributor of Arabic music. They renew their commitment to their ideals, sharpen their focus and continue to thrive. Yet in the face of extreme adversity, musical styles born of rebellion rarely die. They kill well-known people just to gain publicity." "These people have no respect for human beings. "We are returning to the Middle Ages," said Khaled, who was born Khaled Hadj Brahim 35 years ago in the west Algerian port of Oran. And Rachid Baba-Ahmed, a 47-year-old producer and singer who helped bring rai to international attention by producing the "Rai Rebels" compilation and hit songs (including some of Khaled's), was machine-gunned outside his record store in Oran in February. Cheb Hasni, a prolific 26-year-old singer called the prince of rai, was shot point-blank near his parents' home in Oran in September. They say the lyrics of rai - the music of Algeria's youth - are sexually explicit, condone alcohol (a Muslim taboo) and lead the young astray.Īs a result, not only has the music been banned in taxis and coffee shops but a fatwa, or death sentence, has been issued against any singer considered vulgar. Though the threat of terrorist attack hangs over anyone who shows signs of embracing Western ways - be it a family with a television antenna atop the roof or a schoolgirl who refuses to wear a veil - rai has been particularly high on the fundamentalists' disapproval list.
MUSIC CHEB KHALED FREE
Some have been stepping up their attacks on artists, intellectuals and political figures since the Algerian Army canceled a free general election in 1992, thus blocking the almost certain rise to power of the fundamentalists' political arm, the Islamic Salvation Front. The fundamentalists that Khaled referred to are Islamic extremists. "I know I'm at the top of the list of well-known people the fundamentalists want to kill," he said recently, speaking in French from his home in Paris where he is working on his first album since his voice spooked moviegoers in Roger Avary's recent film "Killing Zoe." "I don't have any bodyguards, just tight security during concerts. For this and for other offenses of poetry, music and morality, Khaled says he has been condemned to die. Over swirling melodies, droning synthesizers and a complex dance beat, he resolves his anxiety in the sweetness of soft caresses or lips touching.
In his songs, Khaled is haunted by the beauty of former and potential lovers, whose images he sees in all he gazes at. BLESSED WITH A VOICE THAT calls to mind a flower wavering in the breeze, Khaled, known as the king of the Algerian pop music rai, turns love into an intoxicant.
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