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- Hip Deep is Afropop's media project dedicated to the idea that music is a key to understanding everything. Get hip deep into programs on how the music formed and informed cultures in Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas, plus companion interviews, features, discographies and more.
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100 Copies: Interview with Mahmoud Refat and Hassan Khan
by Banning Eyre and Sean Barlow

Mahmoud Refat is the founder of a small, independent music label in Cairo called 100 Copies Music. As the name implies, they press just 100 CD copies of each release, showing true dedication to the “alternative” identity. The music is a range of experimental, electronic sound creations. One of the label’s first and most prominent artists is Hassan Khan. We spoke with both of them. Read more >>

Mark LeVine on Music and the Egyptian Revolution
by Banning Eyre

Professor of Middle Eastern History at University of California, Irvine talks to Afropop about the changing position of Egyptian music in relation to the Arab Spring. Read more >>

Mohamed El Sawy
by Banning Eyre

Afropop talks with creator and director of the Sawy Culture Wheel, a vital venue for alternative art and culture in Cairo that Sawy has provided for acts ranging from classical to heavy metal. Read more >>

Scott Marcus: Cairo Classical Music
by Banning Eyre

Scott L. Marcus is Professor of Music at the UC Santa Barbara, and author of a splendid introduction to Egyptian music of many sorts called "Music in Egypt" (Oxford University Press). He has been traveling to Egypt to study since the 1980s, and more recently, to perform there. In this interview excerpt, he tells Banning Eyre about the history of the Cairo Opera House, the growth of the Egyptian classical ensemble, and new developments in classical music in Cairo. Read more >>

Hakim: 2011
by Banning Eyre and Sean Barlow

Hakim is known as "The Lion of Egypt." From the moment he sprang onto the scene in 1991, he became one of the most beloved singers of the popular sha'bi style ever. Afropop visited Hakim in his Cairo home in July of 2011 and were treated to a spectacular meal. Afterwards, they sat down with Hakim and his wife Jihane for a long interview about his career and thoughts on Egypt's revolution. Read more >>

Hamid El Shari
by Banning Eyre

Hamid el Shari is probably the most consequential music producer in Egypt's modern history. He came to Cairo from Libya, and from his start in the 1980s, he produced in a new way, simply, with keyboards and drum machines, not the orchestras of the past. The tuneful, polished sound he developed became the standard for Arab pop, some would say, right up to this day. Read more >>

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