Groove
To This
Guerra
In the fly-by-night, hit-and-run world of hip-hop music, promising acts drop records as quickly as they disappear. For every Puff Daddy, there's an M.C. Hammer, Zhane, Gillette, Michellé ... you get the picture.
The driving force behind many of these acts, both old and new, is hardly ever an emphasis on lyrics.
For the most part, the rhythmic words of wisdom above jeep beats and soul grooves amount to a few clichéd phrases repeated for maximum memory play.
That's not the case with every act to hip-hop onto the charts, but it is a common occurrence. For local up-and-comers Sons of Egypt, though, a love of the pen, along with a unique background, proved to be the right combination.
"We actually started the Sons of Egypt because we both write," said Sherif Zaki who, along with his brother, Ahmed, formed the Sons of Egypt. On stage, Sherif is known as MC Crown Z; Ahmed goes by DJ King Cut.
"I write a lot of different types of poetry and a lot of different types of rap music and things like that," Sherif said. "We have a lot of different sounds that come from our home country, Egypt, that aren't really exposed here, and we also realized that we had kind of an angle because Sons of Egypt would be the first Egyptian hip-hop group in the country."
Through their self-made, Houston-based Blue Nile Records, Sherif and Ahmed have been honing their music skills for 12 years. Sherif is the rapper, and Ahmed serves as the one-man production crew and occasional guest vocalist on the Sons of Egypt's debut album, The Phenomenal ....
"A lot of the music is Egyptian or Arabic in origin," said Sherif. "Because (Ahmed) has got such a good understanding of production and studio work, and our background in music is fairly broad, we're able to have hip-hop music that is up-tempo and club-oriented as well as ... rough-edge, rugged kind of stuff."
Ahmed, who went to community college for a recording/engineering degree, is currently a senior RTV major at the University of Houston and is taking 15 hours this semester. He plans to graduate in December.
"I DJ'ed when I was in ninth grade... doin' parties and all that. I got a keyboard, and then I started making music on the keyboard, and I found that fascinating.
So I just stayed after it and pursued it," said Ahmed, usually the less talkative of this brother duo.
"After a while, I ended up taking some classes, like music theory. My music was actually translated to me from a whole other language. I knew what it was about, but I couldn't explain it. It was just what I felt."
Sherif, who works another job to support his love of music, serves as head honcho for Blue Nile Records. After a botched distribution deal a few years back for Sons of Egypt, he decided to go the independent route, which included more than just promoting his own vehicle.
"Blue Nile Records is pretty strong today because we have several other artists on the label that are behind this, and they're multicultural," said Sherif. "We're Egyptian, and that's the Sons of Egypt, but we've got Latin artists, we've got black artists, we've got Asian artists, all different kinds of people (who) are in the chute, ready to be developed and to come out."
As of now The Phenomenal ... should be in a record store near you, and it is filled with legitimate rhymes, along with funky samples and sultry beats. It's a perfect mix of Arabian soul and hip-hop sensibilities.
"We like to be able to tell a story with the music," said Sherif. "We like the people to be able to groove and understand a little about what it feels like to have Arabic influence in your life, or Egyptian influence. We also try to keep it real and keep it fun."
As for their own influences, Sherif and Ahmed both admit to feeling the vibe of club and party music, along with plenty of old-school rap and hip-hop such as Run DMC, LL Cool J, Rakim, Ice Cube and Beastie Boys.
For now the guys are concentrating on local promotion, which includes taking the record out to radio stations, clubs and prominent local DJs. It's a daunting task, but one that they seem more than ready to take on.
"I wanna be taken seriously, 'cause there's a lot of people that come in, and they stay in for a minute, and then they're out," said Ahmed. "I wanna stay in, and be in there for a while and do other things - not just produce music and rap and stuff."
"I wanna produce. I wanna direct videos, just do everything. Anything that has to do with music business, I'm down for."
Spoken like a true superstar-in-the-making.