2003 Pop Culture Snapshot in Dqiqi Form - Dakka El Marrakechia Nou Nou - Youm Wara Youm

I've extolled the virtues of dqiqiya (a.k.a. tkitikate) men's percussion and vocal groups in these pages before, most comprehensively in the post Tkitikate! Tkitikate! Party Time! Excellent!. I went as far as to posit the genre as "an active repository of Moroccan musical memory... like a jukebox". 

To be clear, I meant to say that A GOOD, LIVE DQIQIYA GROUP functions like that. 

On the other hand, there is a variety of commercial cassette that while exhibiting some sonic similarities to dqiqiya is primarily a cash-in on whatever is floating around in pop culture at the moment. This type of cassette does have the potential to be awesome, depending on how you feel about global pop hits, novelty tunes, and theme songs to TV programs. A prime example of this is the unforgettable Clown Sings About Pokémon cassette I shared here many moons ago.

However, this sort of cassette should not be taken as representative of the genre of dqiqiya. And it CERTAINLY should not be taken as representing the genre of Daqqa Marrakchia. (For my explication of the confusion between Daqqa Marrakchia and Dqiqiyya, see my post Ashura in Marrakech - Daqqa Marrakchiya.)

All of this is a preface to talking about today's offering a 2003 cassette credited to a group called Dakka El Marrakechia Nou Nou. It is not a recording of the folkloric genre of Daqqa Marrakchiya, and it is not a recording of a standard dqiqiya group. It is a studio creation with some of the sonic trappings of dqiqiya, presenting itself with the name Daqqa Marrakchiya, and trying to have some fun (and cash in) on the latest pop culture trends.

For full disclosure, I had to shed a lot of baggage before writing about this novelty cassette because it pushed so many of my musical and musicological buttons. Here's what I scribbled down while I was listening to the tape:

• I know I should get over it, but it bugs me that men's percussion and vocal ensembles, more properly known as tkitikate or dqiqiya, are typically sold under the name of Dakka Marrakchiya.
• Real tkitikate keep the groove going and the crowd interested by using actual songs with actual lyrics, not by inserting singalong soccer-type chant melodies with no lyrics - that just seems lazy to me. . [egad, the blogger as arbiter of tkitikate authenticity 🤦🏻‍♂️]
  
• God, who thought that a synth bass and a little keyboard flute would be a good thing with this music. It's already defanged from having much bite by the boring drum machine replacing real drums. [note: the blogger identifies as a bass player and is particularly allergic to synth basses and drum machines from actual gigging]
  
• The backup vocals are too smooth. I mean, I really need to shut up. What do I expect from commercial chaabi from Casablanca trying to brand itself as dakka marrakchia.
• Why the f--- would you do this sort of music with a drum machine and not with real drums. Again, I am a f---ing hypocrite, 'cos I DO LIKE drum machines if they're AS IN YOUR FACE AS ACTUAL DRUMS. I mean this sounds like the beats you'd put to some of that smooth casablanca chaabi, which sort of works when your lead instrument is a scratchy viola. BUT WHEN YOUR MAIN INSTRUMENT IS THE DRUMS, WHY NOT MAKE THE DRUMS DRIVE THE GROOVE INSTEAD OF REMAINING EXACTLY THE SAME THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE TRACK.

Wow, so much vitriol for a harmless novelty cassette. Once I calmed down, I was able to enjoy it on its own flawed terms as a fun chaabi-rhythm time capsule of pop culture items that were "viral" in 2003 (before we were using the term viral). Here's some of what you get:

The album is named Youm Wara Youm, a reference to the SMASH 2002 HIT of the same name by Samira Said with Cheb Mami. 

I still ADORE that song:

The Dakka el Marrakchia Nou Nou song is nothing close to being a cover version of Youm Wara Youm. It does retain the lyrics

Youm wara youm
Habibi ma gani noum
Habibi wa dini git

But it's not sung in anything similar to the melody of the original.

Track 2 appears to be based on the theme song to a Moroccan TV program from 2002, Dar Mwi Hniya (Mwi Hniya's House)

There are some entertaining verses where the singer is hurling curses at his cell phone for dropping the signal while he's talking to his sweetheart. And there's a silly solfege singalong.

And the final track seems to be based on the Egyptian novelty song from 2002 "Baba Fein", here called by the recurring lyric "Âmmu Âmmu"

If you're in the mood for it, it's sort of entertaining in the way that the original was, that is, it's cute to hear kids delivering clever rhyming couplets making excuses to the Uncle (Âmmu) about why their father isn't at home.

Si Mohamed Aguir (right) wearing a taguia

One thing I can't figure out, though, is the cover art for the album. What are the cone-shaped things superimposed on top of these ladies' heads? Are they supposed to resemble the taguia hats worn by actual tqitikate groups? Nobody I showed this to has any idea what is going on. The general consensus is that it's tkharbiqa (great Moroccan term meaning something like "nonsense", "junk" or "whatever")

Best Wishes to all for a better 2024. Ceasefire Now.

Dakka El Marrakechia Nou Nou الدقة المراكشية نو نو
Youm Wara Youm يعم ورا يوم
Edition Safi cassette SD 2003 انتاج الصافي

A1 Youm Wara Youm يعم ورا يوم
   and the best current songs وأروع الأغاني الحالية

B1 Mwi Hniya مي هنية
B2 Âmmu Âmmu عمو عمو

320 | FLAC

Shaâbiyat Khouloud - 2012 Chaâbi compilation, Soap Opera Riffing

Here's a chaâbi compliation tape I picked up in Beni Mellal. The title is "Shaâbiyat Khouloud with Kamal el Abdi". I recognized El Abdi, the dapper musician whose photo is the largest on the j-card. I also recognized Nabila (bottom right) and El Miloudia (bottom left). But the big question was - who is the great looking couple in the straw hats?! Is this a stylish new pop-rai duo?

On second look (and after listening to the tape's title track), I recognized them - the stars of the smash soap opera "Matensanich" (Don't Forget Me), which is commonly known by the name of the lead female character, "Khouloud". The series, broadcast this year on 2M, is a dubbing into Moroccan Arabic of the Turkish series "Hanımın Çiftliği". 

My wife watches the show, and I've seen a couple of episodes. The show looks pretty compelling (if you like the melodrama of soaps).  I made a point to avoid watching it - I didn't want to get sucked into it like a couple years ago  when I started watching "Ayna Abi", the fab Moroccan Arabic dubbed version of the American telenovela "Amarte Asi". (Everybody Loves Frijolito!)

"Khouloud" was very popular in Morocco this year. Here's a Moroccan pop-rai tune referencing characters from the show:

In the chaâbi-TV crossover songs that I can recall (like here), the lyrics are less about the plots of the shows and more about the obsessions people have with the show. That's the case in both Cheb Hindi's song in the YouTube clip above and, i think, in the title track of today's featured cassette. 


As for the rest of the cassette, it's a pleasant collection of current Moroccan chaabi stylings: some country-chaâbi from Kamal el Abdi, some pop-rai from Cheb Hindi (though I wonder why the tape doesn't include his "Khouloud" song), some peppy pop from Nabila (the queen of chaâbi auto-tune), and a smattering of other chaâbi tracks. The kicking-est track, IMHO, is the unlisted Track 9, an uptempo, percussion-heavy, viola-driven, auto-tuned rave-up riff-fest.

1) Khouloud - Kamal el Abdi
2) Shkoun Lli Âllemek - Al Miloudiya
3) Taâlla Ya Dak - Nabila
4) Mkebel Darkoum - Shaâbiyat Lehbal
5) Ban Liya fi Ûdi - Al Mardi
6) Flous El Ghella - Al Hindi
7) Suwwelu Dak Ezzine - Ar-Rehaala
8) Flous f-Chekkara - Mbarek el Meskini
9) Bonus derdeg - Unknown Chaâbi Group

Get it all here.

Mastering note - as usual, I recorded this tape to my computer with Logic Express, where I divided it into discrete tracks. I typically don't process the sound much thereafter, other than a little compression to smooth out the peaks and let me raise the volume a little. This time, I thought I'd use Logic's built in mastering tool, in particular the Hi-Fi setting. Gives the final product a more shiny sound. Hope it sounds alright!

Klun Kaighenni 3la l-Bukimun - Clown Sings about Pokémon

 
Spring 2001. Pokémon was still new and fun. There were only about 150 of them, so you could actually of memorize the names and characteristics of most of them. They'd been big for a couple years in the states, but were only just hitting it big in Morocco via cartoons dubbed into standard Arabic. And like everywhere, marketing was huge - each pull-off top of Danon yogurt had a picture of a Pokémon and could win you a prize. There were shoes, backpacks, t-shirts, everything (though I don't actually recall seeing the video game itself...)

Now I'm as critical of cross-promotional marketing to kids as anyone. As for Pokémon, I recognized it as such but at the same time sort of reveled in it.  I liked the cartoon, and my Japanese side was tickled to see a Japanese cartoon sweeping the US. But I'm totally OK with critiques of the mass invasion of Pokémon products in general, and certainly in Morocco.

What I couldn't accept was the rise of "Pokémon is haram" discourse that was bubbling up in various newspapers around the Muslim world. If it had been merely a shariah-couched critique of mass international capitalist targeting of kids, that would have been one thing. Or a critique of it as a frivolous waste of time and money and diversion from the remembrance of God would have made some sense. But the word going 'round, courtesy of fatwas from Grand Mufti of Egypt Dr. Nasser Farid Wassel and Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi was that the Pokemon phenomenon was actually a Zionist and/or Masonic plot to subliminally undermine and insult Islam and to introduce Darwinian ideas (pikachu "evolves" to raichu after gaining experience in battles - demonstrating his fitness, right?). Among the more spurious assertions were that the names of some of the Pokemon were directly attacked Islam - "I am a Jew" (Pokemon), "God is weak" (Charmander) and "Be Jewish" (Pikachu).

As a Japanese-Ashkenazi-American Muslim, I found it alternately insulting and absurd. If you know English, it's pretty easy to understand the etymological derivation of "Pokémon" (pocket monsters) and animal names like Charizard, Charmander and Charmeleon (all fire-breathing lizard monsters - lizard, salamander, chameleon - duh?). Pikachu and Raichu were, I think, the only ones that retained Japanese-derived names in their English (and dubbed Arabic) versions. Pikachu means something like "sparkle mouse noise" and Raichu means something like "thunder mouse noise".

Nevertheless, fatwas were issued in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and even in Morocco. Now a fatwa is a legal opinion based on one scholar's interpretation of the shariah, and although some folks accepted the interpretation, others did not. Pokémon certainly remained popular and continued to be broadcast in Morocco.


 

There were other responses to the Pokemon phenomenon. My fave was this silly cassette it's a basic singalong dkitikat percussion/call-response vocal with a little keyboard-banjo thrown in for good measure. The lead vocal is comedic (I guess that's the clown) and response vocal group sounds like adults trying to sound like kids. Starts out catchy and ends up ridiculous with the substitution of Pokémon into traditional wedding chants. Adding to the pop-culture-meets-trad-singalong-percussion shtick is the inclusion of the theme song to Abdelkhalek Fahid's Miloud comedy sketch TV show (Essururat 3la Miloud) and a song about then-new cell phones (Portable). Silly, yeah, but tailor-made for singalongs at parties by much funkier groups:



SIDE A
1) Ghina' Pokemon / Eddawrat l-Pokemon

2) 3andi ana mushkila / L3ama bgha itzuwwej / Portable
3) Ezzerda / 3regtuha wslebtu 3liya
4) Essururat 3la Miloud / Mut b-jnun / Bghat mwigina

Get it here.