THE NEW FACE OF EGYPTIAN HIP-HOP IN SPOTIFY’S SPOTLIGHT
▶ Saeed Saeed talks to Perrie El Hariri, who has been appointed ambassador for Equal Arabia, an initiative by the platform to amplify female voices from the Mena region
Rapper and producer Perrie El Hariri has had her name up in lights on Spotify’s digital advertising hoardings in New York’s Times Square. The recognition followed her appointment as ambassador for Equal Arabia, an initiative by the streaming platform to amplify the voices of female content creators from the Mena region.
El Hariri, whose artist name is Perrie, is only now coming to terms with the notion of joining the small list of Egyptian superstars, including Amr Diab and Mohamed Ramadan, who have appeared on advertising hoardings in Times Square.
However, it is what the move represents for Arab female artists that is more inspiring, she says. “I do it for myself, the [hip-hop] culture and women,” she tells The National. “That’s what keeps the drive going when it comes to my work, ethics and effort. It is also quite a strong move to be on the billboard, it’s not something that we, in a scene, would have ever imagined.”
Perrie caught Spotify’s attention in 2020 with her breakout single Shigella, a potent retort to Tameem Youness’s Salmonella, a controversial track that the singer hoped would be taken as a joke about how men respond to rejection from women.
But with lyrics wishing the former partner to fall ill from food poisoning or a promise to spread false rumours about her lifestyle, critics say the encourages the harassment of women, an allegation Youness denies.
Shigella’s lyrics have Perrie forcefully calling out men’s disrespectful behaviour towards women, something she says remains depressingly prevalent in Egyptian society.
“Salmonella was a reflection of society and I view that song, basically, as the man or majority of men speaking, while Shigella is the sound of women talking back and standing up for themselves,” she says.
“The song is not a direct response to Tameem, but more a response to patriarchy and misogyny as a whole.”
Born in Egypt, Perrie was raised in an artistic household with a music-loving mother. Her father was the late Egyptian actor Omar El Hariri. Despite the influences, her move to becoming a musician did not come without its own share of anguish.
“Being an artist was expected after having such individuals in my family,” she says.
“But the thing is, I’ve always wanted to be a doctor or gynaecologist and I had that battle between having my own path and doing what everyone expects me to be.”
Perrie’s eventual decision to commit to music was down to the freedom it afforded her.
“I am not really a multitasker, but when it came to music I was able to write, produce and mix songs very naturally,” she says. “Even the act of creating a song and being fully responsible for it from start to finish made me feel like I am a one-woman industry.”
Fans were given a taste of where her passions are taking her in El Sa’a Tes’a (9 o’clock), the lead single from her coming second album.
The track epitomises the command she has of her craft as a performer, writer and producer. Backed by murky trap-hip-hop production, the lyrics are boastful as she compares herself to, among other things, a cobra poised to strike.
“I didn’t want this song to be accessible to the general market, but only for rap listeners. It is very intense when it comes to the flow and the lyrical punchlines and metaphors,” she says.
“Where the last album felt like I needed to prove something to myself, the new work is more self-expressive, dark and hostile, in a way.”
With the song leading Spotify’s Equal Arabia playlist, which has Perrie’s face on its cover, it seems the world is primed to listen to what she has to say.
The act of creating a song and being fully responsible for it from start to finish made me feel like I am a onewoman industry