El Rass and Zeina Halabi

In the fourth encounter of 'Al-Ghilaf', Zeina G. Halabi will be in conversation with Mazen El Sayed/ El Rass - The Head to discuss four key themes which reoccur in his works: defeat on a personal and collective level, how it creates pivotal moments and intersects with other literary texts; El Rass' melancholic relationship with Tripoli and not Beirut; how El Rass chronicles his works and expresses self-understanding through his lyrics, which always end up creating his biography; finally, rap as a profession and El Rass' songs which revolve around rap itself.

Mazen El Sayed/ El Rass - The Head is a rapper and music producer from Tripoli who has released five main albums so far, the latest being 'Baadalhazimeh', in addition to tens of singles in collaboration with producers and rappers from the region. El Rass belongs to 'Al Mousoukh' collective which includes three artists from Syria and Palestine, and he is one of the founders of حم music productions. He worked in political journalism and editing for five years before he started writing exclusively about music and culture through close collaboration with Ma3azef and other online platforms. El Rass has had tens of live performances in the last seven years in Lebanon, the Arab world and Europe, and he is currently preparing for a tour in Europe and the US, in addition to several new solo and collective musical projects.

Zeina G. Halabi is Assistant Professor of Arabic Literature at the American University of Beirut. She is interested in questions of loss, mourning, and dissidence. Zeina has authored articles on the shifting notion of political commitment in the writings of canonical and emerging Arab writers. In her first book, 'The Unmaking of the Arab Intellectual: Prophecy, Exile, and the Nation' (2017), she examines the depiction of Arab intellectuals in post-1990s fiction and film. Her current book project examines excavation practices in contemporary Arabic literature.

Language: Arabic