A neat three-pack EP, N7S explodes with pulverizing DnB basslines, laced with the energy of Arab rap, that detonates alongside raw, personal tales and stories. Leading the charge are three artists: Lebanese rapper Sabine Salamé (Instagram), Egyptian-Palestinian artist Ma-Beyn, (Instagram), and Palestinian producer SHLTF (Instagram).
Three artists, each hailing from a different Arab country, come together under the N7S banner. The number three seems almost preordained. Three artists, three countries (Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine)– their paths intertwined by a cosmic plan. As Ma-Beyn puts it, “It felt symbolic from the start. We even named all the tracks with three-letter words – a subtle nod to the universe guiding us.”
Their collaboration was a chance encounter, one underpinned by a mutual respect that coursed through the underground music circuit. Their paths didn’t cross physically, but a shared language – both musical and cultural – binds them together. Salamé recalls, “Mariam [Ma-Beyn] found my track with William ‘box within a box’ and contacted me to collaborate. We started working on a track that we never finished and eventually revived the efforts last summer when I started working with SHLTF.”
The creative process for N7S is a beautiful dance of artistic exploration. Salamé describes it as “working in the digital kitchen,” where each ingredient – a beat, a rhyme, a sample – is carefully chosen and meticulously blended to create a dish that’s both familiar and surprising.
“N7s came after a long fixation over PlayStation 1-2 OSTs,” SHLTF, the sonic alchemist behind the EP’s titling soundscapes, explains. “I think 7RK represents how I wanted to make something of the same lane but away from the quirks of using nostalgic sound fonts extracted from this hardware, just something that could hold up in today’s world.”
SHLTF draws inspiration from the golden era of PlayStation soundtracks but injects them with a contemporary edge. “Those OSTs were a huge influence,” he admits. He injects a dose of grime into the classic DnB foundation, creating a sound that feels raw and visceral. “Don’t get me wrong,” he clarifies, “I come from there and everything I do at least passes through this major influence. Like everybody else, I have my roots in music, too. But for this project, I wanted to push the boundaries a bit. Hypothetically, N7S can be the most abstract ambient project but for me, it would still be Arab rap strictly, no Hip-Hop just Arab rap…”
For Ma-Beyn, her artistic journey takes a quantum leap with N7S. “This project pushed me to new levels,” she says. “N7S marks a revolution in my flow. I had to step up my game to keep pace with Sabine’s razor-sharp lyrics, to match the intricate wordplay and raw honesty she brings to every track.”
N7S isn’t afraid to be playful, taking jabs at the industry’s shortcomings, with a subversive wink and tongue-in-cheek humour. But beneath the surface lies a deeper message – a fight against colonial constructs within music and a yearning for Palestinian liberation. “We want SHLTF to finally walk the land of his ancestors,” Salamé says. “We’re stitching back together a region fractured by decades of hate,” she declares.
The collaboration isn’t just about technical prowess, it’s about a shared vision, a desire to create music that speaks to their experiences, their heritage, and their aspirations. “We joke about how if we were born one generation apart, we would have been killing each other,” Salamé reflects. “Because I come from a Lebanese Christian family and during the civil war in Lebanon these two communities were pinned against each other.”
Yet, despite the scars of the past, N7S becomes a bridge, a symbol of unity forged in a digital space. “To me N7S is the connection that should have never been severed by imperial colonial forces,” Salamé declares. “We are attempting to sew together these two different poles of bilad el sham that have been taught to hate each other for decades.”
“As Arab women navigating the cutthroat world of rap, we’re inherently political,” Salamé states. “There aren’t many of us out there, so the pressure is immense. But by spitting fire, we’re making a powerful statement. We’re breaking down barriers and demanding a space for our voices to be heard. N7S isn’t just about lyrics, it’s about visibility, about carving a space for ourselves at the rap table.”
Music, as she argues, is a weapon of mass awareness. ‘It’s important to document these social/political issues through music,” she says. “Because music has the ability to move people on so many levels and it can survive for a long time.”
She expands on this idea, “The stories of our ancestors echo back in our ears through harmonies that are replayed over and over in different forms throughout the millennia.”
However, Salamé doesn’t believe every song needs to be a blatant political anthem. “I don’t think every musical piece has to have a clear social/political issue,” she clarifies. “But I believe every track is a documentation of the state of the artist at that specific moment in time within his given environment and that in and of itself is social and political. Even the lack of a message is a message. Even when you say ‘I don’t want to be political’ that in itself is a political statement.”
N7S is a cultural document, stitched together from the threads of their individual experiences. It’s a celebration of the power of chance encounters and the global community that thrives in the digital age.
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