Meet Felukah: Egypt’s Hip-Hop Princess
22-year-old Egyptian rapper Felukah is the newest must-add to your Spotify playlists.
Born and raised outside Cairo, Felukah moved to New York at 18 to pursue a creative writing degree. What followed instead was a blossoming hip-hop career where Sara El Messiry became Felukah, and Egypt’s trap underbelly took on Harlem’s streets.
Her stage name, Felukah, is an ode to the sailboats traveling the Nile, and a testament to the rapper’s unapologetic Arab-ness. Her work navigates the cultural crossovers between the West and the East. And her place within it all as an “Arab woman in America and a westernized woman in Egypt.” Too strange and too familiar to ever belong to both.
She entered the music scene with her debut EP “Yansoon” in 2018, followed by her debut album “Citadel” in 2019. Felukah’s discography has since then expanded to include her album “Dream 23” and her latest EP “Kawkab.” Providing new listeners with an extensive body of sound to venture through.
Seamlessly rapping in both English and Arabic, Felukah accompanies her stark lyrics with trap, jazz, and lo-fi beats. Emulating hip-hop’s diverse sounds from Frank Ocean, to Childish Gambino, to Kendrick Lamar.
Coming from a country renowned for starlets like Oum Kalthoum, Felukah carries on the baton of Egypt’s artistry and modernizes it to a hip-hop beat. She boldly claims, “We are not bound by tradition, we are fueled by it and moved to the point of crossover: where Middle Eastern essence meets Western delivery.”
Felukah is a bright beacon for a more culturally diverse music scene that finally includes Arab talent. Her full discography can be found on Full Felukah Discog on Spotify, and trust us, it’s worth a listen.