JEDDAH: \u201cThis is the beginning of a new era for me,\u201d Egyptian rapper and singer Sara El-Messiry, who goes by the artist name Felukah, tells Arab News. She is discussing her new album, \u201cHibiskiss,\u201d which finds the artist pushing deeper than ever before into questions of identity, womanhood, culture and belonging.<\/p>\n
The nine-track record drops on Oct. 9, after which Felukah will embark on a world tour that opens in London on Oct. 12.\u00a0She has been rehearsing at her recently opened recording facility, Waha Studios, in Cairo, having returned to Egypt in April after almost nine years in New York.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m so excited to just meet the Falayek (her name for her fans) all around the world, to sing and dance with everyone, and connect,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Named and styled after the hibiscus flower, \u201cHibiskiss\u201d stitches Cairo to New York, tracing \u201cwomen\u2019s issues, trouble in the industry, love and loss,\u201d as well as what it means to be a woman from the East navigating the West and returning home.<\/p>\n \u201cI think blossoming to me right now means following my heart,\u201d she says. \u201cThe project is an actual \u2018kiss\u2019 for my inner child and for anyone else who can relate to my message.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Egypt has shaped Arabic pop for generations, artists working in the West are often expected to speak for an entire region, and Arab women in hip-hop \u2014 a genre still largely dominated by men \u2014 face this expectation twice over.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI carry my Egyptian identity like a crown,\u201d Felukah says. \u201cI\u2019m so proud of where I come from and if I can add to the magnificent fabric of Arabic music and pop culture in any way, I\u2019ll die happy.\u201d<\/p>\n The artist built \u201cHibiskiss\u201d around a community of multicultural and multilingual collaborators whose work reflects the record\u2019s wider ideas about identity and connection.\u00a0<\/p>\n Xiuhtezcatl \u2014 a 25-year-old indigenous artist and activist from Xochimilco, Mexico \u2014 features on \u201cAzucar,\u201d the single released on Sept. 18, that moves fluidly between Arabic, Spanish and English. It is an exchange between SWANA and indigenous communities about homelands, borders, and the sweetness found inside struggle.<\/p>\n \u201cXiuhtezcatl is someone I\u2019ve admired since I discovered him three years ago. We performed together in New York and I instantly realized we\u2019re talking about the same thing: Taking the land back from the colonizers, representing our cultures that have been silenced by the oppressor. (We are both) showing the younger generation that there is so much power and joy in unity,\u201d Felukah says, adding that the response to the track has been \u201coverwhelmingly beautiful.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Her collaboration with London-based Palestinian singer Lana Lubany and Palestinian-Italian artist T\u00e4ra \u2014 \u201cSahara\u201d \u2014 is, she says, \u201cbursting with Arab feminine power.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n She continues: \u201cThe three of us show up as ourselves unapologetically and challenge the status quo in many ways. From our lyrical and musical content to our styling choices, we\u2019re here to change the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps the album\u2019s most decidedly Egyptian moment is \u201cShut Up Your Mouse,\u201d which samples Mona Al-Beheiri, the Egyptian woman who became a viral sensation after telling then-US President Barack Obama on television in 2014, \u201cWe are Egyptian women! Shut up your mouth, Obama!\u201d<\/p>\n The track confronts the ways Arab women have been spoken about in the West. \u201cWe have been talked down to, belittled, compared to Western women for years, and are still fighting for our rights every day,\u201d Felukah says. \u201cI found myself writing a song inspired by the message that, as an Egyptian woman, I\u2019m telling you to shut up.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHibiskiss\u201d arrives at a time when the music industry and all creative endeavors are confronting issues with AI and authorship. The album, with its long list of co-creators, is a counterexample that Felukah describes as moving towards \u201csomething bigger than music.\u201d When it comes to the AI argument, the artist has picked her side.<\/p>\n \u201cAI is ruining art, wrecking our brains and polluting our water,\u201d she says. \u201cNow more than ever, there is power in community.\u201d<\/p>\n And at a time when the different cultures seem increasingly fractured, she sees music as one way of resisting isolation. \u201cI\u2019m not trying to be better than any Western artists, I want to collaborate with everyone who sees the vision and the value in what I do,\u201d she says. \u201cWe are on this Earth to connect with each other and uplift each other.\u201d<\/p>\n From New York-based producer Gloria Kaiyi Hui \u201cwho helped produce the bulk of the album,\u201d to the artists who appear across its tracks, the record seems to have been made with a sense of play.<\/p>\n \u201cI love it when I\u2019m giggling in a session and the ideas are flowing like honey,\u201d Felukah says. \u201cI feel incredibly blessed and I\u2019m confident that \u2018Hibiskiss\u2019 is my best work yet.\u201d<\/p>\n Her joy in the studio is fuel for the future. \u201cI\u2019m aching to make an Arabic jazz album,\u201d she reveals, adding that she also hopes to venture into films and acting.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is more work to be done,\u201d she says, \u201cmore souls to inspire and more stories to tell before my time is up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Xiuhtezcatl](\"https:\/\/assets.maestronewsroom.com\/media\/30f6532d-717b-4366-9158-9c455299fcd9\/1790839396317-c30c8f5cfd20db4c.jpg\")