Music Reviews
Abadir’s The Primitivist is a high-energy rhythmic tour of Arabic sound
Cairo-born producer ABADIR is back with a four-track gut-punch of Arab rhythm, a foot-stomping, belly-activating powerhouse of an EP. True to its label, The Primitivist is neither fetishized nor repurposed: it’s Rami speaking in a native musical language that’s fully rooted and simultaneously all his own. The Primitivist by ABADIR We don’t get a lot […]
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ZULI, as Swag Lee, turns Egyptian MP3 fragments into dizzying hip hop
It’s long past time to start talking about scenes in Egypt, Palestine, and elsewhere not just like some exotic foreign treat, but dead-center in the history of hip hop experimentation. ZULI casually drops his second Habibi Loops for free, and it utterly slaps. To quote one clip, “that’s sick, man — that’s dope.”
Peter Kirn - October 24, 2025
Music
“Care” from ZULI finds worlds beyond this one, like a daydream
Splitting open the ordinary into sublime imaginations, this compact gem from Cairo’s ZULI bursts at the seams. A melodic fragment, tapping in a field recording, a dialog, a street argument–everything gets unfolded into another unseen dimension. It might be the musical pause you need right now, and hey Berlin, ZULI is live tonight (as am I) so there’s a chance to catch this energy in person.
