akademiskkvarter Volume 03 • 2011 academic quarter

The Rise of the Underground Moroccan Music festivals between Laughter, Drunkenness, and Excre-Mentality

Moulay Driss El Maarouf born in 1981, got his MA in Cultural Studies at the Moroccan Cultural Studies Centre, Fez, study- ing gender construction in advertising photogra- phy. Currently he is doing a PhD on the local and global dynamics of Moroccan music festivals at the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies, Germany. He also has a penchant for fic- tion and poetry.

This paper treats the concept of laughter and humor in relation to music and music festivals in Morocco, against the dominant bleak background practices of violence, social injustice, poverty, and po- litical corruption. I deal with the festival as a site of theatricality and terrain for the production of laughter, while putting emphasis on the rituals of defiance, anger, cynicism, madness which, by giv- ing birth to complex artistic gags, help explore humor as trans- gression. Music festivals are seats for the materialization of the politics of excrementality which is developed to describe a type of mentality inspired by images and metaphors of excrementation, disgust, and the violence they presuppose, to create a new plat- form for dirty-mindedness not as mere vulgarity but as resistance. The festival spurs a carnivalesque atmosphere of celebration in- volving music and an audience, breaking down the separation be- tween performers and spectators. In such an atmosphere, music pilots drunken­ness and drunkenness stirs laughter. Such laughter is complex because, while drunkenness can generate it, it can oth- erwise be fully cognizant. Should laughter be sparkled by wine, it should also be sparkled by calculation and intent and a seriously somber desire to translate these into laughter, a mixture of sound and grimaces, that makes it all the more drunk. To laugh soberly is to cushion thinking within amusement, to paraphrase an emo-

Volume 03 32 - 33 Volume 03 Moulay Driss El Maarouf Driss El Moulay The Rise of the Underground of the The Rise The prestigious halo of the modern music festival in Morocco, Morocco, in festival music the modern of halo prestigious The Are you Laughing at me? No, just the Other that is you Are you Laughing at me? No, festival the I less powerful could Laughter can be disturbing. In the laugh- especially those in power, laugh at anything and everything, and it creates being perfectly achievable within the atmosphere ter on the mar is produced The laughter of the oppressed it. creates tion into coded body reactions, aware the worlds of laughter are the worlds of laughter are aware body reactions, tion into coded if stays, drunkenness of aspect The words. with their own replete moods. drunk-like in laughter produces that excess we consider be- for and reasons causes where ambiguity, In the midst of this hind laughter are lost and definitions of the funny are unattain- disguise, becomes aided by the general festival able, laughter, we in laughter, sinks When the festival precarious. treacherously In the least, in a festi- the reason. should stop till we have known val, laughter is the people’s way of triumphing over their terrors (Hollis, 2001). Laughter carries autocracy. gins of social insecurity and political who, when he the oppressed when it comes from weight great neither place, produced out of that it is laughs, the autocrat knows nestAlthough the festival can be a good nor by prosperity. by joy, it is not laughter should still be out of place, because for laughter, When the social reality. genuinely generated against a pleasurable autocrat fails to reasonablefind laughing a matter within the whole laughter where is of things, he thinks that if there orchestration can be almost only one subject that there laughter should be scarce, who is likely to reap and should be ridiculous for the oppressed the mass, and this subject is himself. from that much appreciation cannot the oppressor The festival weaves out a situation whereby the claims of amity and for having exploited jail the oppressed to make him subject to the festival warmth he advances through meanings the unravel to is objective my fieldworker, a As derision. music festivals, together of laughter in urban music and and effects the geo-limited terrain of power relations spectrum with the large and the mil- powerful the I more between of the festival involves - lions of Is less powerful that block the peripheries of social, eco nomic and political life. where millions of dollars are invested, reflects the image of those who make a payment to sell this image to the exterior world. For quarter

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kvarter akademisk - - 34 Volume 03 Moulay Driss El Maarouf Driss El Moulay The Rise of the Underground of the The Rise - prestig the prestige, the by terrified not is subject’ ‘festival The - in the postcolony con and prestige for majesty Mbembe the search that the the bizarre and of crudeness tains within it “elements official order tries hard to hide, but that ordinary people bring to the people 2001, p.109) While for Mbembe its attention.” (Mbembe, , in the procession in the context of presidential do it ‘unwittingly’ is calculated the come by accident. Since agency festival it does not to a num- joke is a reference agent laughs because the circulating together deliberately to convey a ber of observable quotes brought the is meant to offer prestige particular opinion. While the festival festival as a ‘ritual of confirmation’ to use Mbembe’s words, the masse’- breaks en ‘assembles calls Mbembe what dance- body in into laughter in the face of break the silence by inciting the body to elites. of confidence the and discourse official the of lies evident the (Mbembe, 2001, p128-129). be- decorations, and power stately secure who those and ious, of stat- teases all sorts of prestige at the heart presence cause their or what powerful brings the m-ass (mob-ass) I more The ures. the court of power and author bakhtin calls the substratum into should it behaves (m-ass) mass the If behave. to it asks and ity is it especially improper, and offensive as twice gestures produce intoxicating boosters. The fes- inebriated by laughter and other tival brings the socially excluded to entertain a ritual of confir mation and reaffirmation of the status of the subject and that of to comfort the status quo, to maintain master-slave, master, the designs therefore Laughter and to show loyalty. down-top roles between two antagonistic dis- for confrontation a battleground issues courses. Humour is used in the festival to discuss sombre the autocrat to won- It prompts with sorry and distrust. replete ‘no, while the response at me?’, you laughing ‘Are der nervously: the other’just is a delicate way of asking the question: which the other can now reverse other? Once thought to be the other, associated with those in the self (always the game and declare since the space of the festival, fraught by However, power) other. and colours, is almost extraordinary music, dance and laughter, is so and fantastic there fantastic, and because it is extraordinary complex- the epistemological no way to edit out the subject from ity of the festival text. quarter

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kvarter akademisk 1 - - 35 Volume 03 Moulay Driss El Maarouf Driss El Moulay The Rise of the Underground of the The Rise A Humor is the Biasse of the Mind Humor A By which, with violence, ‘tis one way inclin’d By which, with violence,

, (1987, p. vii) departs from the assump- Dundes in Cracking Jokes, (1987, p. vii) departs from Festival Doppelganger: The Interface The Interface Doppelganger: Festival Violence and between Laughter in their core festivals witnessed radical changes Music and music of beau- innocent celebrations being, marking a shift from of reason the times of demise of inno- love and the arts to celebrations in ty, love and the arts by the beauty, cence and the contamination of political of the festival as beauty fol- and the ideological. The death of the har the concepts where society, lowed of organic the failure the moussem, blind marriage feasts, the halqa, vest, the crops, for blind marriages have been festivities merchant, country dweller, dis antagonism, cynicism and control, tainted by discursive power, politi- local traumas (terror), to unsettling In fanatical reaction trust. Arab world for democracy in the cal disturbances (the bloody quest and social anomaliesAfrica in particular) in general and the North and authoritarianism social of by petrifying episodes superseded anxiety , music and music festivals have the widening of underclass and violent modes of comic jesting. given way to profane asserting that ‘no piece oftion that nothing happens in a vacuum, continues to be transmitted unless it means something- folklore articulate what if neither the speaker nor the audience can -even in the festival cameral that meaning might be.’ Humor as protest with symbolic and literal vio- pregnant comes heterogeneously music or any and through theatrical gestures lence. Either through other comic manners, the incarnation of violence characterizes the of language (musi- within a violent language birth of laughter from the social milieu or posture), cal text for instance), the body (attires and places between incongruities urban graffiti, structures, (urban of counter-violence itself signals an amount concepts). Protest either led mounted against existing modes of violence. Protests, the vio- blood, capture art or violently through peacefully through hints at a burning de- whose gesture lent mindset of the protestor that goes with it. Humor’s for change and the sense of struggle sire against,or for can operate polarity: it peculiarity lies in its elastic deny or affirm, oppress or liberate. On the one hand, it reinforces of such it facilitates the inversion pejorative images; on the other, quarter

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2 is­ l­ 36 Volume 03 Moulay Driss El Maarouf Driss El Moulay as more or less patho- as more The Rise of the Underground of the The Rise ing all this from our dis- our dis- ing all this from , 1) , ­sion on humor and laughter. oretical or analytical account account or analytical oretical according to Andrew J. Webber J. Webber Andrew to according (1996 logically divided between reality between reality logically divided This paper cannot as- and fantasy. all-inclusive an to present pire the­ Doppel­ and Doppelgänger the on gänger acts in the festival, but it a glimpse into some will provide Dua­ ‘chronischer of examples dualism) in the mu- mus’(chronic sic festival, without, of course, dis sociat­ cus Plate 1 Boskin calls our attention to the elasticity of humor. I should only to the elasticity of humor. Boskin calls our attention is a typi- festival in 2010, the Boulevard Plate one, taken from stereotypes. Just as it has been utilized as a weapon of insult and been utilized as a weapon of insult Just as it has stereotypes. as a device oftoo, has humor been implemented persecution, so, (Boskin, 1997, p 38) subversion and protest. is a wonderful scenery Africa to that chaos in postcolonial add humor as a through Protest instills order. against which laughter to alleviate is after all a vent for the oppressed quest for restoration ‘Music and humor of subjugation and inferiority. the sad brutalities us, remind the black’, Schechter for outlet universal more a provided hymns “protest” be considered what may the medium of ‘through with courageous double-enten- in today’s vernacular--spirituals the from of comic relief a small measure lyrics that provided dre Indeed, 1970, p. 26).’ of slavery (Schechter, and hardships cruelty sense of humor and chaos, of order postcolonial laughter (a mixture good and mischief pacification, and violence sadness, and sense and Such duality duality. the existence of some will) brings to the fore - undy the by symptomized doubles of set unmanageable an arrests and between the margin ing lines, however fuzzy and trespasable, the mass and the m-ass, oppressor, and the the oppressed the center, good. evil and humor and sufferance, theatricality and reality, the subject, whose acts represent cal example of the Doppelgänger, quarter

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kvarter akademisk 37 Volume 03 Moulay Driss El Maarouf Driss El Moulay The Rise of the Underground of the The Rise A major premise has it that Doppelgänger acts premise major A 3 The language of duality spoken in plates one and The language of duality spoken Plate 2 two summarizes the characteristic of doubletalk. Thetwo summarizes the characteristic two photos portraiture the flowing of a double dia- logue system. On the one hand, the Joker wears two on top of them, two statements (sadness and, faces, face sad his on drawn Laughter is joy). imposed and color with which a tear is dotted un- in the same red der his right eye. On the other hand, the plate two First death is doubly mocked. a scene where shows at tries but gun, a into fingers her draws woman the the same time to turn her facial language into evi- dence of death. She is proposing for the seriousness death is a woman who dis- where a funny parody playsI will kill you, and if you or else a “be scared don’t believe me see how grim and fierce I’m” face. is subject tongue protruding, The to-be-killed guy, Andrew J. Webber outlines his Andrew J. definition ofWebber the Doppelgänger in a series of premises. - con are calls ‘double visions’, which what J.Webber center around ca- his also and Doppelgänger the of visuality the around cerned its other self as being a subject who ‘beholds pacity of self-seeing, itsby object as beheld is alternatively or object, visual as another, or visual ‘double- to J. Webber, according other self.’ This duality, objectificationconflict-ridden broad the for model the affords bind’ Dop- The festival Doppelgänger. of the subject in the example of the The colors he theatrical visuality. pelgänger (plate 1) is a master of uses put him into the center as an outstanding lookable element, an eye- He is strange because he comes into strange and familiar. the observer a sense of curiositycatching visuality that triggers in He is Doppelgänger puts forward. that the unusual character of the acti- he estrangement factor, the familiar because while he stresses the character of the Jocker, vates a sense of familiarity by enacting one more leads us to Webber’s This whose face thrives in polysemy. analogously with double of doubletalk. Doubletalk goes premise chaos by an instance of recurring vision, and it is condition marked a visual scandal, the creating merely at the level of speech. Far from on language.Doppelgänger functions doubly quarter

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38 Volume 03 Moulay Driss El Maarouf Driss El Moulay The Rise of the Underground of the The Rise - For Web lie at the heart of festival. Doppelgänger performances The Politics of Transferability in the Festival: in the The Politics of Transferability Space and the Urban Time, Body, prac- primordial for turns festal terrains into spaces Festival mass as we have seen that makestices. First, it does something to subjects of interaction and be- programs them dividable. It also downloads which, in to the logic of laughter and drunkenness, ing that adhere both time and body transferable. I use the term festival turn, render andconnections network of complex to make up for a transferability and meaning hierarchies situatedness, essence, practices that render impossible to grasp. In festival celebrations time pours backward to past (Firmat, 1986, p. 9). present and from to present future from by uploads and This is an instance of transferability that is charged in the end, shapes of time that all together, downloads of different That primordiality. pastness or modern form a situation of present laughter and itswith intermingled festival drunkenness, to say, is excesses, take the festival and its guests into a dimension between the primordial, and between the modern non-reality, and reality sub- its civility, its of gets freed civilization momentarily whereby to jects unbound to any ties of civilization. The body goes forward momentarily into a pastness while getting transferred the future the center of the body, the belly and the lower parts become where trance, loses all connec- constantly in laughter and which, delivered tion with modernity. to the finger-shaped gun yet he wears a ‘yes kill me, please, while please, me, kill ‘yes a wears he yet gun finger-shaped the to The mockingly laughing posture. peace greeting’ I’m making the and a fake-gun-will-kill-me-and-I’m-smiling I’m-sad-but-smiling of Doppelgänger in a double but chaotic act engage theatrically performance. premise, the third addresses speech. Theatricality where the Doppelgänger is ‘an inveterate performer of identity’, ber, the act of In character.’ the subject puts on shows his ‘performative performance, ‘selfhoodWebber, notifies a metaphysical given is of identity’, so much so of enactments a process to here abandoned will look like try-outs orthat the performances by the Doppelgänger of Lacanian us of role which reminds of a twofold role, ‘rehearsals’ who performs a sense of humor the festival subject Similarly, mirror. narrates, within the histrionics of doubleness, against a grim reality a two-faced selfhoods.identity as he feels it torn between quarter

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kvarter akademisk 39 Volume 03 Moulay Driss El Maarouf Driss El Moulay The Rise of the Underground of the The Rise 4 The Police power The Police, police, police, police The Police… Have gone nuts, stopping who they want Stopping who they want shamelessly Shamelessly, The police can talk to your pockets and lie with

Therefore in the context of festive performance, liminality, as un- performance, liminality, in the context of festive Therefore in this writ- addressing we are The concept of humor and festivity derstood by Victor Turner, can be thought can be thought in terms of festival of Turner, derstood by Victor transfers us to the (preliminal) the pre-event transferability because to the forming of liminal stage), which transfers us event (festival as starts action (mob ass) within the festival where union or the m-ass transferability to take place. Festival how permits to understand - ordi (from to another shape one bodies transferably transform from look), or how times transfers nary look to disguise back to ordinary sense, by its own chronological as we have into liminal time marked and power within the festivals shift in speedy or how hierarchies - uncharac to the festival monster, and dramatic ways to give shape by the or compartmentalization, suffused terized by demarcation the initial boundaries set by thequest for wholeness, which upsets to discipline the mass, which, in its evolvement festival organizers contain- resists and drunk, laughing into a m-ass which is bawdy, ment and classification. of the phenomenon of reversal ing is central to the acceptance (which doubleness, and dual- we can otherwise call transferability, depos- within the strictures from ism, etc) because the latters spring symbolism and of culture-bound ited by a whole (in)distinct forms specificities and obligations of the historical timeliness where they have studies so of the texts we open up, conditioning the repertoire festive on impact to and about their relation us inform These far. lyrical content show how urban music best The following behavior. In his ‘The Police’, in music festivals. describes the state of reversal - Bigg the Don uses a number of techniques in his song (ridicule, iro the and to break etc) to strip the police of their charisma, satire, ny, their expressing from citizens limits of fear that dissuade ordinary abjuration of some police practices. quarter

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6 Volume 03 Moulay Driss El Maarouf Driss El Moulay The Rise of the Underground of the The Rise 7 tobis 5 the night?’ good civilian!’ Kilometres per hour!’ Kilometres a fine’ casque trouble ble treat us well! treat Then you really need the protection of no one need the protection Then you really crashed And if your car looks like trash so scratched are They will stop you ‘t n’ say the lamps in the day?’ the lights off Or be like ‘why are in light green the through go you did ‘why Or all like a like a thief, not at Or that ‘you look more of the police? win the respect Wonna Go and buy a Mercedes Or go buy a ticket in the Give the police the chance to wear no mask Give the police the chance to wear stand Don’t violate the laws, for a safer the bend? sick or round you Are wand The police serve they with a money you lots of If a tiny car you have, they’ll cause ‘You went through the green light in speed, 70 in speed, 70 light the green went through ‘You us 50 (Dirhams)’ ‘But if you give fine’ (x4) ‘That should be you must pay no way, there’s ‘Beyond this option, ‘Either be with us or against us!’ down If the police stops you keep head attack with a frown not faulty, If you are riding a 103 motor bike then wear a If you are - you with no rub And if a big car they will salute A-1 code Or if the car is charismatic, with There’s the white in the police There’s the black in the police There’s our lives The black in the police has ruined your police well, so that they treat Oh Morocco (Chorus) (outro) quarter

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kvarter akademisk 41 Volume 03 Moulay Driss El Maarouf Driss El Moulay The Rise of the Underground of the The Rise you… junction… stoppin’ me at every you… This is the plan! Oh you policemen when I see Oh you policemen when I see This is the plan! track comes out you won’t be I hope when this be upon white, peace black and meant is evil No In the main Vulgarity is a question of intention and opportunity; In the main Vulgarity Bigg has performed this song during the Mawazine festival, and the Mawazine festival, and Bigg has performed this song during the of role, reversal Through was the audience’s double on stage. of the system (the police) and artist manages to contain the forces perplexity and impotence. Bigg corner them into a sentiment of funny ex- politics on stage, and demonstrates through brings street - oppres and of corruption amples how the police engage in practices of suspicion, and declares bars the behind police the He throws sion. is a situation sins. This of many street them culpable and responsible artist on stage weaves a discourse of criticism crisscrossed the where - and co-singing of the audience. Bigg tries to pro by the appreciation - the Moroc where injustice and inequality, ject an instance of street in the opinion of the police,can with a 103 motor bike is a sub-citizen humiliation. This with impunity and treated is many times who modes of doubleness, festive trans- song is a veritable example of the and of power in society, the laws that distrupt ferability and reversal Bigg pokes fun at the nigger. Moroccan to the voice that allocate situation where laughter in the festival, a rare police and provokes successfully through criticism against those in power can be effected the police possible. Bigg further provokes art with no repercussions his hope while expressing leaving the song during the outroduction, that the police won’t hold this song too much against him, and take revenge in the street. By saying this, he further confirms his- argu often and their decisions are above the law, ment that the police are phenomenonwhat the brief, In unlawful pronouncements. on based of upset structures should teach is that festive practices of reversal continuity the declare collapse and linearity of fixedand therefore and change meanings, of unbending expectations, declaring rapture that to humor there of paramount importance to the rites of reversal, is vulgarity, to politeness there is theatricality, there is pain, to reality excre-mentality. is and to uncontaminated mentality there - One can be vulgar when one’s intentions to be vulgar meet an op quarter

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kvarter akademisk 42 Volume 03 Moulay Driss El Maarouf Driss El Moulay The Rise of the Underground of the The Rise Robert Pattison asks the question that if we are torn between the that if we are Robert Pattison asks the question portunity. Vulgarity in the music festival takes place in the music festival takes place music in the Vulgarity portunity. musical vulgarityThe festival, awash with its own and the festival. - ref a itself in is and to, reference a makes performance, profane and It holds a mirror it is produced. era where to the mood of the erence lines, to of social of the epoch, to the crookedness out to the badness of human of the worth of life, to unscrupulousness the absurdity been art has world, post-colonial our In emotions. and relations itself, by obligation not by choice, itself ushered or probably ushered, vulgarity. and images of unprecedented into a world of the words that the and the likelihood ‘vulgar will join civilization’ sureness we not to lapse then are that ‘civilization cannot survive vulgarity’, attitude be- the ‘young rebels’’ into the fate Rome, at a time where (Pattison, 1987, p.v) The victorying ‘For God’s sake, burn it down! of the anni- no promises Pattison contends, withholds of vulgarity, in culture that of ‘reinterpretation’ the but culture’ ‘elite of hilation The visions of vulgarity a popular style (Pattison, 1987, p.vi). are and not at all apocalyptic, yet they contain a sense pre-apocalyptic, what is coming, that what is com- of bitterness, a mood clouded by Bataille, in his Death George ing is worse than what is being lived. - of/in feasting, where and Sensuality, while speaking of the ogreness ofplace the taking vulgarity heavy a imagine always can ‘we by possessing the ability to disallow the chance of a without frenzy’ that goes with the ogry‘state of exaltation’ made of the intoxication As I see it, a sense of and ecstatic(Bataille, 1962, p.112). , the erotic a state feasting, creating of decay drifts in the spectacle as an arena of cohesively vulgar imagination that can’t escape the attractions of its own social afflictions, or the underpinnings of its own creative and con- vulgar imagination is one which produces A makings. - sumes, speaks and listens, performs and applauds, sings and danc notis It it. sustain to intentions has and vulgar the recognizes it es; synonymous with dirty-mindedness, this being the consumption of - excre-mental with synonymous is It sake. vulgarity’s for vulgar the and inno- a mentality which, in its ideological framing, creates ity, its functionality and symbolism. by excrement, vates, inspired While the dirty-minded has a dirty mouth, bawdy thoughts, and - The excre-men he is uncapable of being otherwise. lewd gestures, without tal, on the other hand, enjoys a mentality for profanity, such a mentality leading to any case of behavioural standardization quarter

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kvarter akademisk ­ 43 In rap music, com- Volume 03 Moulay Driss El Maarouf Driss El Moulay The Rise of the Underground of the The Rise ( Bigg the vulgar, this being ( Bigg the vulgar, (vulgarity) expected of them, by performing that khsoriya (vulgarity) expected of them, by performing that , it is taken for granted at some point that vulgarity is, it is taken for granted at some point resistrance The orations of politeness can not only be found in the general In other words, it should be conceded that while excre-mental that it should be conceded while excre-mental In other words, the original name for Big the Donn), who cannot be polite, because to do that is to lose his aura. behaviour of an audience during the spectacle, but is firmly estab- as a form of culture lished in the rituals of singing in Moroccan dependability on and praise of the status quo. fame and the blessing rappers, those who seek money and mercial in some singing forever, of things, of the system, eulogize the order and country, the the “white” side of of neo-patriotism, about form - they call it ‘lface zwin (the nice side). This would demand the gra through art, as in the case of Bigg lkhasar through or sameness, like being vulgar all the time, regardless of alertness to being vulgar all the time, regardless or sameness, like dirty- While selectivity. and context opportunity, and intention by and minded and performed (controlled mindedness is libidinal the body), excre-mentality is triggered first by a mental code, then of solely product being Far from by the body. performed second and physical language contaminated is excre-mentality physicality, and not the opposite.motivated by intention and purpose, as pigeonholed provisos, romantic must not be disparaged in overly and at least recognize agree, we should by the excesses of the body, social condemnations of the excre- The of brain power. the presence case be taken with a pinch of salt,mental as obscene should be at any line that ‘one man’s reknown for as Justice John Marshall Harlan’s vulgarity is another’s lyric,’ indicates the clumsiness and absurdity of managing a sober criticism of vulgarity could maintain a sharp in Vulgarity and preciseness. of objectiveness sense trenchant and musics is a product from music festivals, especially that sprawling cognitive, less of the emotive, though both of them make of the more In brief, vulgarity is meant to dis- the language of the exre-mental. in a the festival context, marked Especially that which is sacred. rupt by message, and for latter indispensable to the proposed rudimentarily be deliberate, the to has excre-mentality impact, desired the have to its regulating its consequences, agent premeditating excre-mental an extreme fit of excre-mentality isPresumably, repercussions. as critic expression, as its underlying objectives (change, sacrosanct etc). Most of the time they perform the revenge, ism, revolution, very quarter

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kvarter akademisk - 44 Volume 03 Moulay Driss El Maarouf Driss El Moulay The Rise of the Underground of the The Rise Many radios are now open for us, but these should be con- Many radios are everything goes! Radio opens a door unto Not trolled. families. I wouldn’t want my houses, with respectful of what rappers say. mother or sister or son listen to some good, with beautiful messages! I Some hip hop songs are audience they have. them, so does the great respect look at ghet- `If you `First personal change.` He replied. America, Africa, ghettos in toes in Brazil, ghettos in South people a way people an escape. Music offers music offers themselves and to express to leave the pain of their reality, It gives It gives them joy. a lot of times in a happy way. And most people them meaning. It gives them purpose. Transgression between Power and the Illusion of between Power Transgression and the M-ass between the Individual Power, singer Said Mouskir, Moroccan In 2010 I interviewed popular among when I artists. Mouskir complained quite respectfully, other in Morocco. asked him about his opinion of rappers do not blend with the and politeness, however, The call for respect of idea this discuss could I change. and vulgarity of mentality ALC 2010, at the in May, and DJ Joseph change with anthropologist teaches. Because he men- he (American Languages Center) where and change, I asked meeting he studies music tioned at a previous him about the kind of change music would promise. cious congratulation of the accomplishments of the governments, the governments, of accomplishments the of congratulation cious - agencies, fore of local violence, corruption state state politics, ignore main- the of efficiency the to as persuasion of discourse a grounding rappers find rap commercial contemp- Underground order. stream lickers, shoe infidels, rappers commercial call even could and tuous, into the(the bad side), delving look ‘l’face lkhayab’ because they over hypocracy in exchange for mate- excesses of lucrative optimism and cer employed to reveal The orations of vulgarity are rial rewards as they are wretchedness dishonesty, about corruption, tain truths standing out not by seen and discussed these young Moroccans, passive models liable to artistic categories of production, as merely social and political forces. of consumption, but linked to cultural, quarter

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kvarter akademisk 45 - - - Volume 03 Moulay Driss El Maarouf Driss El Moulay The Rise of the Underground of the The Rise - real However, music to attain freedom. (the wall) through In the Moroccan there. ity has it that the wall is always art- all the subculture context, Big the Donn together with ists I interviewed reflect a grim and miserable under - real this being music that hinges on social reality, ground the wall, which in its basic functions restrains ism to break All of them of both individuals and groups. the freedom which should other to the problem, use language to refer cor (the wall, poverty, problem The wise stay unspoken. find musicians these However, stays. like) the and ruption, the platforms available (festivals) to speak and be heard. imagination of driven by artistic Festival promulgates, transgression into positioning both artists and organizers, in a liminal space between power and the illusion of pow- and collective demon- between singular demonstration er, - between re stration, between the festival and the street, The term sistance and trance, or what I call resistrance. - and rev reality hinges on contradictory states, resistrance and transgression and peace, puppeteered erie, violence power and vulnerability, dispatch and receipt, expression, rage and elation, integrationsoberness and drunkenness, Re- and stupor. control and alienation, tension and relief, in life are looking for that.` Josef stop for a second and goand second a for stop Josef that.` for looking are life in People hip hop in Palestine right now. on, `if you look at move. They can- by a wall. They cannot surrounded are the wall. Music gives them the breaks not leave, but music chance `to fly` -here he uses hisfingers to draw quotes in but music gives them freedom. as clichéd as it is , the air- Joseph mentions how music breaks the wall, how repressed peo- the wall, how repressed Joseph mentions how music breaks - illusion of free or the to Joseph, leads to freedom, Music, according to speak Africa, with when dealing dom. I think it is necessary, and the illu- democracy and the illusion of freedom, about freedom love and the illu- and the illusion of order, order sion of democracy, concepts that of peace. These are sion of love, peace and the illusion illu- the how ponder to interesting is It shadows. their with come like its model. and act could substitute freedom sion of freedom ple transcend their reality quarter

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kvarter akademisk - - - 46 Crit . 8 Comedy,” in Comedy,” A Volume 03 Moulay Driss El Maarouf Driss El Moulay The Rise of the Underground of the The Rise sistance and trance, once mingling, piloted by rhythm and once mingling, piloted by rhythm sistance and trance, dance, take in for questioning these many incongruous and mindsets. gestures Seventeenth Century, ed. Spingarn, 2:162. ed. Spingarn, Century, of the Seventeenth ical Essays - Double Visions in German Litera in The Doppelganger: As cited 1996, 1). ( Webber, ture book The Doppelganger: his from borrowed are premises These p 3-4-5 , 1996. Double Visions in German Literature English into Arabic Moroccan the song from translated I have Motors a bike. like more that looks bike, motor tiny 103 is a very police harassment. avoid put on a casque (helmet) riders to need to in the capital, Rabat. try matriculated Bigg is vehicles are cars A1 reversed the politics of and relations power street to refer ing to the power to car has signs that times the refer many when fear, it, discourage owns to status who or of he and as such is enough it. stopping a police man from The Humorists, to Thomas. “Preface Shadwell, 2 3 4 5 6 Notes 1 Resistrance, however, is neither exterior nor interior. It is resistance It is resistance interior. is neither exterior nor Resistrance, however, it is That’s to say, below. from regulated above, and supervised from that the terrains of sublime in the sense resistance, a constructed part of a meek to wild are from transformation in youth settings - prep when it materializes through theatrical set up that materializes in applications and plans, funding, organization aration, approved takes place festive terrains ‘transgression Smith in Andrew brief. For par and around but within splurge, not in some random anarchic ticular, recognized and recongnizable forms that constrain but also and recongnizable recognized ticular, epitome of authority (minis- end up having an exterior enable’. We wallets (partners or notably assisted by different-size try of culture), of into a theatre a frame for what will grow sponsors) constructing and music. Such aided by exterior boosters, a mob, drugs, resistance, con- Smith calls ‘the paradoxes of transgression, Andrew what are normative conduct, which in ceived as a violation of norms and - expres human of norms new “follow”) not (but constitute turn forms by a community in transgression sion—recognizable quarter

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kvarter akademisk 47 Volume 03 Moulay Driss El Maarouf Driss El Moulay The Rise of the Underground of the The Rise is borrowed from French and French from is borrowed Tobis

Autobus in Moroccan Arabic. Arabic. in Moroccan Autobus speech. in daily appropriated com- Smith for his pertinent Andrew Prof. I would like to thank dis- current and insightful contribution to the ments and deep and transgression. cussion on festivals 7 8 quarter

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- 48 Volume 03 Moulay Driss El Maarouf Driss El Moulay The Rise of the Underground of the The Rise , ed. Spingarn. Oxford: Oxford Oxford , ed. Spingarn. Oxford: Carnival: Culture in Action : The Trinidad Experi- Trinidad The Action : in Culture Carnival: . New York: Humor in America. The History of Negro New York: The Doppelganger: Double Visions in German Litera- The Doppelganger: Double Visions University of California Press, University of California Press, On the Post Colony. Literature and Liminality: Festive Readings in the Hispa- and Liminality: Festive Literature The Triumph of Vulgarity: Rock Music in the Mirror of of Rock Music in the Mirror of Vulgarity: The Triumph Cracking Jokes: Studies of Sick Humor Cycles and Ste of Sick Humor Cycles and Cracking Jokes: Studies Death and Sensuality: A Study of Eroticism and the Taboo Eroticism Study of A Death and Sensuality: . Humor in American Culture Rebellious Laughter: People’s . New York: Routledge, 2004. York: . New 1st ed. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997 Press, Syracuse University NY: 1st ed. Syracuse, New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. Press, University Oxford York: Romanticism. New 1908. Press, Clarendon University Press, 1996. Press, Clarendon . Oxford: ture Fleet Press, 1970. Fleet Press, the Seventeenth Essays of Century . Berkeley, Calif.: Ten Speed Press, 1987. Speed Press, Calif.: Ten . Berkeley, reotypes ( New York: Ballantine Books, 1962. York: ( New 37.3 (2001): 227. Papers on Language & Literature Ltd, London, 2001. ence . Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1986. NC: Duke University Press, . Durham, nic Tradition References Boskin, J., Dundes, A., Pattison, R., W.Schechter, , , A. J. Webber, Critical in Critical Comedy,” A to The Humorists, , “Preface Shadwell, T. , Firmat, G. P. , “The Other Side of Carnival: Romola and Bakhtin.”Hollis, Hilda., “The Other Side of Carnival: Romola Mbembe, A., ed, C., M. Riggio, Bataille, G., quarter

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