Rai Pick

Back in the late 80's and early 90's I was exposed to Algerian pop music, specifically Rai. I had no idea what they were singing about, still no idea today, but I liked some of the music. It was danceable and I am crappy with lyrics anyway so I made up words to kinda sing along. I got to hear some Chaba's and some Cheb's (which I think are just feminine and masculine ways to say youth- tell me if I'm wrong because I'm not looking it up right now). Track two of this pick is the first one that I really liked. Later I found that Sting had done a track with Cheb Mami that was pretty good, but most of what I knew came from rare French associated labels. Makes sense since France is related to Algeria. As I was putting this together from the stuff I had, I heard about Rai N' B' but I haven't explored the genre yet. If you know about any tracks I should listen to, let me know. Sounds interesting.

Rai Pick

01 Cheb Hasni & Chaba Zahouania - El Baraka

02 Chaba Fadela - N'sel Fik

03 Cheba Nouria - N'zor Nebra

04 Cheb Mami & Samira Said - Youm Wara Youm

05 Rachid Taha - Ya Rayah

06 Rayan & Rima - Dana Dana

07 Cheb Sabr - On Danse Quand Même (1996 Rai Version)

08 Abdel Ali Slimani - Moi Et Toi

09 Sting featuring Cheb Mami - Desert Rose

10 Babylone - La La

11 Chaba Zahouania - Goulou Limma

12 Cheb Khaled - C'est La Vie

13 Rachid Taha - Ecoute Moi Camarade

14 Cheb Nasro - N'Direk Amour