Khaled (album)
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Khaled, released in 1992, is Khaled's self titled album, which established his reputation as a superstar in France and around the world. The album was produced by Michael Brook and Don Was.
The album was primarily sung in Khaled's native Algerian Arabic dialect with the exception of "Ne m'en voulez pas", which was sung in French.
With its fast tempo and catchy tune, the song "Didi" was not only a huge hit but also a breakthrough. "Didi" rocketed to the top of the French Top 50 making it the first song recorded in Arabic to chart in France.
The song "El Arbi" was successful in Brazil at the end of 1990 and beginning of 2000.
In the USA, the album was released by Cohiba Records, a short-lived label of PolyGram Records. In 2005, the album was licensed to Wrasse Records by Universal Music for the UK and the USA.
Mixed Opinions on Khaled's Westernness
To make the album Khaled, the artist signed with the French record label Barclay Records and sought out American record producer Don Was. Upon meeting with Was, Khaled "asked (him) to incorporate American R&B—to Americanize the music," a request that Was obliged by combining Khaled's live musicians with loops and beats from his computer (a Macintosh) and a keyboard. [1] The result of these sessions in the studio that combined Khaled's rai with Was' R&B, was, according to Was, "pretty wild music."[2]
The response from his Arab fans was mixed. Many of the more conservative Arabs stopped buying his records and going to his concerts after Khaled offended them with his liberal Western-influenced words and actions in interviews and on television, not to mention with his deliberate "(selling) out to Western commercialism" through the changes in his music.[3] However, Khaled's decision to mix his traditional style of Algerian raï with the slick production and Western beat patterns of American R&B stood out to some of his other fans as new, cool, and revolutionary and also made him plenty of new fans. The music from the album, especially "Didi," began to garner play in important places like French nightclubs and on Hip Hip Hourah, and the album began to sell well throughout France. The French emcee Malek Sultan of IAM even goes so far as to call Khaled the "Public Enemy Arabe," which demonstrates the respect that the French hip-hop scene has for the first raï artist to successfully cross over into the French pop market.[4]
Track listing
- "Didi" – 5:02
- "El Arbi" – 3:35
- "Wahrane" – 4:27
- "Ragda" – 3:51
- "El Ghatli" – 4:07
- "Liah Liah" – 4:21
- "Mauvais Sang" – 6:13
- "Braya" – 4:46
- "Ne m'en voulez pas" – 4:57
- "Sbabi" – 4:05
- "Harai" – 3:57
References
- ^ Paul Tingen. "Khaled Algerian Rai Music." Originally Published in SOS Magazine, October 1997. [1]
- ^ Paul Tingen. "Khaled Algerian Rai Music." Originally Published in SOS Magazine, October 1997. [2]
- ^ Gross, Joan, David McMurray, and Ted Swedenburg. "Arab Noise and Ramadan Nights: Rai, Rap, and Franco-Maghrebi Identities." Diaspora 3:1 (1994): 21. [Reprinted in The Anthropology of Globalization: A Reader, ed. by Jonathan Xavier and Renato Rosaldo, 1
- ^ Gross, Joan, David McMurray, and Ted Swedenburg. "Arab Noise and Ramadan Nights: Rai, Rap, and Franco-Maghrebi Identities." Diaspora 3:1 (1994): 22. [Reprinted in The Anthropology of Globalization: A Reader, ed. by Jonathan Xavier and Renato Rosaldo, 1