Bleep

Palestinian emcee-producer combo Shabjdeed and Al Nather deliver one of the most distinct hip-hop LPs in the Arab world, if not the entire world. Long heard pouring out of car stereos and home sound systems in the duo’s native Ramallah, Sindibad El Ward grinds with all the gnarly bombast of Atlantan trap music — all skittering hi hats and weighty low ends — as Shabjdeed’s surreal, auto-tuned and abstracted bars delve deep; not into the on-going struggle of a still-raging war, but of the everyday lives of Palestinians on the ground. As celebratory of national identity as it is quietly melancholic, Sindibad El Ward is an instant classic of modern hip-hop.