Shabab ma shi kebab...

Which means, "boys should not be barbecued." Overheard in Tangier over the weekend. For a full explanation, write me an email and I'll tell the whole crazy story...

But in other news, I'm really getting into Muslim's lyrics. Today we translated the lyrics of "Flouss" (off Bghini Wella Krahni) into formal Arabic so I could understand them better. Flouss means money.

The song's main point (worked into the ground on this track, perhaps) is that money is the cause for most bad things that happen in Morocco, which gives Muslim the opportunity to list the various failures of Moroccan social and governmental structures, as well as international failures. In other words, one might say to complicate the matter that dependence on the generally equivalent form of value (money) to the exclusion of other valuations leads to social anomie.

You may be able to get some downloads here. For sure, Muslim's one-time collaborator and the "godfather" of Moroccan rappers, Bigg, is all over the place.

The track sounds dark and heavy, unrelieved growling to a heavy beat, despite a couple of climaxes. But even Muslim can't sustain the bleak tone, and ends self-consciously, even laughing at himself--as much as he ever might laugh--since of course "flouss sabbab album muralbum" ("money causes competition among rappers") and thus his own success, or failure.