{"id":31193,"date":"2014-02-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/31193\/five-hip-hop-artists-you-probably-didnt-know-played-in-beirut"},"modified":"2014-02-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T00:00:00","slug":"five-hip-hop-artists-you-probably-didnt-know-played-in-beirut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/31193\/five-hip-hop-artists-you-probably-didnt-know-played-in-beirut\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Hip Hop Artists You (Probably) Didn\u2019t Know Played in Beirut"},"content":{"rendered":"Alright here\u2019s the thing: I am a hip hop head. Love the genre, love the culture: so my credentials are very much in order. Much like being a metalhead in Beirut, being a hip hop head in Beirut is also difficult for a very similar reason: lack of visiting artists. There\u2019s always some vapid pop star or overhyped techno DJ stopping by now and again, but a genuine heavy metal show with a world-renowned band, or in the case I\u2019m making, a genuine hip hop show with a world-renowned non-crappy<\/i> MC are far and few between.

In the past couple of years we\u2019ve seen some huge hip hop shows every now and then. Snoop Dogg<\/a> was pretty damn good. But then we’ve had some stuff like Macklemore and Ryan Lewis<\/a>, Wiz Khalifa<\/a> and Tyga<\/a> \u2026 goddamn Tyga<\/i>. But in reality: lots of great, even legendary, rappers come here all the time; it\u2019s just that the hip hop community doesn\u2019t have the privilege to know about these shows or attend them. You see, big nightclubs have this habit of booking international rappers, some great some not, without the nationwide promotion that other visiting artists might get, because whether or not the rapper is there that night, the place is gonna be packed anyway, so their presence is just a bonus.

This means that a big chunk of the audience at these shows are most likely not really hip hop fans who may actually be into that particular artist, maybe even familiar with their discography, but instead just some of Beirut\u2019s affluent elite who will tell their friends the next day: \u201cMan, mberi7 kenit wel3ane! Bta3erfo la hayda el rapper, shou esmo, haydek el aswad, 3refto? Eh shifto bi $500, shi exclusive ya3ne, w ija ma3o el DJ taba3o, haydek, uh\u2026 shou bi3arrefne, mish mohem, bas kenna VIP section.\u201d

Think I\u2019m exaggerating? Here are just five hip hop artists who played Beirut semi-incognito, with the hip hop community uninvited.

1. De La Soul<\/big><\/big><\/b>