Ah, rai!* I love it, but most of my Maghrebiyya music is Chaabi. It’s very similar!
*I don’t know if you know, but rai means something like “yeah!” Kinda like the Arabic wallah.
I think Rai is my absolute, can’t go wrong on a bad day, music. Cheb Khaled, Rachid Tayha, Cheb Mami, Faudel etc are mainstains in my music library. It’s just pure plain good! Abdel Kadir is one of those songs that my students love and automatically like to dance to.
I’ve heard that Rai also means “our voice” which can also be like “yallah” (granted, that’s what I heard years ago)
Oh!
Speaking of chaabi—— then you know Hakim?? :)