Filling the Head
Listening to Rap in Arabic
Will be published approx. on 5. November 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
978-1-0682047-7-7 (ISBN)
Description
Based on ethnographic research in Ramallah (Palestine), Amman (Jordan), and Beirut (Lebanon), Rayya El Zein explores making and listening to music as an active navigation of shifting geopolitical landscapes.
In Filling the Head: Listening to Rap in Arabic, ordinary motion and emotion are treated as political when spectacular political movements like protests, strikes, or revolutions feel far away, forced, or otherwise impossible. Threading reflections from fans, rappers, DJs, producers, and venue owners with thick descriptions of live concerts, El Zein offers new insights into what it means politically to be moved by music.
Filling the Head challenges existing narratives that equate rap with popular political resistance against oppressive regimes. Through an affective engagement with istifzaz-provocation or surprise- and the refrain shared by fans and performers that the music "filled their head" (Arabic: 'abba rasshom), this analysis attends to a music that is political in the relief it offers from cynicism, resignation, and disgust with contemporary politics and society.
El Zein explores the political promise in artists' refusal to confine their lyrical or musical experimentation to an ethos of resistance.
In Filling the Head: Listening to Rap in Arabic, ordinary motion and emotion are treated as political when spectacular political movements like protests, strikes, or revolutions feel far away, forced, or otherwise impossible. Threading reflections from fans, rappers, DJs, producers, and venue owners with thick descriptions of live concerts, El Zein offers new insights into what it means politically to be moved by music.
Filling the Head challenges existing narratives that equate rap with popular political resistance against oppressive regimes. Through an affective engagement with istifzaz-provocation or surprise- and the refrain shared by fans and performers that the music "filled their head" (Arabic: 'abba rasshom), this analysis attends to a music that is political in the relief it offers from cynicism, resignation, and disgust with contemporary politics and society.
El Zein explores the political promise in artists' refusal to confine their lyrical or musical experimentation to an ethos of resistance.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-0682047-7-7 (9781068204777)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Rayya El Zein is an independent writer and researcher. A Palestinian and Lebanese American mother and daughter, her recent writing explores return, yearning, and other frameworks of belonging and becoming. In Filling the Head (Indiana University Press, 2025; the87press, 2026), she listens to the experiences of rappers and their audiences in three Arab cities as they search for ways to engage the political beyond the framework of resistance. She holds a PhD in Theatre and Performance from the Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Content
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration
Intro: Learning to Listen
Chapter 1: Revolting
Chapter 2: Istifzaz
Chapter 3: Listening
Chapter 4: Yearning
Outro: Politics in Motion
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Note on Transliteration
Intro: Learning to Listen
Chapter 1: Revolting
Chapter 2: Istifzaz
Chapter 3: Listening
Chapter 4: Yearning
Outro: Politics in Motion
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index