MC Rai

MC Rai was born in the southern Tunisian city of Gabes. As a youth, he was immersed in the folk music traditions of Chaabi, or Mizoued as it is known in Tunisia. He began performing at an early age, and when only eight years old, he began performing live on the local radio station. In 1995, he began to turn his attention from Chaabi to Rai music, and realized that he could develop a style of Rai distinct from that of Algeria and infuse it with the traits of his native Tunisian music. Over the course of his career, MC Rai has garnered considerable attention in Tunisia as a result of successful, regular performances on radio and television. Currently he is considered a contemporary of a new generation of Rai singers, such as Faudel, Sawt el Atlas, and Abdu. While many of his contemporaries move to France to attract a European audience, MC Rai chose instead to move to San Francisco, to explore the possibility of bringing Rai music to the United States. MC Rai arrived in San Francisco in August of 2000, and has since then gained much attention performing at different clubs and events throughout the Bay Area. He has performed with well-known rai musician Khaled, Cheb I Sabbah, and shared the stage with artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez and Michael Franti. In 2004 MC Rai began recording his debut album, Raivolution. The name of the album amply describes MC Rai’s intentions for Raivolution. Rai, in arabic means opinion, as well as being a form of North African music. Thus, Raivolution is both the revolution of Rai music and a revolutionary opinion or outlook on Rai music. Always ambitious, MC Rai decided that his first album should be a complete modernization of the Rai musical form, combining cutting edge production, rock guitar, hip hop beats and drum and bass.