Original image of Fes by There Stands the Glass.
I’d forgotten about Cheb Mami. Much as Tuareg desert music and baile funk have been embraced by the world music community in recent years, Cheb Mami was a breakout star among inconstant European and North American listeners in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Moroccans are apparently less fickle. Songs by the man known as the Prince of Rai blasted from kiosks, taxis and sketchy back-alley cafés during my recent trip to the North African nation. Four of the five top markets for Cheb Mami on Spotify are in Morocco. The fifth is Cheb Mami’s native Algiers. An out-of-print 1989 compact disc that opens with "Derfik Confiance" was the first Cheb Mami recording I owned. Rather than once again making Karol G and Bad Bunny my outdoor soundtrack this summer, I intend to turn to Cheb Mami’s lo-fi North African electro-pop.