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What is Rai?
First of all, for those who never heard of Rai, Rai rhymes with "eye" (just so you don't pronounce it incorrectly). It's a musical style that mainly originated from Algeria. Though, if you want to talk about the "real origin" (the roots, that is), then it goes back to Al-Andalus (which is Spain now). Rai is an Arabic word that generally means "opinion". Click here to listen to samples from Khaled's songs (and here to save the file to disk).

Before I go on, please note that this section has text that is collected from different sources, including other websites, CD covers, and people. The credit for this info goes to their respective sources/authors, though, the credit for collecting all this together goes to me, probably :)

Texts may have been directly copied from their respective sources, or with some modifications made by me.

Rai began in direct opposition to the classical Arab-Andalucian tradition that came particularly to dominate the music of Mediterranean North Africa after the expulsion of the Muslims from Spain in 1492. That tradition, at least 1000 years old, was founded in Cordoba, Spain, when that country was held by Moors and known by them as Al-Andalus. Its compositions (or nuba) are extremely long--often lasting more than six hours--and are most often performed in fragmentary form. The structure of a nuba is highly complex: each part uses one of five basic rhythms, which are heard in a prescribed order; each part is introduced by instrumental music, followed by a long series of songs that often deal with sex, alcohol, and other topics forbidden by Islam. Religious subjects are also absorbed in classical music, however: some of the songs express devotion to Mohammed and describe the human need for religious discipline and restraint. This classical music, known in eastern Algeria as maluf and in western Algeria as hawsi or andalous, was a highly formalized and courtly form, in which the common people of Algeria took little part.

"Rai", as mentioned earlier, literally translates as "opinion". Outside the courtly centers of Algeria, musicians borrowed classical poetry and set it to simple folk structures, playing metal drums and wooden flutes in the public squares and markets. Early in the twentieth century, women of the seaport town of Oran, driven by the poverty and oppression that marked the upheaval and instability of Algeria, began performing as singers in local clubs and gathering spots, developing rai into the earthier, more intense form that it remains today. These female rai singers--in particular the artist known as Cheikha Remitti--rejected classical poetry. Instead, they blended the French of the colonialists with the slang of the streets, performing in a highly sexualized manner, creating a popular, rich, and controversial form associated with tavern life, prostitution, and rebellion against Islamic social and religious codes.

In the mid-50's, when the Algerian uprising against French colonialism began to gather momentum, the female rai singers, whose long tradition of being socially outcast was now firmly established, embraced political as well as social and sexual rebellion. Rai thus became closely associated with the struggle of Algerian independence that in 1962 resulted in the withdrawal of the French and the beginning of nationhood.

Largely suppressed after independence, however, rai soon found itself again outcast by the mainstream. Nevertheless, the music flourished in small gatherings and seedy clubs, in Oran, its seaport town of origin, it was brought together with the international pop styles of the 60's and mingled with r&b and rock and roll imported from the U.S. and U.K. When trumpeter Bellemou Messaoud began pushing rai into a pop dance style, the rai beat began to rock, and rai artists began to use horns, accordions, and saxophones.

Those developments, highly controversial among the older generation of rai artists, paved the way of the rai superstardom of Cheb Khaled. It was in the 70's, with the sudden influx of cheap cassette tapes, that rai began the boom that would lead to its current international popularity. The titles "cheb" and "chaba"--meaning "charming" and "young"--were adopted by a new generation of rai artists. Khaled Brahim, a child performer from the Echmuhl District in Oran, became popular at weddings and circumcisions. Upon reaching maturity, he began to style himself Cheb Khaled. He made a multitude of powerful cassettes in the 80's in a pop-rai style that gained him the enthusiastic support of a large Algerian audience.

Khaled's first internationally released album went gold in France, where Khaled has remained a reliable sell-out attraction throughout the 90's. He also became immediately popular in India and is gaining ground in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world. Known since 1985 as the King of Rai, Khaled has blended the rebellious, controversial rai spirit of wine drinking and sexual license with powerful performances and polished recordings.

Now Cheb Khaled is one of the leading lights of this exciting Algerian musical form. In recent years, partly through the efforts of Cheb Khaled, rai has grown from its ancient roots in the street life of Algeria to become one of international pop's most beloved sounds.

So simply rai is that kind of music in which the singer explains his "rai" or opinion. The singer talks about whatever he or she wants, he/she just expresses his/her opinion, whether its about sex, alcohol, or whatever. Lots of rai songs talk about love, the lost love specifically, but that doesn't restrict rai to that. Again, rai is just "opinion", so you say whatever you want to say.

Rai singers nowadays call themselves "cheb" or "chebba" (which means young -- male/female). Pronounce that in French. In English it would sound "Shab" and "Shabba". These prefixes are more like Rap's MCs. Sorta.

"Before Rai there was poetry", says Khaled. "In Wahrani we didn't talk about chicks or drinking alcohol. To describe love, we talked about a dove. I say things directly. I drink alcohol, I love a woman; I'm suffering". It's quite interesting the way the singers describe their opinions.

Traditional rai had two styles; females meddahas who sang for other women at private gatherings, and the more ribald lyrics of the cheikhas (including Rimitti) who added more Bedouin rhythms and performed in cafes, bars, bordellos, accompanied by percussion and wailing "gasba" (rosewood flute). Oran's French colonial population in conjuction with its proximity to Morocoo and Spain, added further to the cultural cocktail.

The provocative nature of rai lyrics is nothing new; and is to be expected. Rai is the symbol of a lifestyle of cynicism and anti-authoritarianism. Even the lyrics of the 70+ year old Rimitti show this tendency:

"Oh my love, to gaze upon you is sin
It's you who makes me break my fast...
It's you who makes me 'eat' during Ramadan.", and,
"People adore God, I adore beer"
There are many, many Rai resources out there on the internet (I personally got about 40% of the text above from some of them), so I'm not going to write more about Rai, but if you feel like you want to read more about it, just go to any search engine and type "rai music" and you will surely get tons of results. Good luck. :)