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Gabor Kotschy/Marvel Studios 2022
May Calamawy as Layla El-Faouly and Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector/Steven Grant in Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight.

The lyrics are about a Ferrari speeding through the usually standstill traffic of Cairo’s megalopolis: “Strong, nobody but us / Strong, strong / Sweet, nobody but us / Sweet, sweet / Foot the gas on the highest gear / I’m the teacher and everybody’s at their desk / Unobstructed.” (The song appeared in an Egyptian advertisement for an app called Hala, which is like Uber but for motorcycles.)

Tarek Benchouia, a PhD candidate at Northwestern University who studies mahraganat, describes it as a complex, ever-changing form that has integrated aspects of rap and hip-hop, Jamaican dancehall, and local traditions. “It’s a very similar story to the story of hip- hop,” he told me. “Because that’s where hip-hop comes from, in the Bronx in the ’70s. It’s a deejaying culture that’s playing block parties. So it’s interesting how they have similar genealogies but they sound very different.”

During Egypt’s 2011 people-power revolution that ousted longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak, mahraganat became a sonic companion to the uprising — music that captured the angst and anger at the crippling economic circumstances that fomented the youth movement. Many in the international media mistakenly described it as music of the revolution because mahraganat’s popularity accelerated so rapidly after 2011. “[T]he insurrection had made many people more willing to listen to what was novel, full of youthful energy, and ‘street,’” anthropologist Ted Swedenburg notes.

Benchouia says the music’s undertones are of a piece with the revolution. “It’s nuanced in its critique of what it means to be poor and, usually, male in urban Egypt. A lot of the anger and frustration that boils over in the revolution is also being explained in mahraganat,” he told me.

But irreverence and self-effacement are key. “There’s a little bit of poking fun at the revolution at the same time,” said Benchouia, and some mahraganat songs played off of popular chants from the Tahrir Square protests. There’s a line in “Salka” that goes, “We made the music / we’re not copying it [from the West] / We don’t make it better than it is / Or make a big deal of it.” The anti-establishment rhythms of mahraganat spread on the sound systems of toktoks, microbuses, and eventually taxis, in urban centers and on the margins of Egyptian official culture.

In 2013, the military overthrew Egypt’s first democratically elected leader. Former Gen. Abdel- Fattah Al-Sisi now runs the country more brutally than Mubarak ever did. Amid a clampdown on political expression, mahraganat music has become even more popular. Hit songs are being DIY-recorded in rappers’ wardrobes and bedrooms. Tens of millions of plays on YouTube and Spotify hold out a challenge to the regime’s traditional, nationalistic music tastes.

Mahraganat’s founding artists have established themselves in and out of Egypt. In 2018, two key figures, Sadat and Alaa 50 Cent, collaborated with Cypress Hill in a song that blended the California group’s connection to weed culture with the Egyptian rappers’ passion for hashish.

Much of mahraganat music is not overtly political in the sense of it being about rising up against the regime or protesting policies, but it is deeply political in the grievances expressed about the economic and social conditions that hamper Egypt’s working classes. The lyrics are also introspective — verging from macho to campy — about masculinity and authenticity.

The gritty brand of rap captures the fraught politics of disenchantment, youth culture, and dissatisfaction with the lack of opportunity that sets the backdrop to the Marvel series. In Moon Knight’s Cairo scenes, the street sellers seem to be just getting by and youngsters appear to be out of work.

The credits of Moon Knight’s second episode feature the song “The Kings,” by Ahmed Saad along with two mahgaranat singers, 3enba and Yang Zuksh. It’s more of a rap hybrid, which is the direction the genre is headed. The chorus sums up the gangland vibes that are performatively flexed by the underground singers and shouting out their neighborhood, surrounded by their crew: “Bro / Papa / Here comes the gang / We live / Simply / You can make it if you want to / I don’t need anyone / I take care of myself.”

In the next episode, Oscar Isaac wakes up in Cairo.

What the censorship of Mahraganat — and its presence in Moon Knight — says about Egypt

The brash sensibility of mahraganat has long challenged the Egyptian Musicians Syndicate. The gatekeeping professional organization holds the power to grant the licenses needed for musicians to perform at concerts, nightclubs, and even restaurants in the country. The syndicate is backed by the Sisi government and, some say, has become a proxy for the culture war against Egypt’s young rappers.

In February 2020, the syndicate announced that licenses to perform would no longer be given to mahraganat artists, effectively banning it from live shows. “This type of music is based on promiscuous and immoral lyrics, which is completely prohibited, and as such, the door is closed on it. We want real art,” singer Hany Shaker, the syndicate’s head, said. A parliamentary spokesperson called mahraganat more dangerous than Covid-19.

“Most of the songs that Diab used in this show are from singers banned from singing in Egypt,” novelist and critic Ahmed Naji told me. “It created a lot of controversy and created a huge buzz.”

At least 19 musicians were denied licenses in 2021, including Shakosh. Saad, whose hit song “Kings” is in Moon Knight, was fined for defying the ban. In March, two other singers were convicted of “violating family values.”

But mahraganat artists work around the rules and post straight to Spotify or YouTube, onto algorithms that put them alongside Kendrick Lamar and Lil Wayne, or hold shows in Egypt’s unofficial venues. They play gigs around the Middle East, and are developing partnerships with American and European artists. “We are having investors coming directly to us. We are having Hollywood coming directly to us. We have Sony Music,” Rafat told me. “But it doesn’t link to the Egyptian scene. It doesn’t link to the Egyptian music economy.”

For Simon, author of a book on Egyptian sonic cultures called Media of the Masses, the fault lines are not just about free expression but about class. The censorship of mahraganat is about who in Egypt — with hierarchies enforced by the regime — is allowed to create art. “These ‘vulgar’ songs, what’s really the underlying thing is the fact that working-class Egyptians are creating Egyptian culture,” he told me. “Whereas from the perspective of local authorities, they’re supposed to be cultural consumers, not cultural producers.”

Censorship of art is a flashpoint in Egypt that Diab himself has grappled with as the space for expression in Egypt has contracted since the 2013 military takeover. Diab’s most recent film Clash is the claustrophobic story of conflicting political activists, Muslim Brotherhood protesters who demonstrated against Sisi, and secular critics, journalists, and others caught in the wrong place. They’re all locked together in the back of a large police van, as Cairo convulses with political carnage during the coup. The regime saw his depiction of the complexity of Egyptian politics as criticism. When it premiered in 2016, it was only in Egyptian theaters for a truncated run.

The mahraganat tracks in Moon Knight have brought to life scenes of contemporary Egypt at a particularly difficult time for Egyptians. The Sisi government has jailed tens of thousands of political prisoners. One of the most prominent voices of the 2011 revolution, activist and blogger Alaa Abd El-Fattah, is seven weeks into a hunger strike, in protest of the sordid conditions in his prison cell.

The series Moon Knight is violent in the way superhero comics are — superficially and sensationally. In Diab’s attempt to bring audiences into the real Egypt, however, he has also shined a light on the actual violence of everyday life in Egypt today, where producing underground rap can lead to fines or jail time, where free expression is all but outlawed.

Multiple elected officials pulled out of their planned appearances at the NRA convention last minute, following heavy criticism.

“While a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and an NRA member, I would not want my appearance today to bring any additional pain or grief to the families and all those suffering in Uvalde,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement posted on Twitter.

Gov. Abbott, who was scheduled to speak at the convention’s marquee “Leadership Forum,” opted instead to address attendees through a pre-recorded message. Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Dan Crenshaw — both Texas Republicans — also backed out of the NRA gathering citing scheduling conflicts.

Despite the controversy surrounding its gathering, NRA leadership and its supporters remained steadfast in their pro-gun stance, even as the public calls for stricter gun laws.

In his opening remarks, NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre acknowledged the “21 beautiful lives ruthlessly and indiscriminately extinguished by a criminal monster” while still arguing that “restricting the fundamental human rights of law-abiding Americans to defend themselves is not the answer.”

Trump mocked Republicans who pulled out of the NRA convention

Trump standing at the podium against a dark blue backdrop. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Trump took a swipe at GOP elected officials for canceling their appearances at the NRA convention in Houston.

This year’s four-day event — the first NRA convention since the annual gathering’s prior postponements due to the pandemic — featured a line-up of high-profile speakers from the Republican party railing against public calls for tougher gun laws.

Sen. Cruz, who is considered a potential contender for the GOP’s presidential ticket in 2024, dismissed enacting stronger gun policies such as universal background checks on gun purchases and banning assault rifles. Instead, Cruz blamed America’s gun violence epidemic on things like video games, declining church attendance, and social media.

“Tragedies like the event of this week are a mirror forcing us to ask hard questions, demanding that we see where our culture is failing,” Cruz said. “We must not react to evil and tragedy by abandoning the Constitution or infringing on the rights of our law-abiding citizens.”

Trump’s speech, meanwhile, was peppered with the typical jabs and gimmicks that colored his presidency. Firearms and other lethal weapons were banned from the general hall assembly during Trump’s speech, based on security protocols from the US Secret Service.

Trump began his speech by mocking Republican officials for pulling out of the event.

“Unlike some others, I didn’t disappoint you by not showing up today,” Trump told the crowd. He then read out the names of the Uvalde shooting victims — each followed by a gong sound.

During his speech, Trump reinforced the same talking points Sen. Cruz did, focusing on other societal ills like “broken families” and mental health as the primary problems facing Americans. Trump also called for toughening school security measures — falsely claiming that gun-free zones made schools less safe — and praised Texas law enforcement despite reports revealing local police’s questionable response to the Uvalde school shooting.

During his appearance, Trump invited Jack Wilson, a man who had stopped a shooting at a Texas church in 2019, to join him on stage. Wilson said he “didn’t kill — I took out evil” and praised Trump, saying “you’re still our president.”

The doubling-down on rhetoric about protecting the public’s right to bear arms by NRA leadership and its supporters, even as another group of schoolchildren is massacred by an assault weapon-wielding gunman, is part of a historical trend in the US response to mass shootings, as reported by Vox.

In 2020, a study in the Journal of Public Economics found that state-level responses following mass shootings heavily tilted toward loosening, not tightening, gun regulations.

As the authors wrote: “In states with Republican-controlled legislatures, a mass shooting roughly doubles the number of laws enacted that loosen gun restrictions in the year following the incident. We find no significant effect of mass shootings on laws enacted when there is a Democrat-controlled legislature.” The researchers also noted no significant effect on the number of tighter gun laws, meaning the country’s frequent mass shootings did little in the way of broadly spurring better gun control laws.

Controversy over the gathering is the latest to hit the NRA

A crowd of protesters gathered around an outdoor stage. Cecile Clocheret/AFP via Getty Images

Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke (pictured speaking) was among thousands of protesters outside the NRA convention venue in Houston, Texas.

The NRA has been one of the most influential lobbying groups in the US for decades. During the 1970s, the organization evolved from its original purpose as a gun safety advocacy group into a guns-first lobbying force. Since then, in order to maintain influence, the NRA has pushed legislation to slow down gun violence-related research and increase accessibility to gun ownership.

At the same time, the NRA has weathered increasing instability, brought on by factors both internal and external. A power struggle began to foment inside the organization in 2019 after then-NRA president Oliver North accused current CEO Wayne LaPierre of money embezzlement. Although the NRA continued to secure the support of conservative lawmakers in pushing its legislative agenda, internal discord fractured the group.

In spite of legislative wins, the NRA has experienced a massive loss of income in recent years. In 2018, The Daily Beast reported the NRA experienced a $55 million decline in income, based on its tax records from the year prior. The organization also recorded a decline of about 22 percent in membership dues that same year. More recently, between 2016 to 2020, the NRA’s revenue dropped 23 percent from roughly $367 million to $282 million, according to CBS News. Additionally, contributions from its members and private companies have slipped 15 percent during that same period.

Beyond its internal woes, the NRA has also faced litigation. In August 2020, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit to dissolve the organization completely based on alleged mishandling of the nonprofit group’s finances by its executives. A judge blocked New York’s lawsuit to disband the NRA but ruled to allow the AG’s complaint over alleged illegal financial activities by NRA leadership to continue.

Separate from the NRA’s battles to maintain its influence, public opinion among Americans has shifted to becoming friendlier toward gun control proposals. Although opinions around gun law reforms have fluctuated in recent years, overall polls show a growing number of Americans support tougher gun laws.

A survey by the Morning Consult and Politico, conducted last week after the Ulvade school shooting, showed 73 percent of survey- takers “strongly support” universal background checks.

I’m a gun owner, and a hunting guide, and a combat veteran. I also believe @NRA is one of the most irresponsible and destructive lobbies in America. This culture of make-believe special operators, supported by politicians, is insane. #GunOwnersForSafety

— Nate Fick (@ncfick) May 27, 2022

Additionally, 84 percent of respondents stated they would support “preventing sales of all firearms” to people flagged as “dangerous” to law enforcement by mental health providers.

The overwhelming public support for better gun control laws shouldn’t come as a surprise after decades of repeated mass shootings in the US. As this interactive data map by Vox shows, as of July 2020, over 2,600 more mass shootings have happened in the decade since the Sandy Hook school shooting.

Still, despite overwhelming public support for stricter gun control regulations, pro-gun lawmakers appear unmoved in shifting toward gun law reforms, likely due to the millions of dollars worth of campaign donations from the NRA. According to Brady, one of the country’s largest gun violence prevention groups, the NRA spent $3.2 million toward campaign contributions for pro-gun lawmakers in 2019 and $2.2 million in campaign donations in 2020.

Despite setbacks the group has endured, some believe the NRA’s biggest legacy will outlast the organization itself, and that will likely continue to prevent any meaningful progress on the country’s gun reforms.

“Ultimately, the NRA is a profoundly weaker and more divided organization than it once was,” wrote Frank Smyth, an investigative journalist and author of the 2020 book The NRA: The Unauthorized History, for Politico. “But its legacy, even if it fails to survive, will be the culture and ideology of gun rights it helped cultivate, and that is a potent thing for many conservative voters and the Republican politicians who chase them.”

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