Hakim

Hakim reigns as the leading figure in jeel, the youthful extension of Egyptian sha'bi street-pop, with domestic sales surpassing six million units and recognition as the first young Egyptian vocalist to secure any international foothold. Born during 1962 in Maghagha village, he started performing at school gatherings and soon developed a lasting devotion to music. By fourteen he formed a band that interpreted classics from veteran sha'bi artists while introducing guitar, keyboards, and other updated instruments across performances throughout the Minya region.

In the early 1980s he shifted to Cairo, enrolling in communications at Al Azhar University instead of pursuing music professionally. As he put it, "it was normal to go on and study, my family expected that. I studied communications so I could be close to music, working with radio and things like that. At that time I couldn't study music." After finishing his studies he returned to Minya and kept performing with the band until 1990, when he moved back to Cairo specifically to launch a singing career.

Alongside his bandmates he created Al Nazra, one of the first sha'bi cassettes to incorporate synthesizer, guitar, and Western dance rhythms. Hand-delivering copies to every Cairo DJ prompted immediate rotation, which exhausted the initial pressing inside two months and produced a surge of bookings for parties and concerts. Two further cassettes followed with stronger sales, preserving deep ties to sha'bi’s working-class roots while advancing a more contemporary sound.

In 1998 he placed his standing at risk by commissioning British world/dance fusionists Transglobal Underground to remix several tracks for the release Hakim Remix. Although the project posted the weakest Egyptian numbers of his catalog, it registered notable European interest; he considered the move indispensable, observing, " I had to do it, so I could start experimenting with other things. I thought the sounds could bring in people from elsewhere." The succeeding album, 1999’s Hayel, restored a traditional emphasis and restored his Egyptian audience, while Yaho, issued in 2000, exceeded the million mark at home.

Its U.S. counterpart on Mondo Melodia differed by adding two fresh recordings and four Transglobal remixes to selected album tracks, shaping the package more as a compilation than a unified set. Hakim visited the U.S. on tour during spring 2000, after which Mondo Melodia disclosed plans to issue the Live in Brooklyn album that autumn.