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Habibi Funk is excited to announce the of Samh Almea'ad, a new 7Inch record by Libyan artist Cheb Bakr, hitting the shelves on December 6, 2024. Recorded in the early 2000s, Bakr's music fuses the pulse of Libyan pop with R&B and hip-hop influences, bringing the energy of Benghazi to the dance floors of New York in the early 2000s. Cheb Bakr's sound is a unique blend of styles that captures the essence of two worlds and includes production and vocals by Ahmed Ben Ali. Tracklist 1. Samh Almea'ad 2. Rjana Lamta Our journey with Cheb Bakr's music began when Yousef Alhoush, whose father Najib Alhoush led The Free Music from Libya, generously lent us boxes of cassettes to digitize. With the help of a journalist traveling from Tripoli to Cairo, we brought the tapes and a high-quality deck to Egypt. For three days in a hotel room on Zamalek island in Cairo, we sifted through nearly 100 tapes, finally landing on several from Cheb Bakr that dated back to the late 1990s and early 2000s. His albums stood out for their fresh, genre-defying sound-Bakr's vocals flowed effortlessly over R&B and hip-hop beats with touches of jungle and drum and bass percussion, creating a fusion that crossed cultural and musical boundaries. Returning to Berlin, we took a deeper dive into the digitized tapes, identifying bands, singers, and producers that excited us. In the process, we noticed familiar rap verses on a few of Bakr's tracks-verses by none other than Ahmed Ben Ali, who was about to an album with Habibi Funk. When we asked Ahmed about his connection with Bakr, he explained that they'd collaborated closely at Jamaica Studios in Benghazi, with Ahmed even producing some of Bakr's songs. Despite having lost touch for years, Ahmed helped us reconnect with Cheb Bakr through mutual friends. Their reunion took place in Bakr's living room, where we joined them on a video call to discuss Bakr's
