FELUKAH

“Carving this path for yourself that looks like so many different things—the unifying thing is you. It took me so long to learn that. All the different sounds, cultures and languages that I use, the thoughts and genres—there’s something that unites it, and that’s me.”

With tracks flowing seamlessly between Arabic and English, Egyptian rapper Felukah has made a splash in the hip-hop world, already earning cover on the Arab X Spotify playlist and an international following. At XP Music Futures, she lit up Abu Recordings’ XP Nite performance with Saint Levant and Bayou. In addition, she sat down with fellow artists, promoters, and executives during the XP Day panel Creative Entrepreneurship Within the Music Industry (ةسلج ةيبرعلا ةغللاب) to discuss how aspiring artists and music professionals in the Arabic-speaking world can launch their careers.

Felukah finds it “hard to consider [her] self a business.” Instead, she recognizes the importance of community and family in sustaining her career: “Truly, the people around me are what carries me…I love sharing with them the moments I go through in my life, the experiences and feelings I had when I was writing a song.” Based in New York since 2017, she released her 2020 album Dream 23 on Abu Recordings, an indie “family-style label made by artists, for artists.”

The 24-year-old comes to music through literature and poetry. She draws inspiration from Haruki Murakami, Nayyirah Waheed, and Ocean Vuong as much as from the traditional felucca boats that give rise to her stage name. Describing her sound as “genre-less,” she encourages unconventional approaches: “Carving this path for yourself that looks like so many different things—the unifying thing is you. It took me so long to learn that. All the different sounds, cultures and languages that I use, the thoughts and genres—there’s something that unites it, and that’s me.”

Having faced her share of online criticism and trolling, Felukah aims to prove them wrong, using critique to “fuel the fire”: “I want to change the image that people have about the Arab, Egyptian woman—to show that she is capable and strong.” She sees this as a task for everyone. “The more we tap in and let women speak up— literally on panels, but also metaphorically in the conversation of the universe, I think that’s when we can really evolve as a culture.” To her, XP Music Futures is a beautiful place to do that: “A lot of my women friends in the industry are here, which is really cool.”