This past Saturday I went to see “An evening with Aesop Rock and Kimya Dawson” at the Melbourne Festival. I’m not a huge fan of either artist, but figured the pairing would at least have to be interesting. Although I ended up leaving before the end of the set, the good news is that the opening act was stellar: the duo of Syrian-American Omar Offendum and Iraqi-Canadian (Montrealer, no less) The Narcicyst.

There’s a huge wave of great Arab hip-hop coming out at the moment, and these two guys are definitely fantastic examples. Both strong lyricists with impressive flow, Omar’s acappella was particularly jaw-dropping. Check out these videos to get a taste, then go out and buy their records:

As a bonus, here’s another amazing artist in this space, Shadia Mansour (featuring M1 from Dead Prez):