Reporting on selective voices of 'resistance': Secularism, class and 'Islamist' rap

Since the 2010–11 popular uprisings that swept the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), rap music has served commentators to channel stories of disenfranchisement and oppression among the region’s youth. Accounts that portray rappers as significant political actors, however, reproduce narratives of ‘resistance’ that focus on opposition to governance but overlook social inequalities. Further, the case studies of two Moroccan rappers illustrate that commentators value criticisms of social inequalities as long as they are not framed with a religious ethos. Terms such as Islamist rap serve to discredit dissent, proving that when it comes to reporting on Moroccan rap, journalists and academics disregard local expressions of grievance more related to class issues than to modes of governance. Through discourse analysis, open-ended interviews and ethnography (2011–15), this article argues for the urgency of listening to important voices of social and political dissent silenced due to a disregard for class biases.