Rayya El Zein is an independent writer and researcher. She holds a PhD in Theatre and Performance from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York.

"El Zein's Filling the Head is a stunning account of the rich tapestry of voices that contribute to the thriving and vibrant Arabic rap music scenes in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan. Through a series of evocative interviews and immersive descriptions that demonstrate what music can do politically, El Zein breaks new boundaries into studies of the politics of cultural resistance in and about the region. By focusing on how lyrical and musical experimentation becomes political through listening senses and embodied feelings like yearning and disgust, readers come face to face with music, not as spectacular gestural politics, but as emancipatory practices that puncture accepted framings of cultural resistance in and about the region."—Hanan Toukan, author of The Politics of Art: Dissent and Cultural Diplomacy in Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan"A historically grounded and theoretically sophisticated book that is set to become the definitive work on Arabic rap and hip hop culture for years to come."—Tarek El-Ariss, author of Trials of Arab Modernity: Literary Affects and the New Political

• AcknowledgmentsNote on TransliterationIntro: Learning to Listen1. Revolting2. Istifzaz3. Listening4. YearningOutro: Politics in MotionAppendixNotesBibliographyIndex

Rayya El Zein is an independent writer and researcher. She holds a PhD in Theatre and Performance from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York.

"El Zein's Filling the Head is a stunning account of the rich tapestry of voices that contribute to the thriving and vibrant Arabic rap music scenes in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan. Through a series of evocative interviews and immersive descriptions that demonstrate what music can do politically, El Zein breaks new boundaries into studies of the politics of cultural resistance in and about the region. By focusing on how lyrical and musical experimentation becomes political through listening senses and embodied feelings like yearning and disgust, readers come face to face with music, not as spectacular gestural politics, but as emancipatory practices that puncture accepted framings of cultural resistance in and about the region."—Hanan Toukan, author of The Politics of Art: Dissent and Cultural Diplomacy in Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan"A historically grounded and theoretically sophisticated book that is set to become the definitive work on Arabic rap and hip hop culture for years to come."—Tarek El-Ariss, author of Trials of Arab Modernity: Literary Affects and the New Political

• AcknowledgmentsNote on TransliterationIntro: Learning to Listen1. Revolting2. Istifzaz3. Listening4. YearningOutro: Politics in MotionAppendixNotesBibliographyIndex