Language and style of the contemporary poet El Rass: a peculiar artist in the Lebanese musical scenario

This research focuses on the linguistic analysis of texts taken from the production of the Lebanese rapper El Rass. After an excursus on the underground musical scenario in Lebanon, the work focuses on the language, themes and style of El Rass, the artist who gave birth to a new type of rap. His songs are characterized not only by rhyme, but also by a refined language, by cultural and social references and by a strong link with the Arab cultural tradition. The author favors Arabic, to the detriment of French or English, drawing on both the high register (Standard Arabic) and the low register (Lebanese Arabic) of the language. El Rass stands out, in style and language, from most of the Lebanese rappers and constitutes a particularly interesting case study.


Introduction
Although art manifests itself in various forms, it has found in oral productions a much appreciated channel of expression in the Arab world; a striking example of a literary genre spread initially through an oral tradition is represented by poetry, which has always played a fundamental role in Arabic literature and has been considered the greatest artistic expression. Although writing is a fundamental tool for 1 cal genre 6 , which has now reached the same popularity as elsewhere and has become so well established that it has achieved visibility and success also with the western public. Among the countries of the Mashreq area, Lebanon is certainly one of those in which the alternative music scene is most developed, varied and dynamic 7 .
In Beirut a vibrant underground music scene generates the most innovative sounds of electronics, punk and rap from all over the Arab world; rap in particular is a genre increasingly rooted in the Lebanese music scene. This musical genre has developed in Lebanon since the Nineties and is characterized above all by its heterogeneity, not only from a musical point of view but also from a linguistic point of view, in fact we can observe the phenomenon of trilingualism that characterizes the Lebanese rap musical production: Arabic, French and English, languages which in many cases also appear together in the same song. The exclusive use of English and French was widespread especially in the early development phase of rap in Lebanon. Subsequently, some artists began to rap in their native language and therefore gradually abandoned foreign languages. Currently, most Lebanese rappers have chosen Arabic (mostly in the dialectal variant) as the preferred language of expression in their songs.
The first to introduce alternative music to Lebanon were the members of the duo known as Soap Kills (in Arabic "Aṣ-Ṣābūn yəqtol"), Yasmine e Zeid Hamdan; the group formed in 1997 is considered among the pioneers of the Lebanese alternative music movement 8 . Soap Kills, quite well known both in Lebanon and in France, have now become the symbol of the Lebanese underground music scene, first of all for their eclecticism: in their tracks they combine electronic music and traditional Arabic melodies, adding elements of rock and a fusion of rhythms hip hop. Starting from this sonic eclecticism, the Soap Kills duo have launched a new musical wave in Lebanon towards the end of the nineties whose effects are still visible today. In  this innovative musical wave, hip hop music actually made its first appearance in Lebanon in the mid-eighties, thanks to Dj Lethal Skillz, the first Lebanese DJ, considered by experts of the genre "Dj Kool Herc 9 of the Lebanon" 10 . However, rap was successful for the first time in 1997, introduced by the pioneer of Lebanese rap, Wael Koudaih, stage name Rayess Bek, who founded the group in that year 'Aks əs-sēr ("Countercurrent"), one of the first Lebanese rap groups, in collaboration with Houssam Fathallah, alias Eben Foulen.
A fundamental event, which determined the evolution of Lebanese rap towards greater political awareness, was the outbreak of the war against Israel in July 2006: rap has become even more a tool for expressing social and political issues and spreading messages of protest. For these topics most of the rap production in Lebanon can be considered as belonging to the sub-genre of the so-called "conscious rap" that focuses on social issues (The Message released in 1982 by Grandmaster Flash was the first "conscious" song, in which the text dealt with the themes of poverty, violence and the problems of black youth).
The role of social criticism in Lebanon is therefore assumed by rap and no longer by the traditional nationalist song. Rap musicians and singers can be considered "alternative" to the mainstream commercial pop scene. Because of the political approach of Lebanese rap, this musical genre remains mostly underground and is the victim of censorship from society, politics, religion and the media; the major Lebanese media support very little rap music and instead prefer to promote local pop, a commercial music characterized mostly by light and banal themes.
The lack of access to institutional media channels and the censorship of the most delicate issues, considered taboo, constitute a major obstacle for the spread of rap music, which is however partially circumvented, as also happens in other Arab countries, through the use of Internet, with the publication of the songs on the various music platforms and on social networks. In addition to dissemination via the Internet, there are also some tricks used by Lebanese rappers to avoid censorship, such as self-censorship on certain topics or the use of French or English for more explicit or vulgar expressions, the employment of slang words, abbreviations, metaphors and morpho-semantic procedures not always easily decipherable (such as verlan 11 in the case of French). An example of the use of these procedures is represented by Ashekman, another rap duo among the best known in Lebanon, who, after being censored on stage during concerts and recalled by the police for their harsh and aggressive tone, began to resort to verlan and to use French and English for vulgar expressions; in fact, as one of the two members of the group declares: «les gens ont tendance à croire que les insultes passent plus facilement en français et en anglais qu'en arabe» 12 .
Beyond the message of protest, the Lebanese rappers have become professionals of sound manipulated through experimental techniques, such as the use of samples, through which the artists insert within the musical bases noises from the surrounding 9 DJ Kool Herc is considered one of the pioneers of the hip hop culture of the seventies. 10 GHANDOUR, Maya, Rap, graffs et smurf: histoire(s) du hip-hop beyrouthin, 12/04/17, https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1046361/rap-graffs-et-smurf-histoires-du-hip-hop-beyrouthin.html. 11 A particular form of slang language used in France, characterized by new words obtained mainly by syllabic inversion. The word "verlan" (veʀ'lɑ) is in code and means "à l'envers" (a lɑ›vɛʀ), that is, "on the contrary". 12 RACHED, Nayla, Min Beyrouth: Le Rap Libanais, 11/05/08, http://minbeyrouth.blogspot.it/2008/05/le-rap-libanais.html. environment (usually the noises are those characteristic of the urban environment) or noises taken from the war, popular motifs, parts of songs belonging to the Arabic musical tradition (especially those of Umm Kulthum and Fayrouz) or excerpts from political speeches.
An example of one of the most original musicians of the Lebanese alternative music scene is Jawad Nawfal, also known as Munma, who draws on oriental melodies and rhythms and mixes them with street noises and with radio excerpts, thus creating musical tracks totally innovative and producing an effective fusion of oriental and electronic music; these backing tracks are very often used by other rappers as bases for their songs, like El Rass in the album Kašf al-maḥǧūb, entirely made in collaboration with Munma.
The eclecticism of Lebanese rap can also be found in the variety of artists and rap groups that are very different from each other. In addition to those already mentioned, among the main Lebanese rappers it is worth mentioning: the group of Fareeq el Atrash, who, like others, have deliberately chosen to rap in Lebanese dialect to emphasize the concept of identity, express the feeling of national pride and keep alive the link with tradition; rapper Malikah (from Arabic malika "queen"), one of the most appreciated representatives of Arab female rap and whose songs have become international hits throughout the Arab world and beyond; rapper Mazen al Sayyed, better known as El Rass, a completely unique example, both for the content of his lyrics and for the language used, in fact he is one of the few Arab rappers to use Standard Arabic.
A separate case is represented by the rappers of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. In this case the criticism targets everyone: political leaders, humanitarian organizations, the Lebanese themselves, presumed brothers of the Palestinians. Among the best known groups, we remember the I-Voice and the Katibe 5, both from the refugee camp of Burj el Barajneh, on the outskirts of Beirut. The rap that develops in the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon first takes into consideration the aspects of the life of the inhabitants of the camps: the frustrations and the desire to let off steam to alleviate the suffering caused by the situation of injustice and oppression suffered. Young people from refugee camps find in this musical genre an expressive channel that allows them to express their living conditions, obviously without forgetting the Palestinian cause, which continues to be a recurring subject among these rappers 13 . However, the rap produced in refugee camps is not only a tool that allows singers to express anger and frustrations, on the contrary, through rap, these artists send out a message of hope and they try to convince the Palestinian people that ignorance is an evil that must be fought through education and information, in line with the didactic-pedagogical purpose of rap. Finally, an even more singular case is that of rap belonging to the so-called "homo-hop". It is a musical sub-genre, whose main exponents are artists from the LGBT community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community). NaR, the first Arab gay rap group, originally from Lebanon, is made up of two members: Mazen, born in Lebanon and moved to the United States as a political refugee at the age of five, fleeing the Israeli invasion and Tru Bloo, a girl of Syro-Lebanese origin who moved to Las Vegas. The name NaR, (in Arabic nār "fire"), reflects the "ardent" spirit that animates their texts, in fact the 13 Le hip-hop arabe, Last Night in Orient, 13/04/10, http://musique.arabe.over-blog.com/article-le-hip-hop-arabe-48538966.html. lyrics describe their deep passion for change and social revolution. The members of the NaR duo proclaim in their lyrics first of all their trust in humanity and in the liberation of all oppressed peoples. Although they are the pioneers of the "homo-hop" genre in the Arab world, their music is not only characterized as gay identity rap; alongside the theme of the elimination of homophobia in Arab society, their texts also touch upon political issues. Beyond the affirmation and vindication of a gay identity, their main commitment is to produce music that creates cultural and social bridges, through which to carry out a revolution that has as its sole purpose access to justice for a whole society 14 . The fact that the first gay rap group in the Arab world comes from Lebanon further confirms the heterogeneity of the rap genre in this country and gives an additional demonstration of how the Lebanese alternative music scene is among the most avant-garde in the whole Arab world.

El Rass: style of an original rapper
An entirely original exponent in the Lebanese panorama both for his career and for the contents and the language of his songs is Māzin as-Sayyid (born in 1984) from Tripoli, known as El Rass (from the Arabic ar-raʼs "the head"). The singer, after a life of studies and an early career as a banker, decides to follow his passion for writing and music and therefore to devote himself completely to rap. In 1999, at the age of fifteen, he began to compose rhyming poems using the Lebanese variety. The discovery of rap music takes place thanks to a teacher who gives him a music cassette containing songs by some French rappers of Arab origin.
Nowadays El Rass is one of the most popular and appreciated rappers of the Lebanese hip hop scene; El Rassʼs discography currently includes four albums: Kašf al-maḥǧūb "Unveiling the hidden", the debut album, released in 2012 and made for the independent Lebanese record label "Ruptured"; ʼĀdam, Darwin wa l-baṭrīq "Adam, Darwin and the penguin" in 2014; ʼIdārat at-tawaḥḥuš "Management of barbarism" in 2016 and finally Ar-riyāḍa wa l-ʾadab, "Sport and literature" in 2017. El Rass uses ancient and contemporary material, both for its melodies and for its lyrics, moving, on a thematic level, between the spiritual and the mundane. His texts focus on very heterogeneous themes: radical Islamists, Iran, Turkey, Arab regimes, the United States and the West, social injustices, corruption, unemployment, civil liberties and the Lebanese customs; in his tracks the author also expresses his vision of religion and his idea of revolution dissociated from any political ideology.
El Rass, arguing that there is a linguistic thread between the rhymes of Arab rappers and classical Arabic poetry, claims to call his music Taʽlīq (in Arabic "comment"), which connects to the root of the term Muʽallaqāt, the corpus of pre-Islamic poetry 15 . El Rass gives life to a very elaborate production in terms of form and con-14 Le homo-hop, le rap identitaire gay, Last Night in Orient, 22/08/10, http://musique.arabe.over-blog.com/article-homo-hop-55768725.html. From the research carried out on this and other sites and blogs dedicated to the Arab homo-hop genre, there are currently no other known rap artists who are openly homosexual in the Arab hip hop scene. Furthermore, from the existing music platforms it was not possible to find the songs of the NaR group, probably subjected to censorship. 15 Interview by Rima Marrouch with El Rass, Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2013, from which the article by LASAGNA, Paolo, Il banchiere diventato rapper poeta, 09/05/2014, http://nena-news.it/musica-il-banchiere-diventato-un-rapper-poeta. tent: his texts are constructed like poems, full of literary and historical references, rhymes, assonances and alliterations. The author uses certain tools and strategies to create linguistic deviations within the text, in order to arouse the listenerʼs attention by causing him a psychological effect; as Short 16 illustrates: «If a part of a text is deviant, it becomes especially noticeable, or perceptually prominent. We call this psychological effect foregrounding». The rap text therefore presents different ways of foregrounding: this term refers to the various techniques with which it is possible to cause a linguistic deviation; among them, one of the most immediate is the violation or breaking of a linguistic rule 17 .
The texts of El Rass present peculiarities that make it not always decipherable: linguistic deformations, metaphorical and elliptical language, cultural references, the highly connotative character of the terms.
The rhyme constitutes an essential element in the texts of El Rass, but also in general in rap, in fact several scholars examine the technical aspects of the lyrics such as metrics and versification. In the era of "old school" 18 , the typical pattern of the song consists of a series of couplets with a final rhyme; another technique used is that which covers keeping the same rhyme for more than one couplet. Over time, rappers also experiment with other rhyming techniques, such as the internal rhyme consisting of rhyming words within the same verse; in the songs of rappers we also find other kind of rhymes as the "trasformative rhymes" 19 composed of words that rhyme little with each other but transformed into rhymes through the alteration of pronunciation. In the lyrics of El Rass we often observe internal and final rhymes that alternate and form much more complex structures.
A not insignificant factor to highlight is the rapperʼs tendency, unlike other Lebanese artists, to refuse to use other languages, English or French, but uses only Arabic, both the high register, little used in general in rap, and the Lebanese variety, considering fuṣḥā and ʿāmmiyya tools at his disposal, which he can use when he deems it appropriate, depending on the state of mind in which he finds himself or the subject matter. The choice to use fuṣḥā is probably due to an attachment to the Arab cultural heritage, to the rhythmicity of this language and to the fact that classical Arabic has more precise terms than the dialect and allows the artist to express himself more effectively on many topics and to better communicate all the shades of meaning.
Thanks to his ability to make the most of every linguistic nuance, his original "flow" 20 and an excellent cultural background, El Rass has given birth to a real new school in terms of Arabic rap, in fact the rap of El Rass is very original and is distinguishable from that of the many other rappers who populate the Beirutian music scene. His elaborate language, full of puns, figures of speech and religious and cultural references make his rap completely accessible only to an audience of erudite Arabs 21 . 16 SHORT Flow: here this term indicates the rhyming sequence in rap music. 21 Among the very original rappers with a particular style, we can mention the Egyptian singer, of Algerian origin, Ahmed Mekky. He is a well known and popular figure in Egyptian rap and released many successful hits like

Analysis of texts: themes and language
The corpus examined consists of four lyrics: the first is Burkēn Bayrūt "The volcano of Beirut", taken from the album Kašf al-maḥǧūb (2012) and written in Lebanese dialect; the second, ‫رسالة‬ Risāla "Letter", is taken from the same album, but written in Standard Arabic; the third, with the double title ‫عشق‬ ʿIšq -Islamology "Love -Islamology", is also taken from the same album and is written in Standard Arabic; the fourth, entitled ʿĀṣfe bi-finžān "Storm in a cup", written in Lebanese Arabic, is taken from the 2014 album ʼĀdam, Darwin wa l-baṭrīq. The lyrics Burkēn Bayrūt and ʿĀṣfe bi-finžān, are united from a linguistic point of view by the use of the variety of Lebanese Arabic with all its phono-morpho-syntactic characteristics. Specifically, we observe the phenomenon of ʼimāla (for which the long vowel ā is realized ē), albeit not in a systematic way, the rendering of the morpheme ‫ة‬ with the vowel -i, not in a systematic way (we find also -e); regarding the diphthongs ay and aw we observe a tendency towards monophthongization (ē, ō), contrary to what happens in the Beirut variety where the diphthongs remain. The phoneme /q/ is realized in most cases as a occlusive laryngeal [ʔ] (in the transcription here it is rendered < ʼ >); about the interdental consonants in most cases the /ṯ/ is pronounced [t] or [s], while /ḏ/ is mostly rendered in [z] and, in some cases, in [d].
The male and female proximity demonstrative adjectives are rendered respectively hayda e haydi; sometimes there is also the use of the invariable demonstrative adjective ha. The negation of the nominal sentence is rendered by miš. As regards the syntax, the components of the period are often moved for reasons of rhyme and metrics or to emphasize concepts, in this way it is not always possible to find the sequence S.V.O. (Subject, Verb, Object) typical of Arabic dialects.
Furthermore, these two texts also present a similar theme, as both carry a message linked to the revolution, but proposed in a different way: in the first case the text is marked by a heated spirit of protest, expressed through a very impetuous tone; in the second case, however, the song takes the form of a story told in a calm tone, the idea of protesting in the streets is absent and the revolution is understood here in a figurative sense, as a continuous process of individual and social change.
In particular in Burkēn Bayrūt the author imagines a volcano at the base of Beirut, which metaphorically symbolizes everything that simmers within the city and the people; a socio-political situation in turmoil that can suddenly explode like a volcano. The song ʿĀṣfe bi-finžān, unlike the previous piece, presents a more narrative-descriptive style, taking the form of a real romantic tale, in which the author describes the scene of a woman sitting in a bar, who initially reads a book, then listens the music from her headphones while she lights a cigarette, at the end, comes out of the bar. The singer who speaks in the first person seems to fall in love with this mysterious girl at first sight. The apparently romantic aspect of the song actually hides a double meaning, in fact, even if everything in the song is part of reality, the frame, essentially, is a metaphor: as we can understand from the verses, the woman El Rass is talking about stands for the revolution 22 .
The other two songs, ‫رسالة‬ Risāla and ‫عشق‬ ʿIšq -Islamology, both in classical Arabic, in terms of content, are similar: they both describe the rapperʼs personal vision of religion and the way he relates to it. Analyzing the stylistic aspect, we observe that the rapperʼs flow is faster in the dialect songs, while it slows down slightly in the classical Arabic ones, characterized by a more marked pronunciation of the words, also due to the presence of theʾiʿrāb.
In the song ‫رسالة‬ Risāla, El Rass, using very poetic language, sends a message to his listeners in which he expresses his vision of God and religion and his relationship with the divine. El Rass has a mystical vision of religion, close to Sufism, based on the continuous search for God in daily life. The God of which the author speaks is "love for all": he shows goodness to all, without distinction of any kind, is against injustice and wants equality of women and men ("how wicked that God who desires women to be mute"), love for children and respect for every living thing. From the song therefore emerges a relationship of the author with religion completely centered on mystical research, that is, on the attempt to reveal what is hidden in the depths of the human being, as also confirmed by the title of the album of which the song belongs, Kašf al-maḥǧūb "Unveiling the hidden". This title is inspired by a Sufi text, as the rapper himself explains: The disc owes its name to a text by Ali Hajvery, a Sufi master who lived about nine centuries ago. According to Sufism, the veils represent the obstacles that stand between the individual and reality. Cultural stereotypes, the fear of the different, borders, are all obstacles that we should break down in order to aspire to a better future. We must destroy these barriers in order to meet each other correctly, in a loving way, in order to truly have a dialogue 23 .
The lyric ‫عشق‬ ʿIšq -Islamology expresses the way in which the author relates to Islam. The title in Arabic is ‫عشق‬ "love", but in many versions available on the web next to the title in Arabic we also find the English word "Islamology" which means what is precisely the authorʼs Islamology, that is his personal vision of Islam, which El Rass considers a religion founded on love; the rapperʼs relationship with religion is oriented towards the ethical aspect of religion. In particular, the rapper addresses a harsh criticism of religious leaders who have commodified religion, speculated on it and given importance to formal and superficial aspects, forgetting instead the true fundamental principles of Islamic doctrine, that is the original values of purity, love and equality.

Notes on the corpus
For convenience and to avoid repetition of the titles, I will report the examples taken from the lyrics, numbering the texts as follows: The entire texts can be viewed in the appendix and can be found on the following sites: https://www.genius.com, https://www.reverbnation.com, https://www.youtube.com/. https://www.soundcloud.com (the last two sites report only the audio version).
The examples taken from the lyrics in Lebanese Arabic will be reported in scientific transcription (as is typical of the methodology of Arabic dialectology), those taken from the texts in Standard Arabic will be reported in Arabic characters, as in the original version.
Regarding the texts in dialect, the etymologically long vowels in post-tonic open syllable are transcribed only when they are pronounced as such (according to a phonetic transcription), therefore the final vowels, which in classical Arabic are long, are rendered short, for example ana "I", ʽšaʽrāt-a "her hair", ʿammaru "they built".

Lexicon
In the texts in Lebanese Arabic the author uses a little researched lexicon and is closer to a colloquial and spoken language in everyday life. Some classicisms are found on a phonological level, for example in some cases the phoneme /q/ is realized as uvular to give solemnity to the terms, and on a morphological level, in which we notice the rendering mu-of the participle of the derived forms (for example muʿallaʼ "hanging" o muġlaʼ "impenetrable") and plurals with the morpheme āʾ (ʼārāʾ "opinioni").
In the song Burkēn Bayrūt we find a loan dīkūr from French "décor", in the lyric ʿĀṣfe bi-finžān we observe the Italianism kābūtšīnō "cappuccino".
In ‫رسالة‬ Risāla and ‫عشق‬ ʽIšq the lexicon becomes more refined and characterized by cultural and religious references, this is due to the solemnity of the themes; in these cases the author uses the high variety of the language. When the rapper deals with religious topics or his vision of faith, he often uses the Standard Arabic that is felt most suited to this theme, being the language of the Koran.

Figures of speech
In the texts, the author makes use of metaphors as in the text 1: 11. bwāžəḥ ət-tāž lett. "I face the crown", in which the crown metaphorically symbolizes power; 20. haydi miš ʿaṣmet saʼāfe haydi ḥalbet əl-muṣāraʿa "it is not the capital of culture, this is a battlefield", metaphor with which the author alludes to the religious and political clashes that characterize the city of Beirut; 23. raʼbet-o ṭawīli mət ə l mēlik əl-ḥazīn "Its neck is as long as that of a heron", in reference to the ruling class that with its "long neck" better reaches the "prey", that is, the weaker social classes; 47. warʼit ət-tūt lett. "mulberry leaf", metaphor in this case of "modesty" or "candor" as opposed to the previous word əd-daʽāra "debauchery". We find similes: text 4: 13. law bətšūf əl-hawa kīf maʿ šaʿrāt-a ʿam yətʿāmal / 14. mətl əmm ḥāḍne ṭəfl-a ʿam tərʼos "if you saw the air as she braids her hair!" / "like a nurse cradling her baby". In the text 3 the author uses the synecdoche: 5. ‫للكونين‬ ‫باب‬ ‫أجزائك‬ ‫الباب‬ ‫تلتهم‬ ‫نيرانهما‬ "your body is the gate of the two worlds, which is destroyed by their fires", in this case the expression ‫أجزائك‬ "your parts" is used to mean "your body". The syntactic rhetorical figure of the anaphora is often used, such as in the text 2, in which the author repeats at the beginning of the verses 16, 17, 18, 19. the verb form ‫ليس‬ laysa "it is not". Finally, the rapper also uses the morphological rhetorical figure of alliteration, repeating the same phonemes in subsequent words, as in the text 1: 3. Bayrūt sabbatet ḥabbet əṯ-ṯawra lli fī-na nabbatet "Beirut consolidated the seeds of the revolution that had germinated within us"; 15.ʿammaru dammaru zammaru tzammaru "They built, they destroyed, they honked their horns, they complained"; 17.ʿaʼl-on ḫarrabu ġarrabu harrabu "they have ruined, they have made strange, they have let their minds escape". In the text 4: 24. ṣār Salīm ysarser, bas tarkīz-i ma byətbaʿser "Salim started to chat, but my concentration has not dispersed".

Figurative expressions
The author often uses a figurative language both in Standard Arabic and in Lebanese Arabic. Text 1: 10. iza waʼaf ə t taksīr btəṣīr žəzʾ mən əd-dīkūr "If you stop breaking you become an ornament" (lit." if you stop breaking you become a part of the decoration"), here the author means that whoever does not make noise, does not create some difficulties in a critical sense, becomes useless and inert.
In the text 2: 14, 15. ‫النساء‬ ‫بكم‬ ‫يشتهي‬ ‫حاقد‬ ‫رب‬ ‫بئس‬ / ‫السماء‬ ‫ليحرق‬ ‫بالوقود‬ ‫الشيطان‬ ‫يزود‬ "How wicked that hateful God who desires women to be mute / who supplies the devil with fuel to set the sky on fire", the latter expression here has the sense of creating havoc or doing evil deeds; 37. ‫مقفرات‬ ‫البوادي‬ ‫تظنن‬ ‫ال‬ "Do not think that al-Bawādī is a desert area", in the sense that appearances should not be believed. The author in this case probably refers to one of the areas forming part of the so-called "Dubailand" of the Emirate of Dubai, consisting of a complex of entertainment facilities (amusement parks, hotels, commercial and residential buildings) built starting from 2006 on the basis of a project for the development of that previously deserted area; 34. ‫الزجاجة‬ ‫عنق‬ ‫في‬ ‫الفكر‬ ‫خبرنا‬ ‫قد‬ ‫صديقي‬ ‫يا‬ lit.: "My friend, we have been so adept in the art of thinking in the neck of a bottle", in common and also political language, this last expression ‫الزجاجة(‬ ‫عنق‬ ‫في‬ ) is used to indicate an impasse, a difficult situation, an obstacle to overcome.
Text 3: 1. ‫الزمان‬ ‫لقتل‬ ‫نسعى‬ "letʼs try to kill time", this expression means "to pass the time"; this idiom also has equivalents in many European languages; ‫بكماء.9‬ ‫كنائسنا‬ ‫أجراس‬ ‫صماء‬ ‫مساجدنا‬ ‫أذان‬ ‫و‬ "The bells of our churches are silent and the call to prayer of our mosques is deaf", figurative expression used to mean that religious sentiment has disappeared and there is no dialogue between religions. Text 4: 10. sakkaret ʿyūn-a ʿallet əṣ-ṣōt bi-səmmāʿāt-a w šardet "She closed her eyes, turned up the volume on the headphones and ran away": the verb šarad, yəšrad "flee", "wander," is used figuratively to say that the girl the author talks about has put on headphones to listen to music and is escaped from reality, in fact in the following verses she is still physically present in the bar.

Puns
There are puns based on homophony. Text 1: 6. ʿa-dam damār-na w ʿadam ḥərriyit ḫayār-na "On the blood of our destruction and in the absence of freedom of choice", in which the author plays on the homophony of ʿa-dam "on the blood" e ʿadam "absence". Always in the text 1: 30. kēn əl-ḥārīrī ma ṭār w ma ṣār maṭār əl-ḥarīrī "Al-Hariri would not fly away and it would not become Al-Hariri airport": here is another pun based on the homophony of ma ṭār "he would not fly away" e maṭār "airport".
Even in the text 4 there is a case of homophony between bariʾa "innocent" and barīʼ-a "their glow": 26. naẓarāt-i miš bariʾa, barīʼ-a taffah əd-dahab "my looks are not innocent, their glare makes the gold look disfigured". Finally, always in the text 4 at the verse 21. iža Salīm 24 ʼāṭaʿ-ni ʼāl "marīḍ", ḫəyy mʿāfa "Salim arrived, he interrupted me and said ῾(Iʼm) sickʼ, brother, you are cured" we find a pun based on the double meaning of Salīm, which in addition to being a masculine proper name, is also an adjective and means "healthy": the combination of the name Salīm "healthy" with the adjective marīḍ "sick" creates the effect of an ironic contradiction.

References of a cultural, religious, historical nature
Text 1: 30. kēn al-Ḥārīrī ma ṭār w ma ṣār maṭār əl-ḥarīrī "Al-Hariri would not fly away and it would not become an airport"; here the rapper refers to former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri killed in a car bomb attack in February 2005. Following his death, Beirut airport was renamed "Rafiq al-Hariri International Airport", in memory of the former prime minister. The killing of Rafiq al-Hariri is also remembered as the event triggering the subsequent "cedar revolution": a series of protests against the military presence of Syria, held responsible for the attack.
In the text 4. 52. ‫قطيش‬ ‫نديم‬ ‫قالها‬ ‫عداء،‬ ‫تصير‬ ‫والشورى‬ "Consultation becomes hostility said Nadim Koteich", the author refers to a sentence uttered by Nadim Koteich, a Lebanese journalist and political analyst. Through his "DNA" program, which consists of an analysis of satirical news, Nadim Koteich criticizes and comments on the latest political events in Lebanon and the Middle East region in a biting and satirical way. 24 Salim is a man who comes in to beg in the bar where the singer is sitting.
Text 3: 2. ‫الفرقان‬ ‫البيان‬ al-Bayān, al-Furqān two of the names of the Koran (lit.: furqān "separation (of the true from the false)"and bayān "statement","proclaims"); 7. ‫اإلحساس‬ ‫في‬ ‫مناصك‬ ‫الكبر‬ ‫و‬ ‫الناس‬ ‫بين‬ ‫الصغرى‬ ‫غربتك‬ "your minor exile is among the people, your pride is the refuge in the senses", the term ġurba literally means the state of exile, the separation of feeling like a stranger, but also the sense of loneliness, of estrangement from own homeland; 9. ‫أذان‬ "ʼaḏān" is the Islamic call to prayer; 22. ‫الجبروت‬ ‫و‬ ‫جبريل‬ Ğibrīl is the name of the archangel Gabriel and the term al-Ğabarūt signifies the omnipotence of God; ʿālam al-Ğabarūt in Islamic cosmology it is a high level in the sphere of divine presences, where the most chosen angels are found.
We observe several references to the Sufi language such as in text 2: 25. ‫إدراكه‬ ‫ببقائي‬ ‫مراده‬ ‫و‬ ‫بفنائي‬ "His perception with my death, his will with my existence", 40. ‫الحدود‬ ‫اشواك‬ ‫نحو‬ ، ‫نفسي‬ ‫نحو‬ ‫فاستبقني‬ "Anticipate me towards my soul, towards the barbed wire of the borders", 41. ‫القيود‬ ‫و‬ ‫جلدي‬ ‫بين‬ ‫كأسي..‬ ‫خلف‬ ‫نتالقى‬ "We meet behind my glass, between my skin and the chains"; in text 3, the term used in the title ‫عشق‬ is proper to the Sufis to indicate love for God, and always in the text we find the concept of self-annihilation in order to unite with God 23. ‫دم‬ ِ ‫الق‬ ‫المحدث‬ ‫أنت‬ ‫و‬ ‫عدمي‬ ‫في‬ ‫الموجود‬ ‫أنا‬ "I exist in my annihilation and you are the renewed past".
Text 4: 30.ʿAštarūt w Adūnīs "Astarte and Adonis": two Phoenician deities whose cult was practiced in the current Syro-Lebanese area; Astarte was the goddess of fecundity and fertility, married to Adonis, the patron god of vegetation. Here the author compares him and the woman he talks about to the two married gods; 31. inšāllah li-l-infižār əl-žēyy ma nṣīr Nizār w Balqīs "we hope that the next explosion we do not become Nizar and Balqis": the author refers to the Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani and his second wife Balqis al-Rawi, who died in an explosion in Beirut in 1981. The author then makes a comparison between Nizar and Balqis and him and the woman, symbol of the revolution, hoping that the woman/revolution will not end in tragedy; 58. yəḥrəʼ kutub-i ka-l-Muġūl "it burn my writings like the Mongols": historical reference to the invasion of Baghdad by the Mongols (1258), who, shooting fire arrows, destroyed the so-called Bayt al-Ḥikma "The House of Wisdom", one of the largest libraries, as well as the first and one of the most important cultural institutions in the Arab-Islamic world.

Conclusion
As Simpson states 25 , not only poetic or literary texts can be subject to stylistic analysis, but also those that are not included in certain canons, such as the song, which represents a historical document and must be studied, such as literature or cinema, because, like other productions of humanity, it tells about society 26 . The musical genre of rap based on orality and often compared to poetry, constitutes an interesting field of investigation not only at a sociological but also at a linguistic level.
For the stylistic and linguistic peculiarities, in the Arab world and beyond, songs by the Lebanese singer El Rass have aroused particular echo. His lyrics are loaded with political and social content: the rapper carries out a careful analysis of the society that surrounds him, without closing himself off in a pre-established ideology. Through his songs he invites the Arabs to develop critical thinking freeing themselves from the bridle represented by political, social and religious conditioning. The songs of El Rass through the strength of his language have become famous not only in Lebanon but in several other Arab countries: their message goes beyond any localism to spread throughout the Arab world and in all societies that, like the Lebanese one, need a change.
Unlike most of the Arab rappers who use the dialect for their songs, in fact colloquial Arabic is perceived as a preferential tool to get messages and to represent their identity, this author often chooses not to resort to the variety of Lebanese Arabic, but to Standard Arabic.
Many of his lyrics can be considered poetic texts in which the author uses, especially in classical Arabic, a very elaborate language, characterized by numerous rhetorical figures, puns, singular figurative expressions created by the author and frequent references to political and social contexts. Therefore his texts, sometimes characterized by a sophisticated language and full of cultural references, involve difficulties of understanding, all the more for a non-Arab listener. For the marked connotative language, who listen to the lyrics or who have to carry out a translation activity, must have linguistic and extra-linguistic information to interpret the text and to understand what is implicit and what is omitted.
Another interesting aspect of this authorʼs texts are the continuous religious references and sometimes the quotations of expressions taken directly from the Koran. While Koranic intertextuality is customary in literature, the inclusion of Koranic quotations in rap, considered by many to be a subversive musical genre and imported from the American context, it is an original trait and an attitude not so widespread among Arab rappers. The author draws mainly on Sufism, through the language and images taken from Islamic mysticism.
Arabic rap generally reflects the linguistic characteristics of the countries in which it is produced and in some cases is marked by the interference of Western languages and by the phenomena of bilingualism and trilingualism. Unlike the lyrics of other Lebanese rappers, in the corpus analyzed the phenomenon of transglossia is not found, in fact there is no switching from Arabic to French or vice versa, as El Rass only uses the Arabic language in his songs.
We can argue that this artist gives birth to a new school of Arab hip hop, in fact his music is not for the masses, but for an audience of learned Arabs; the hip hop created by El Rass appeals to thinkers, young revolutionaries, experts in the musical genre and constitutes a special case of rap music in the Arab world.
Regarding the lyrics written in Lebanese Arabic, since the various Arabic dialects have no formal recognition and are affected by a lack of spelling and writing conventions, each author invents a graphematic rendering. Beirut suppressed the seed of the revolution, the one that sprouted 4. When our spirits were foiled from immobility 5. In us Beirut moved. 6. On the blood of our destruction, and the negation of our freedom of choice 7. The houses of Beirut are rebuilt 8. We got drunk on the dryness of our tears, our eyelids closed on them and fermented 9. If you stop flying your destiny on land is distress 10. If you stop breaking, you become part of the decoration 11. I discuss, I maneuver, ultimately I confront the crown 12. I perform ablutions, I pray, I receive the moaning of the needy 13. The meditation of knowledge strips work from hope 14. My choice is on low fire, melting the nails, and clean thoughts are ripening. 15. They built, they destroyed, they honked, they complained 16. Your god made him patient, tested him and trained him 17. Their minds: ruined, westernized, chased off 18. They accepted art pissed on back alleys 19. As long as there is no doubt in the streets 20. This is no capital of culture, it's a wrestling ring 21. Beirut can't speak of itself in the past nor conjugate itself in the present. 22. Transitions and transformations made the closed mind think he owns the city 23. His neck is long like a stork and his hand is as long as that of a minister 24. He thinks himself the first who discovered this peninsula 25. He lets the poor rent apartments at prices studied 26. To crush ambitions 27. They stole the land from my cousins and the war became a backward-looking investment 28