The SLAM Years

If you were to ask Habibi Funk for a defining label track, there are a few that come to mind: from Fadoul's "Sid Redad," Dalton's "Soul Brother" to Ahmed Malek's "Omar Gatlato." However, none are as widely connected with them at this point as Hamid Al Shaeri's "Ayonha." The label heard the track for the first time when they were working on selecting tracks for their first compilation and they instantly loved it. They obviously had heard of El Shaeri's music before, but only material from his Al Jeel phase when he was already the full-blown superstar he is now. Listening to his releases from the early 1980's opened a whole new door for the label. At the time, Hamid had just left Libya to pursue his career in Egypt via a detour in London, where he recorded his first album.