What more can I say? | Bint El Sultan (1977)

 

"There's never been a n--- this good for this long/ This hood, or this pop, this hot, or this strong"

No shade on the Carter Administration, but it's clear Shawn hadn't heard Ahmed Adaweya when he penned the couplet above. Ahmed is nothing if not THE most hood, THE most pop, THE hottest, and THE strongest Egyptian to ever record, and it doesn't get any more simultaneously hood, pop, hot, and strong than Cairo, Egypt. 

"Bint El Sultan," oh holy sweet baby Jesus in the manger, there are no words that can describe the totalizing slow-burn of an ab-so-fucking-lutely torqued motherfucker this massive all-time banger is. The first time I heard this track, it changed my life.

Are you sitting down? Good, because we've got a lot of ground to cover here.

First order of business: Discogs lists three cassette versions of Bint El Sultan: Egyptian and Moroccan reissues in 1987 and an Egyptian reissue in 1997. I have the 1997 "Good News" reissue. So where did I get that 1977 date for the initial release?

Two places. First, the El Dahih video details an attempted television advertisement in 1977 to promote the cassette and second, my Very Best Of CD, which sequences Ahmed's hits in chronological order. The CD positions "Bint El Sultan" right after "Italimouha Baka" (aka, "Taealamtuha Buqaa"), which sees its first release on Ahmed Adaweya 2 from 1974 or '75, and before 1981's "Ahom ... Ahom."

Just as compellingly, Ahmed is a great artist -- arguably the greatest Egyptian pop artist of the latter half of the twentieth century -- and the reason he is, is because he consistently moves forward, pushing the boundaries of shaabi deeper into innovative pop territory with every release. Sonically, Bint El Sultan is clearly a 1970s release, not something from Ahmed's late 80s output. In 1987, Ahmed would have had no reason to drop a by-then backwards-looking roots album like Bint El Sultan, no matter how unimpeachably God-tier it is.


Oh, and it is unquestionably God-tier. At only four tracks it is his most-focused release to date, with every track bringing something awe-inspiring to the table.


"El Sah El Dah Embo" lyricist Sayed Qashqoush returns here to pen the five-minute opener, "Oum Abdo Fin" or "Where Is Mother Abdo?" Hassan Abu El Seoud writes and arranges the music. sonically, it's a jam-packed but relatively quiet tour de force, the kind of track where after the first bracing listen, you can listen again to focus solely on the strings and wonder how the hell anyone even came up with what he's got them doing.

I've always found poet James Wright's line "I have wasted my life" to be comically over-the-top; but I have to admit to silently whispering it in my head, heart, and soul while listening to the title track of this phenomenal cassette album.

Written by Hassan Abo Etman (lyrics) and Hassan Abu El Seoud (music), the track has Ahmed seemingly on his hands and knees, pleading with what we can only imagine must be the most beautiful human being ever born, crying for her attention:

"Oh daughter of the Sultan,
Have mercy on the poor guy
The water is between your hands
and Adaweya is thirsty

On Abbas Bridge
You are walking
And people are looking at your sweetness
Like fruits and pineapple

Give me water more and more
Your water is so sweet like sugar ..." (Read the complete translated lyrics here.)

The interplay between Ahmed's sob-heavy vocals and the exquisitely swooning strings and horns is so insanely intense, I've never been able to sit through the track's nearly 13 minutes without being reduced to sobbing myself.

Side B opens with an absolutely stunning surprise, also from Hassans Abo Etman and Abu El Seoud: "The Count of Monte Christo," which from the sound of it, must be one of the most incredible revenge thrillers ever set to music. The album closes with one of Ahmed's greatest mawwal, "Sabah Al Sabah," or "Morning, Morning." The lyrics are folkloric, the music (again) is by Hassan Abu El Seoud.

This is Ahmed and his crew's greatest achievement to date.

Listen to Side A



(Listen to "Oum Abdo Fin")

(Listen to "Bint El Sultan")

Listen to Side B



(Listen to "Count of Monte Christo")

(Listen to "Sabah Al Sabah")


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