El General (rapper)

El General
El General
Birth name	Hameda Ben Amor
Born	7 October 1989 (age 35); Sfax, Tunisia
Genres	Rap
Occupation(s)	Rapper, singer-songwriter
Instrument	Vocals
Years active	2007–present

Hameda Ben Amor^[1]^[2] (Arabic: حمادة بن عمر; born 7 October 1989), better known by his stage name El General (الجنرال), is a Tunisian rap musician. His song "Rais Lebled", released in November 2010, has been described as the "anthem of the Jasmine Revolution".^[1]

Career

Ben Amor has been making mainly political rap songs since 2007. The songs were previously kept underground by the strict censorship of the autocratic regime of Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. On December 24, 2010, two days after his second famous protest song "Tunisia Our Country" was released on YouTube and Facebook and one week after the protests in Tunisia began, he was arrested by Tunisian police. Three days later, Ben Amor was released, after being forced to sign a statement to no longer make any political songs.^[1]

Ben Amor's “President of the Country,” a searing Arabic rap song, served as a soundtrack for the revolution. The week before Mohamed Bouazizi’s death, Hamada Ben Amor used a handheld camera to tape himself singing the song, a baseball cap pulled over his eyes. “Mr. President,” he exclaimed, “your people are dead!” Al Jazeera and various social media picked up the video. The secret police arrested Ben Amor, inflaming his followers, and hastening Ben Ali’s exit.^[3]

After the overthrow of Ben Ali, his songs enjoyed enormous popularity in Tunisia, particularly "Rais Lebled" which became known as the anthem of the revolution and gained him international recognition.^[1]