Ramallah Underground, based in Ramallah, Palestine, was born from the immediacy of musical experimentation and the need to give voice to a generation of Palestinians and Arabs who face a turbulent and uncertain political landscape.
The collective was founded by artists Boikutt, Stormtrap, and Aswatt and has always held a commitment to both the honesty of their work and the need to creatively rejuvenate Arabic culture. To this end they combine music ranging from Arabic electronic music , hip-hop, trip hop to downtempo with a deep sense of their local culture and imposing presence of Palestine in their lives. The outcome is a new specific sound, which has never been heard before.
RU (as producers and as MC's ) has collaborated with numerous artists across the globe, including countries like Lebanon, UK, Switzerland, Italy, USA, France and many more, including a significant collaboration with Slovo (a band headed by the guitarist from faithless) in their track Nakba, which appears on their forthcoming album.
RU has also performed live shows in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Vienna, London, Cairo, Lausanne, Amsterdam and Washington DC. Their shows are mainly a performance of their hip-hop tracks, as well as a few of their own electronic productions as a warm up. More recently RU has incorporated a visual set in their live performances brought to you by Palestinian visual artist Ruanne. Ru hopes to give a voice to Palestinians and Arabs, bringing an alternative voice from the Arab world.
Their lyrics and music are an expression of anguish and defiance, ultimately remaining a defiant voice of the colonized against the colonizer. They continue to play a big role in the Arab Underground cultural scene while slowly gaining wide global and local popularity.
