On ‘Gnent L B2r’ Abyusif Sets Out to Make Egyptian Rap Great Again

After weeks of cryptic teasers, a single here and an animated trailer there, Egyptian rap heavyweight Abyusif has dropped his long-awaited new album, ‘Gnent L B2r’.

The album consists of ten tracks, seven of which are produced by Abyu himself, with two produced by Lil Baba. One of the tracks is produced by Muhammed El Alfy, who also mixed the album, while Marwan Samy took on mastering duties.

Sonically, ‘Gnent El B2r’ flirts with Abyu’s early SoundCloud era - the gritty, self-assured energy that helped define a golden age of Egyptian rap - while also expanding on the world he built with his last full-length album, ‘Nemshy Men Hena’. It’s part nostalgic, part forward-looking, and pure Abyu-core. This time around, he dives deeper into his psyche, with little regard for commercial polish, proving once again why he remains the genre’s unshakable godfather.

On ‘La Togad Eshara’, Abyusif’s dynamic flow and clever use of Egyptian pop-culture samples recall the chaotic brilliance of ‘Khanza2or’. ‘Replica’ feels like the love child of ‘Dueto’ (2018) and ‘Y.F.G.G.Y’ (2015), built around classic trap production and a looping sample that spotlights his rapid-fire delivery and sly scene disses. ‘AKI’, meanwhile, carries an off-the-cuff freestyle energy, pairing a laid-back flow with an old-school beat, while ‘FUF’ leans more towards rage rap, with a distorted vocal line in the first 30 seconds.

Then comes ‘S7aba’, where Abyu strips things back and lets his guard down. Blending his conscious hip-hop style with grungy rock textures, he explores intrusive thoughts and anxiety through the metaphor of a storm cloud shadowing him. The guitar solo around the 2:20 mark bleeds into the chorus, one of the album’s most emotionally charged moments.

As the local rap scene grows increasingly homogenised, ‘Gnent L B2r’ can be viewed as both a return and a reset point, a record that might just make Egyptian rap great again.