Rama Releases 'INLAYS' Mash-Up Compilation Full of Surprises

In recent years, Rama has worn many hats when it comes to music. Known primarily as a DJ and Noods Radio resident, where she aptly describes her music as a “battle between hip hop, club music and ambient.” In her radio show, she presents a wide range of sets while often curating guest DJs from the region to play alongside her, including Assyouti, ZULI, Onsy and more to present tracks that pull from the left-field electronic music spectrum. Rama plays through the language of grime, experimental, hip hop, jungle, drill and hardcore among other styles of dance music and sound design.

In 2020, Rama co-founded IRSH a Cairo-based collective with ZULI, which has become a dynamic approach to archiving, whilst also creating space for a different kind of listening session. In the time since has added another role to her work in music - a budding remixer as heard in her recent compilation release titled, ‘INLAYS.’

INLAYS is a series of mashups that she described as “mostly inspired by blends from old mixes and reworked in the studio,” and mastered by ZULI.

The EP opens up with ‘Rama’s Feel Great Mashup,’ where she deconstructs, ’How You Feel,’ by DJ Scheme and Danny Towers featuring Lil Yachty and Ski Mask The Slump God and sutures it together with Ziyiz’s track ‘Elasticat.’

Seamlessly moving into drill with BackRoad Gee’s ‘Party Popper’, Rama maintains the essence of the track's ear-worming hook and delivery as the eerie beat blends with Walton’s amorphous percussive storm in, ‘Rewind Riddim.’

Other highlights include her mix titled, ‘34 Flavours Mashup’ where she intricately sews together ABADIR’s, ‘Another One’, off his album ‘Mutate’, released this past July. Driven by a blending of Maqsoum rhythms and Amen breaks, ABADIR’s track seamlessly entangles with Granul’s, ‘Cypher’ and ‘Ice Cream’ by Freddie Gribbs, featuring legendary rapper, Rick Ross.

The thread that ties together all these tracks is the bass and Rama’s keen ability to suture together disparate elements in each track’s sound design. With a focus on the low-end, sub-bass textures, Rama manages to put together a body of mashups and free-flowing mixes that can rattle most dance floors. Listen in full below: