Ahmed Ben Ali

Ahmed Ben Ali was born in 1971 in Benghazi. He went to boarding to school in Canada for 8 years, and returned to Libya. For a couple of years he also worked in the UK. Music was never his main job but his “main hobby” as Ahmed says. He recorded about 40 tracks and released two more albums. He also started playing gigs in Libya with his own band. In 2008 a friend of his decided to set up a youtube account for him by starting with two uploaded tracks. The account remained untouched for 11 years. At some point two of the tracks started getting traction. “Subhana”, the infectious Libyan reggae tune, and “Damek Majeb”, the second track on the Habibi Funk release which is leaning more towards a clubby Arabic pop feel.

Ahmed Ben Ali works as a technical engineer and records music in his own home studio. He operates as his own sound technician and producer, recording the music hmself and writing the lyrics. A one man musical army. Contextualizing his own style Ben Ali pointed out that “The Libyan folkloric rhythm is very similar to the reggae rhythm. So if Libyan people listen to reggae it’s easy for them to relate because it sounds familiar. This is the main reason why reggae became so popular here. [...]We played the reggae Libyan style, it’s not the same as in Jamaica. We added our oriental notes to it and if you mix both it becomes something great.” With a bit of laughter he added: “And to me it’s still original reggae, it’s Libyan style, not some bullshit.”