| 7liwa | |
| Birth Name: | Ihab Ikbal |
| Alias: | 7liwa |
| Birth Date: | 19 January 1996 |
| Birth Place: | Casablanca |
| Genre: | Rap |
7liwa (Arabic: حليوة), real name Ihab Ikbal (Arabic: إيهاب إقبال; born January 19, 1996) is a Moroccan rapper. He is known since 2016.
7liwa was born in 1996 in Casablanca,[1] he began his musical career in 2012.
In 2013, he broadcast a first song Dahk tkada, then a second entitled Batal L3alam, a song which lasts around ten minutes without including choruses.
In 2014, he collaborated with Soolking for a sound called Bilal.[2] [3] He became known in 2016 thanks to the music video for the song NIK DT, followed by songs such as Adidas and Haribo. In 2017, he released 3 clips in 3 months including Mimi: this clip gets more than 9 million views on YouTube.[4] Also in 2017, the Pan African Music site ranked him among the 5 most notable Moroccan rappers.[5]
He becomes a figure on social networks. According to Jeune Afrique, 1.3 million people follow him on Instagram. He speaks in dialectal Arabic, or Darija, transcribed into the Latin alphabet, he also sometimes communicates in French or English.[6] “It’s very important,” he declares, “to create in your culture, in Darija, so that access to creation is first and foremost for people from the same country as you [7] He hits the headlines with conflicts.[8]
On September 21, 2018, the video of an interview posted online on the Kifache TV channel totaled nearly a million views on YouTube in 3 days.[9]
In 2019 7ilwa signed with Sony Music Middle East.[10] [11] In that same year 7ilwa gave a concert at Oukacha prison, the largest penitentiary establishment in Casablanca.[12] [13]
7liwa Ihab has a fast singing style. He was also noted for his scathing repartees on the one hand, and on the other hand, for his violent clips and his obscene remarks, which earned him an avalanche of criticism and attacks from certain Moroccan rappers.