Habibi Funk


Habibi Funk Records is a reissue record label based in Berlin, Germany dedicated to music from the Arabic-speaking world. It was co-founded by Jannis Stürtz, who also works as a DJ using the name Habibi Funk.

History

Jannis Stürtz first became interested in the music of the region while visiting Casablanca, Morocco in 2002.
Habibi Funk's first release was al-Zman Saib, a 1970s reinterpretation of Free's "All Right Now" by a Moroccan group called Fadoul.
Habibi Funk has re-released an expansive collection of Arabic psychedelic funk, including albums by the Sudanese funk musician Kamal Keila and the jazz group The Scorpions and Saif Abu Bakr, as well as others such as Al Massrieen, Ahmed Malek, Raze de Soare, Mallek Mohamed, and Hamid El Shaeri.

Views

Jannis Stürtz has expressed awareness of the political aspects of the label's work, addressing "the context of post-colonialism" and avoiding orientalist "stereotypical visual language." Habibi Funk licenses the music it reissues directly from the artists or their families, who get a 50% cut of the profits.
In an interview with The Vinyl Factory, Stürtz commented: "If you’re a European or Western label and you’re dealing with non-European artists’ music, there’s obviously a special responsibility to make sure you don’t reproduce historic economic patterns of exploitation, which is the number one thing when it comes to the post-colonial aspect of what we are doing."