DJ Haram‘s debut album, Beside Myself, is an eclectic examination of identity where experimental electronica, acoustic Middle Eastern music, and hip hop swirl together.
Release date: July 18, 2025 | Hyperdub | Instagram | Bandcamp | Soundcloud
{Note: this article has been amended to clarify the artist’s intent and correct a misquoted lyric.)
To be an artist or a public figure of any sort, one must reckon with identity. The first step is to know yourself, your goals, your preferences, your annoyances, etc. Fully realizing oneself in a world that rewards conformity can also become an act of rebellion, a goal of many subcultures. The other side of reckoning with identity is the ongoing process of dealing with how you are perceived. The opinions, praises, judgements, and expectations of others can be powerful motivators and influences. Then you run the risk of betraying yourself to cater to those outside influences or risk losing public opinion by being yourself. Subcultures provide a peer support group, in a way, but there are many folks who are non-conformist while also not fitting neatly into any subculture. The artists, experimentalists, outsiders, and lone wolves of the world seem to be growing in numbers, proudly defying categorization and finding their own networks of like-minded thinkers and creators globally, rejecting these modes of identity.
I would like to think that the experimental artists gaining popularity these days could be a sign of hope, a beacon on a sea of mediocrity and complacence, but it is just as likely that my own fondness for the oddities of the world is amplifying my own perceptions. It also may just be how the internet works. Whatever the case, Brooklyn, NY’s DJ Haram is moving forward with the good stuff, calling herself a ‘multidisciplinary propagandist‘ creating ‘anti-lifestyle immersive sonics.‘ A producer, poet, and DJ (duh), DJ Haram gave herself a crash course in music lessons by listening and mixing tons of music, making a name for herself by infusing bass-heavy dance mixes with the Middle Eastern music she grew up with as well as exploring the improv and experimental scene in Philadelphia, the DIY scenes of New York, and the New Jersey club scene. Her success as a DJ saw her traveling all over the globe and eventually lead her to producing experimental music alongside Moor Mother as 700 Bliss as well as producing beats for the likes of Armand Hammer among others.
Now, after 700 Bliss and two EPs, DJ Haram presents her debut LP on Hyperdub (following aya‘s Hexed! and Nazar‘s Demilitarize, both wonderful albums leading to a banner year for the label). Beside Myself entangles her diverse experiences with music into an uncategorizable opus of experimentation, thematically carried by revolutionary struggle informed by leftist organizing and her desire to escape identity politics.. Armed with her meticulous attention to detail and stark defiance against expectations, Beside Myself eschews pop, hip hop, and club music’s fetishization of Middle Eastern instruments, scales, and rhythms in favor of a more abrasive, intense experience.
This is immediately apparent on the twisted collage of field recordings, piano, guitar, synths, and horror-film percussion that is “Walking Memory,” less an intro track as it is a warning. If you can’t stand this heat, stay the fuck out of the kitchen. “Remaining” (featuring Dakn and Aquiles Navarro) opens with DJ Haram saying, ‘you can’t affirm this madness, (but I like to imagine it)‘ a rebuke to anyone who thinks they can comprehend the inherited psychological trauma and day-to-day discrimination experienced by oppressed people. Navarro’s lonely horn carries us through spoken word and droning bass, sounding more like an intro, but an unsettling one. These tracks still don’t prepare us for “Fishnets” (featuring BBYMUTHA, Sha Ray, and August Fanon), one of the hardest hip hop tracks this year.
This is where Beside Myself really takes off. 700 Bliss are reunited on the tense and dense drones of “Lifelike,” where the contrast of Moor Mother‘s commanding presence and DJ Haram‘s softer vocals create a charismatic, if not still haunting delivery of spoken word poetry. The club’s influence still lingers amongst the chaotic experimentation on “Voyeur” and “Do u Love me” (featuring Kay Drizz) only to flip back to the abstract hip hop of “Stenography” where Armand Hammer trade verses over a bass heavy, skittering beat that seems impossible to rap over unless you are already rapping to your own beat like ELUCID and billy woods are known to do. This is all followed by “IDGAF,” a track enveloped in Abdul Hakim Bilal‘s overdriven doom guitar tones, like some Middle Eastern experimental metal. Thankfully, the tone of these tracks holds everything together rather than inducing some sort of Ween or 100 gecs genre jumping whiplash.
There is playfulness and exuberance here, too. “Loneliness Epidemic” is almost a straightforward dance track, and the breakbeats on “Sahel” (featuring El Kontessa) play out like a deconstructed club track. “Distress Tolerance” brings us back to reality with a haunting spoken word track that addresses personal distress as much as it is a breakdown of fake allies, Instagram activists, and consumer culture, reinforced by the following “Who Needs Enemies When These Are Your Allies.” Beside Myself concludes with another lovely Middle Eastern acoustic/electronic track, “Deep Breath (An Ending),” and even on my tenth listen to this album, I am hoping that this is still the beginning.
DJ Haram has given us an eclectic and challenging collection of songs that rewards repeat listens. Beside Myself lyrically and musically is an exercise in contradiction, musical dialectics on full display as rhythms and discordance agitate each other into sounds that are at times danceable and other times anti-danceable. Each line of lyrics and new fold in the sonic tapestry a declaration and questioning of perceived identity. Whatever we expected DJ Haram to be, she is, but more extreme. The club will bounce and the basement noise shows will unfold their arms in awe and the hip hop tracks will leave you wanting more. If DJ Haram focuses on any one of these things for an entire album, we would be in for a very satisfying album. As such, Beside Myself stands as an electrifying debut and resumé for an emerging talent and firebrand that has locked me in as a serious fan.
