Abdel Ali Slimani

Rai singer Abdel Ali Slimani was raised in El Anasser, Algeria, where as a teen he learned guitar and performed as a drummer at soccer matches. Finding little opportunity for musicians in his native land, he went to Paris in 1982; after a subsequent move to London, Slimani found work as a club DJ before signing on as a vocalist and percussionist with ex-PiL bassist Jah Wobble's Anglo-Arabic unit Invaders of the Heart. In 1996, Wobble co-produced Slimani's solo debut Mraya, a collection spotlighting the fusion of the performer's rai-based Algerian roots with the influences of Western culture.