Contemporary Sudanese music draws a lot of influences both from Arabic musical as well as subsaharan traditions. "[...]It is rooted in the madeeh (praising the Prophet Mohamed in song). The genre filled out into something quite irreverent in the 1930s and 1940s when haqiba music, the madeeh 's secular successor, caught on. Haqiba, a predominantly vocal art in which the musicians accompanying the lead singer use few instruments, spread like wildfire in the urban centers of Sudan. It was the music of weddings, family gatherings and wild impromptu parties.

Haqiba drew inspiration from indigenous Sudanese and other African musical traditions in which backing singers clapped along rhythmically and the audience joined in both song and dance. The lead singer's incantations induced a trance-like experience in which spectators swayed along to the rhythm of the beat" as Gamal Nkrumah wrote in a 2004 article Al Ahram Weekly newspaper. One of the first singers Habibi Funk came across some years ago and who struck a chord with them was Sharhabil Ahmed. Sharhabil was born in 1935 and he is the founding father of the Sudanese Jazz scene. His aim was to modernize Sudanese music by bringing it together with western influences and instrumentation.

Sudanese Jazz hasn't too much in common with the western idea of Jazz. Sharhabil's sound feels more like a unique combination of surf, rock n roll, funk, Congolese music and East African harmonies. Finding Sharhabil's music in a quality that it could be used as source for this release was a particular though task. It was easy to find a lot of songs on the internet but all of them in very bad quality. It took Habibi Funk years to find good source material, with occasional hick-ups like master tapes that also did not produce a satisfying quality. In 2017, the label visited Sudan for the first time personally and was lucky to meet Sharhabil in his house in Omdurman. Despite being in his mid 80s he's still very active and mentally sharp with a vivid memory filled with artistic achievement from his musical work to his work as a comic artist, something he his equally known for in Sudan. 

The following year Habibi Funk featured his song "Argos Farfish" on their first compilation. And what a song it is! Driven by an an electric guitar, horns and Sharhabil's energetic yet smooth voice it's a personal favorite on this release. The King of Sudanese Jazz is finally holding court!