The album was primarily sung in Khaled's native Algerian Arabic dialect with the exception of "Ne m'en voulez pas", which was sung in French.

[2] Khaled signed with French record label Barclay Records, then brought in American record producer Don Was to "incorporate American R&B—to Americanize the music", which Don Was achieved by combining Khaled's live musicians with loops and beats from his Macintosh computer and a keyboard.

[3] The result of these sessions in the studio that combined Khaled's rai with Was' R&B, was, according to Was, "pretty wild music.

Many of the more conservative Arabs stopped buying his records and going to his concerts, feeling offended by exposure to what they perceived as the liberal West, and by what they saw as "(selling) out to Western commercialism".

The French emcee Abdelmalek Sultan of hip-hop band IAM called Khaled the "Public Enemy Arabe" and is regarded as the first raï artist to successfully cross over into the French pop market.