: Beyond "Dhibic Roob," another of his tracks, " Ul Iyo Dirkeed ," is also featured in the film. The "Lost Media" Status

Black Hawk Down was a hit—a brutal, kinetic war film that won two Oscars (Best Editing, Best Sound). But for Somalis, the “hit” was the sound of an RPG slamming into a MH-60’s tail rotor. It was the sight of thousands of armed civilians dragging American bodies through the streets.

In 2010, a Somali-Canadian producer named created a mixtape called “Mogadishu Nights” that sampled dialogue from Black Hawk Down over a love song chorus saying “dhibic roob, dhibic roob, waa iila tahay Omar Sharif.” It was a minor hit in Toronto’s Somali community.

The “hit” isn’t a bullet. It’s the memory of a film, a face, a moment of beauty, colliding with the worst day in modern urban warfare.

In Somalia, Omar Sharif’s films were popular in urban cinemas (Mogadishu’s Cinema Africa and Cinema Italia ) during the 1960s and 1970s. Older Somalis remember him as a symbol of Arab sophistication. Some Somali musicians even namedropped him in love songs to compare a lover’s eyes or mustache.

Omar Sharif, a Mogadishu-born musician (b. 1955) who began his career in the 1970s. The song is sung in the Hamari dialect of the Somali language. Alternative Title: It is sometimes referred to as "Dhibic Roobeed". Movie Appearance: