Egyptian rappers and artists who captured the spirit of the youthful rebellion that toppled president Hosni Mubarak are toning down their outrage as the path to democracy has become more complicated.

Three weeks since the military ousted Mubarak's elected successor, the Islamist Mohamed Morsi, street artists who want neither religious nor military rule see little place in today's exhausted Egypt for their once defiant world view.

"Emotions are high. The country is divided... it's too soon," said Cairo rapper Mohammed al-Deeb whose lyrics once tapped into growing discontent with life under Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.

Last year, al-Deeb rapped, "Trials slowing down, corruption is rampant, it stinks like armpits, the police execute orders like Robocop."

Now that the Brotherhood is out of power and its supporters hold sit-ins and rallies that have repeatedly led to deadly clashes with the military and with other Egyptians, his hopes for peace have muted the raps that once aimed to provoke.

"We still don't know where this is headed. The army is in power. We have a temporary president. We have to put our revolutionary feelings away, at least for now," he said.

Sculptor Alaa Abdel Hameed, 27, has stopped a provocative art project he began last month: gluing onto street walls brightly colored plaques of the eagle from the armed forces' insignia, upside down.

After the military toppled Morsi on July 3, many of the eagles were ripped off by passers-by who chastised him for insulting the symbol of those they see as the nation's saviors.

Abdel Hameed relented, "Now is not the right moment to direct our message at the army or any one party, because we don't think average people are on one side or the other," he told Reuters.

Reuters