Four years later she went on a hadj to Mecca, after which her lifestyle (though not her songs or subject matter) changed. She stopped smoking and drinking, but continued her singing and dancing, and by the mid-80s, when Rai was becoming established as the rousing dance music of angry young Algerians, Rimitti was being hailed as "la mamie du Rai", the grandmother of the style. Her deep singing voice, in the male tenor range, was recognizable throughout the Algerian community on both sides of the Mediterranean.