Photo by Ahmed Abu Hameeda on Unsplash
When I hear beautiful sounds, it attracts me. I always try to follow, to hear it more and more. In my childhood, it was hard to follow all the sounds I liked so much, for a few different reasons. The first and most important of them was that I did not have a music player, so I could only listen to those sounds from the radio on my school bus. These few minutes I used to spend on the bus were the best times of my life. I was enjoying the melodies and the sound of each instrument, separately and together. I remember that sometimes I enjoyed singing along. I didn’t care if my singing was right or wrong, I was just enjoying my time and practicing my hobby.
Back in those days, when my father bought a car, I was thrilled for one reason: I knew that I would spend most of my time in this new car listening to music.
Time went on and I started to learn more about this world around me. One of my priorities was to have some time away from everyone and just listen to those amazing combinations of sounds and noises on each of my favorite songs.
In Gaza, buying cassettes was very expensive, especially for a kid of my age. Because of that, I wasn’t able to follow the new music trends or the songs of the moment. In order to be able to listen to more of those, I used to buy a cassette, and my friend used to buy a different one, so when we would be over with it, we could exchange it.
It was a great deal! Especially because listening to music wasn’t as easy as today; plus, there was not a very big selection available in the music stores in my city.
When my father heard about my passion, he bought me a Discman for my birthday, it was an amazing present! I still remember the first CD I got to listen to, by the king, Michael Jackson. I used to adore his music regardless of his moves and dancing. The creativity in his songs, the subjects he used to discuss in his lyrics, the rhythm… Everything has always impressed me. At that time, I fell in love with music from the West.
I didn’t know anything about the music industry – and even less about the process of creating a song – but I was sure that my ears loved Western music.
After some years, I heard of Hip Hop and Rap music and I felt that this culture really represents me, it fits me, it really tells the raw truth. Then, I realized that becoming a rapper could allow me to speak freely, to speak without barriers. So I decided to improve my writing skills and to transform myself into what I have always been: a Palestinian rapper, straight from Gaza. I knew back then that I did not have a beautiful voice, but I had a strong pen.
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My friends and I started to build a rap scene in the city of Gaza. It wasn’t easy to be accepted by people already because of the way we looked, so imagine them hearing Hip Hop beats and lyrics… Even newspapers described us as outsiders who were trying to change the mentality of the youth, leading them to corruption and to the Western values. I was living the wrong way according to that conservative community, but I was just trying to make people think instead of reacting. I was criticizing attitudes and some negative traditions. But they didn’t like it.
It wasn’t an easy start but the passion inside me was what led me to continue on this path, which changed and diverged several times. What didn’t change was my enthusiasm and my love for Rap music as I saw myself in every word of my songs.
I became a rapper who speaks on behalf of the youth and I started carrying my cause on my shoulder step by step. Politics and the conflict with the occupation were my inspiration because I only wanted to live peacefully without all this madness around me, so I started talking about the truth of living in Palestine and particularly in Gaza through my songs.
I worked hard to be part of some international festivals and be interviewed by the international press because I wanted to be part of the resistance movement, helping to raise more awareness about my people’s lives, about my life. I wanted the whole world to know my struggles so I used the only language that everyone speaks: music.
I remember, one of my tours in Europe, my wife was pregnant, while I was touring from a city to another speaking about my struggles and my homeland, there were moments when I felt weak, lonely, homesick. I wanted to be in her arms and cry like a baby, but instead, I wrote a song expressing my feelings when I’m far, and I promised her that I’d be next to her when she gave birth to our daughter.
I wrote a song about losing my father in an unfair war, I wrote a song appreciating my mother’s struggle in life, I wrote for myself. Music is the only outlet when I’m angry, happy, disappointed, bored, tired, etc.
Today, I’ve become the provider of my family, but I will never quit music because I believe that it can change the world to a better thing.
I foster the love for music in my family, and I teach them that music is the only refuge from all the madness around. Music is the only shelter.
“I foster the love for music in my family, and I teach them that music is the only refuge from all the madness around. Music is the only shelter.”