Latest / The Bootleg Kev Podcast / #705 - MC Abdul on Growing Up in Gaza, Going Viral at 11, Macklemore & Signing to EMPIRE

Transcript

#705 - MC Abdul on Growing Up in Gaza, Going Viral at 11, Macklemore & Signing to EMPIRE · The Bootleg Kev Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey guys, we just launched the membership side of the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: YouTube channel, man. Subscribe, become a member for only $ 5
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: a month. You're going to get immediate access to our interviews,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: no edits, uncut, no ads, nothing. Plus I'm going to
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: be doing exclusive weekly content. And I'm going to give
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: you guys a heads up on who's coming onto the show.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: And I want to give you guys an opportunity to
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: submit questions for the artists. All right. So if I say, hey,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: next week, we got too short coming on the show.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: As a member, you're going to be able to submit
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: A question. And if it's not trash, I'll use it
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: and shout you out on the interview.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: All right?
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: So hit subscribe and become a member. Five bucks a month, man.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: It really goes a long way and supports what we're
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: doing at the Bootleg Kev Podcast, man. Much love. Let's
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: get into the interview.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: Yo, man.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Bootleg Kev Show. We got a special guest in here.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: He's got a new album coming out in like 10 days.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Something like that.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Something like that. It's over 15.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Day by day.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Shway Shway.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Shway Shway. I want to mispronounce it. What's the breakdown
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: in the name for people who are hip?
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: So day by day, Shway Shway. So Shway Shway is
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: an Arabic saying.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: It means day by day.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: And, you know, this album talks about like the last
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: two to three years of my life.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: And I've really put my heart, you know, my soul
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: into this.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: And Shwe Shwe is basically a message for really like
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: anybody out there that's going through a difficult time. You know,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: whether if you're a kid, could be any living in
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: any part of the world. It's just a message for
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: you to take things day by day.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: You know, slow down. Don't like let the pain control you.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, I know it's easier said than done, but.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: For sure.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's really what it means.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: For people who don't know, you grew up in Gaza.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: And you came here in 2023?
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: I did.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Was this prior to October 7th happening?
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: This was literally the month before the genocide started. So
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: I came here September.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: 7th, 2023.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Crazy. Yeah.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: And it took me three and a half years to
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: get my visa.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: So when you came here, did you have plans of
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: going back home?
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. Yeah. I thought I was going to be out
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: here for like a month and a half.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: And then immediately go back.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: You know, my goal when I came out here was
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: to wrap up my mixtape.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: That I was working on at the time and do
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: as many shows as I can, make some money, help
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: out my family. But, you know, literally a month after
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: I landed here, everything changed. And my priority went from
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: the music to obviously helping my immediate family get out
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: before anything happens.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: It took me five months to get them out.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: And it was really like a difficult time in my life.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: But you were able to.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: I was staying in L.A.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: But were you able to get your family out?
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was able to get my family out after
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: after five months. But during those five months, I was
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: staying in L.A. I was staying in Calabasas. And obviously
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: they were in Gaza. I was trying to get a
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: hold of literally anybody, you know, and everybody that I
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: that I know. Uh, it wasn't easy because obviously there's
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: like a genocide out there and they're bombing like everything.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: It was like a difficult.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Time because like a week would go by and I
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: haven't even like heard from my family. So you don't know, like,
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: you know, if they're alive, if they're doing good, you
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: don't know if they even have like any food to eat.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: You know, I have little siblings, so that was difficult,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: you know?
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And so many people didn't, aren't as lucky to,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: you know, obviously made it out.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Cause I remember, so I think that America has been
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: like so heavily propagandized in terms of like, we were
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: just talking about this earlier this morning. We were just
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: talking about how like, just like in general, like if
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: you just watched like action movies as a kid in America,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: you always just look at like Arabic people or people
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: from the Middle East as like the bad guys in
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: all the movies. And then like, there's a lot of
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: people I know who are actually Jewish, who, who are younger,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: who didn't even like fully understand that like Israel wasn't
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: even a place until 1948. It wasn't a country. It
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: was Palestine. And, um, you know, I first started to
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: get hip to what was going on. Cause I remember seeing, uh,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: some of the bombings that were happening. It was probably
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: like 2021, 22, around the time you went viral, I think. Um,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: and like I had belly on and belly just kind
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: of like put me on game. I was like, yo,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: this is what's happening. Like, Um, can you take me
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: back to that time for you? Like, uh, obviously you
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: go viral, you're rapping in front of rubble, uh, on Instagram.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: And this was before, not to say things weren't bad then,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: but this is before there was like a full fledged
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: genocide on your people happening. And like the entire city
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: has been laid to waste. It looks like it looks biblical.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Like it looks crazy. But like for you, take me
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: back to, uh, hey, tell me what it was like
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: growing up in Gaza, and from that, just to going viral,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: because you did go viral, man, rapping, doing your thing, like,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: I remember it was super, I remember when I first
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: saw it, I was like, dang, this is crazy.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Like, yeah, yeah, well, you know, obviously, there's been genocides
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: happening back in, back in Gaza, but, you know, there's
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: levels to it, and this one's by far the worst,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: and It was a shock to me because every single
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: time that it happened, I was always living.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: There and I've experienced it. Right.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: So for me to not experience it, knowing that there's
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: something going on there, you know, that was crazy to me.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: And my family's there while I'm being out here. But
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: growing up in Gaza, it was, you know, difficult, not having,
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: you know, money, you know, just... Growing up like a
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: regular kid, you know, going to school.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: But all of the stuff that you have to deal
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: with there is just, like, normal life for you. So you're, like,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: used to just, like, being in a... Because I saw
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: somebody recently, in the last few years, we've seen, like,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: quotes of, like, people from, like, the Israeli government saying, oh,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: every few years we would mow the lawn in Gaza. Like,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: heavy bombing would happen. And then that's just your life, though, man.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: So for you, like, is that... Living that, like, how
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: did that inspire you to start making music? Was that
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: what kind of inspired you? Like, was it therapy for you?
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Music is 100% therapy to me. Growing up, I've always seen.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: My dad, like, bump a lot of, you know, music,
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: different genres.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: So he really liked rock and a little bit of rap,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: but I was always a fan of rap music.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Got it.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean? So he used to play, like, Eminem.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Tupac, Nas, and I used to hear and listen, and
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: there's just something about it, just like, just by listening
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: to it, it sounds so good that it made me
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: so curious on, like, what are they saying?
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: And, you know, a few years went by, and I
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: was like, I want to try this one day, so
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: I just, I remember I locked myself in a room
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: and I taught myself English through hip-hop.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Crazy.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: And I would pull up, like, lyrics of my favorite
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: songs and unlock new vocabulary, and.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Just like learn every single day. And after that, then
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: I started doing covers. So I would walk in the
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: streets of Gaza rapping like my favorite songs, like an
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: Eminem song, like a Tupac song, like whatever that I
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: was just like listening to at the time. I would
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: download the song and all that I had at the
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: time was my dad's Android and my $ 20 speaker. So
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: I never had like equipment or any of that. And
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: I hope like this inspires like to like whoever's watching
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: that if you genuinely have passion for something, you don't need, like,
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: equipment or, like, any of that.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: Because that's just privilege.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, 100%.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: And then, you know, I was always consistent. I got
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: better at it. And I started, like, writing.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: My own bars on my favorite beats to, you know,
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: the songs I grew up listening to. And I kept
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: going viral.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: And, yeah, I got signed.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Was it crazy for you to, like, understand, like, going
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: viral as a little kid like that? It's got to be...
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: It's got to be kind of crazy, man.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: It felt crazy.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: And also, like, you also kind of, like, spreading awareness
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: on what's happening in Gaza. Because that's another thing. Like,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: a lot of people don't understand, especially... I mean, now
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I feel like a lot more people are obviously educating
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: themselves on the region and what's been happening. But I
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: feel like in 2020, when you go viral, that's like
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: a new... Like, people... There's a lot of people who
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: learned about what's going on there from you, you know,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: and got curious about it at least.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: So that had to be kind of cool.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: When I started going viral, it definitely felt like a
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: responsibility now because it was always a hobby.
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: You know, I've always loved doing this. I love music.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: And it was the only way really for me to
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: cope with any difficult situations that I witnessed in Gaza. Yeah.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: And seeing how many people.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Found out about what's happening there and just seeing how
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: much awareness I brought to that place.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: That means a lot to me.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: And this is what I do it for, to inspire people.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: And every time I get on the mic and spit
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: some rhymes, it just comes with a message.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: You already know, baby, our family at Odd Socks. They
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: have been rocking with the Bootleg Head podcast since day one.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: And listen, man, the basics have been killing it. All right.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Whether you're into the ankle socks, the quarter socks, the
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: tube socks, black, white, whatever it is. um odd socks
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: basics these are the most comfortable socks that you will
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: ever put on your feet and i've been saying that
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: for years and i mean it's the only socks i
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: wear the only socks in my house um and obviously
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: there's competing brands that might you might be used to
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: wearing the white tube socks listen not only are these
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: better they're more affordable And they're more comfortable. And when
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: I say more affordable, I'm not playing. You could get
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: yourself a six-pack just like this for only $ 16. 99. And
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: the good thing about Odd Socks, they now got the
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: subscription service too. So if you just want fresh, clean
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: socks delivered every single month, they'll take care of you there.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Odd Socks Basics. Go to oddsocks.com. That's right. Head over
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: to oddsocks.com. Use the promo code BOOTLAG at checkout. You
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: will save 20% off. Trust me when I say the basics. Listen.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: I don't care if it's Snoop Dogg and his team,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: The Alchemist, anybody, Freddie, everybody who gets these socks hit
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: me like, yo, tell Odd Socks we need a new box.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: The basics, the basics, the basics, all right? Oddsocks.com, use
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: the promo code BOOTLAKE, save 20% off. Let's get back
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: into the interview. How do you feel like kind of watching,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of the tide turning in
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: terms of like younger Americans being... pro-palestinian now um and
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: and understanding like there is a genocide happening in gaza
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: and it you guys have been under this occupation for
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: so long where like you know everything's controlled that comes
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: in and out you guys are essentially in like a
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: you know a landlocked prison jungle in terms you know
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: what i mean it is um for you man did
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: you ever did you like i'm assuming like growing up
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: there like it's just your norm but did you ever
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: see a day where like you would see so many
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: famous people or young kids. I feel like it is,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: to me, to be, it's almost like, imagine jumping in
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: a time machine and being pro-slavery and then still defending it.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: You'd be like, yo, fam, you was on the wrong
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: side of history. That's why the shit that's going on
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: right now is so crazy to me. If you don't
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: understand what's happening and you aren't speaking out or outraged
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: or it's diabolical. But did you ever think that you
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: would see the day where so much of Western culture,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: especially on the younger side, would be pro-Palestinian and obviously
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: be speaking up for Gaza?
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: It's amazing to see, honestly.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: And for me, I always try to stay as authentic
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: as I can and stick to.
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: What I think is right. Right.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: So for me to do it in the most like, uh,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: human way as possible, where I'm literally not trying to like,
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: Bring up like any political debate to it. I'm just
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: rapping about my experience.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Your actual life.
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah. This is my life, my, my normal life as,
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: as you said.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: And this is something that unfortunately, not just me, but
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: also millions of people that are living in that tiny
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: prison called Gaza, you know, have to go through as well.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: So I'm just speaking up for my, for my people, for,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: for my country. And, for people to see such a
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: young kid, an 11 year old, just walking with so
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: much destruction behind him, uh, rapping and like, you know,
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: we all have something in common. Like a lot of
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: us love music. So like millions of people. So for
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: me to show people that I have passion for music,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: but do it in my way where I'm kind of
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: letting you know about my life. And this is what
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: I go through. And this is what me and my
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: people go through. I guess that's what stole people, people's hearts.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: And this is how I was able to, you know,
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: get so much love and support.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: How do you react to seeing the destruction now, man? Obviously,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: I just saw some of the Google Map images and
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: some of the flyover footage. It is excruciating because there's
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: nothing left.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: So I'm assuming where you grew up is gone. Yeah.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, honestly, if you ask anybody in....
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Or if you tell anybody in Gaza... oh, my house
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: is bombed.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: They'd be like, yeah, okay.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: So does everybody else's. Literally, like, there's rarely any buildings
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: that are still standing. Everybody's just living on, like, tents
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: or let's say if, like, a four-story building was bombed
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: and there's still that one little apartment, like, you know,
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: first floor or ground floor that is still there. If
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: we can sneak ourselves in, you know, to sleep for
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: the night, then that's what it is. Man.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And it's just so sad, bro, because I can
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: only imagine the amount of people and friends that you've
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: lost yeah that you were close to i i saw
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: a picture on your instagram you at school with all
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: your homies and you had your backpack on yeah yeah
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: and i was just thinking like i was like i
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: wonder how many like of those kids are like lucky
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: enough to still be with us because there's been so
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: many kids that have been killed.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: I lost so many like family members so like i
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: was saying it took me five months to get my
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: immediate family out and i was like trying to do
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: that as fast as possible before anything happens to them
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: but while i was working on getting them out i've
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: actually lost people in the process and in.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: One day uh it was january.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: 7th uh 2024 i get a phone call and i
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: was staying in la at the time um i get
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: a phone call and my uncle basically tells me and
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: my dad that we just lost 81 people in my
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: family all in one day and that was literally like
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: the craziest thing that i that i had to hear
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: and it was my grandma and A couple of my aunts,
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: so many of my first cousins and my dad's cousins
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: and aunts and, you know, just people basically that I
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: grew up with.
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: My whole life.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And that was one of the like the hardest
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: things I had to like deal with. Well, that was
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: the hardest thing I had to deal with. And that
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: like taught me. Levels of pain that I would have
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: never imagined. But, you know, everything happens for a reason.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: I can imagine, too, like you're all the way over
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: here in L.A. like living your dreams and like you
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: got to watch this shit on TikTok. You got to
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: get reports from home and be like, what the fuck?
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: And you're a kid, man. Like you're still you still
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: are a kid. You're only 18. So it's like, yeah,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: it had to be a lot for you to deal with.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Who was the person you were like leaning on the
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: most while you were here in the States? Obviously, if
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: your family's not with you, like do you have like
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: a support system out here? I mean, obviously, shout out
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: to the big homie Ghazi.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: Ghazi, man.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: You know, who... I remember him and I talked about
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: your shit right around the time he signed you. But, yeah, like,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: it had to... Man, I can only imagine. But you had...
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: What you went through growing up in Gaza aside, being
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: a kid, navigating being an artist while dealing with loss
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: and grief and your home being wiped off the map
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: while being in L.A., it's got to be crazy. Yeah.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: So.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: I was mainly in L.A., but I was, like, going
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: back and forth, like, between L.A.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: And, like, the Bay Area.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: I obviously didn't have, like, any family out here. I
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: was just out here with my dad, you know. I
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: can't travel by myself, so he had.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: To come with me. Yeah, you're a kid.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Well, you sure had your dad with you. So you
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: did have your dad with you.
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: I did have my dad with me.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Well, that's good.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: I did have my dad with me. But Ghazi, man,
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: he's always been there for me. Like.
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: Me and Ghazi, it's not like a....
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Obviously, this is business, and this is the music industry,
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: but me and him, it's like family. He introduced me
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: to so many of his family members, and they really
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: treated me like family when I didn't have family out here.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I know how important it is for him, too,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: because he's navigating... As somebody who's Palestinian, one of the
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: biggest music labels there is at dealing with... I'm sure
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: it's been a thing that he's had to deal with. Like,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: it's obviously, he is the outlier in the entertainment industry.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: But he has a big, like, he's got a big hammer.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Empire's a juggernaut. So it's dope to see, like, I
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: thought it was dope to see him, like, bring you
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: on to Empire. And I feel like for you, like,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: it had to be kind of cool to, like, get into, like,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: a real recording studio for the first time.
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: Bro, it was amazing.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: Because, well, here's how I got signed to Ghazi and Empire.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: So as I mentioned, like, you know, I just stayed consistent.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: I was always like, you know, rapping in Gaza, whether
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: if it's the refugee camps, whether it's literally right outside
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: my house or in front of the rubble, outside of
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: my school. So I posted this one video. I was
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: 11 years old and my schoolmates were behind me. They
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: don't understand a single word that I'm saying pretty much
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: because I'm rapping in a whole, you know, different language.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: And I posted that video on Instagram and I was
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: rapping on the See You Again.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I downloaded that beat and You know, I got
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: my speaker with me and I was just like spitting
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: some bars like, yo, this is my life.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: And it went viral. Man, so many people shared that video.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: It went viral on Twitter, on the gram. And so
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: many people DMing me like, bro, Ghazi is trying to,
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: Reach out to you. And I was looking at the
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: comments actually.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: And I saw Ghazi's comment saying, somebody tell this kid
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: to check his DMs. So literally, I went to my dad.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: I was like, you know, everyone's telling me, like, to,
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: you know, respond to this guy, Ghazi, you know, the
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: real deal, Empire, and all that. So I remember my
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: dad got on the phone with him the day that
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: we found out that.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: He, you know, DM'd me.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: And I got signed, man, and that's where it really started,
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: you know. Ghazi's family, and I look up to him.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: You know, it's awesome. He's a great guy, too, man.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Talk to me. Obviously, you hopped on the Heinz Hall. Remix.
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Out to Macklemore shout out Macklemore who has been super
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: outspoken about a ton of issues over the years but
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: specifically one of the first like really big big artists
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: that was not Palestinian that really kind of stepped out
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: and was super vocal about what's going on when you
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: saw kind of this last month of his career kind
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: of playing out. I think it's like, obviously it sucks.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: He got taken off the Ed Sheeran tour, but I
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: think it is another like example of like, it brought
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: a lot of, uh, exposure to the issue. So maybe
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: people who might not have known. And then the fact
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: that like his bandmate, like Ed Sheeran's band didn't come.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: And then the other openers left. Um, but for you,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: like talk about Macklemore and how important he's kind of been. Yeah.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: And obviously it was kind of cool that he was
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: able to tap you and Anis to get on that remix.
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Shout out Macklemore, man. Shout out Macklemore and Anis.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Anis is a great guy, man.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. That's my brother as well.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: And, you know, having somebody as big as Macklemore, you know,
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: being like vocal, you know, about Palestine without having like to,
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: you know, fear what, you know, backlash like you might
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: get or like consequences that might come with it like
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: for example being removed off the the Ed Sheeran tour
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: like you know what I mean uh shout out to
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: him man he's he's a real guy uh it's an
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: honor obviously to to work to work with him and
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: be a part of the Hintz Hall remix um I
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: I performed with it with him as well in Seattle
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: and there was there's a festival that happens every year
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: in the Bay Area it's called Palestine Day so he
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: came in 2024 it was October when the festival happened. And, uh, yeah,
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: it's crazy to me because as a little kid, I've
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: definitely heard a lot of, you know, Macklemore's music.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: So now to have a song with them, like, it's
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: just amazing.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: And him speaking, like speaking up and just not being
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: afraid of anything about, yeah.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: There's a country artist who just performed in the, uh,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: Zach Bryan, Zach Bryan.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: He just performed at that, that stadium.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: And he was wearing the free pounds. Yeah.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: Bro, I've been seeing all over the internet. I don't
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: listen to much country music.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: His shit is actually cool. It's more like singer-songwriter type.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: It's not like... There's some really bad country music. And
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: then there's some shit that's all right. But his shit
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: is cool. I'll tap in. No, you don't need to
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: tap in. It's fine. But it's not bad. But country,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: for the most part, is unbearable for me.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: Hey, everyone has their preference, right?
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: No, there's some good shit, though.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: You already know Arizona, man. The Bootleg Head Podcast brought
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: to you by our partners at Raffi Law Group. Now,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: we love Raffi Law Group, man. Arizona's premier personal injury firm.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: What I love about Raffi is they're so dependable, so trustworthy,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: and they get the job done. They've helped over 70,000 Arizonans.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: I know you see the billboards everywhere. I know you
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: can't avoid seeing my man Rafi's face everywhere, but it's
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: because he is the absolute best, all right? He's helped
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: my wife get through an accident situation, got her paid.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: My mother-in-law, same situation. My best friend's parents just used
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Rafi and got a big payday. So make sure if
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: you get into an accident, if you need help, all right?
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: It could be an accident. It could be a slip
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: and fall. It could be any personal injury situation. They're
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: gonna take care of it, all right? All you got
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: to do is call Rafi. You know what it is, man.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Call Rafi. 623-388-4333. Rafi Law Group. The only personal injury
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: law firm that we will ever rock with right here
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: on the Blue Lake Head podcast.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: So look, Kalshi, this week, this is what I like.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: I think the Eagles are absolutely trash. And I think
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: the Panthers are about to smoke on that Jalen Hurts pack.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: So this is what I like because the Panthers are
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: trading at even right now. 50-50. That's right. So you
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: can get the Panthers right now a contract for them
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: to beat the Eagles 50%. That's 50 cents.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: So run that up. I think the Panthers are about
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: to smoke the Eagles. The Eagles just got rid of 40%
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: of their offensive line. Traded one of the bros. The
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: other bros said, I had enough. I'm retiring. Jalen Hurts
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: is a broken man. Meanwhile, the little midget over there
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: in Carolina. Bryce Young, that little tiny-ass fool, he's slinging
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: that thing to the bruh from U of A. What's
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: the guy's name? McMullen. McMillan. Whatever. Whatever the fuck. The
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: guy who looks like The Rock's grandson. Anyway, listen. Hit
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: the link in the bio. When you trade $ 25, you'll
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: get $ 55 for free on Couchy. We're going with the
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Panthers big time at 50% on Couchy, man. So appreciate
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: the support, and let's get into the episode. For you, man,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: would you say... Is there an artist that you really,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: really want to work with, like, or somebody who you've
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: been close to working with? Like, obviously, you're still very
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: much a new artist, but is there anybody who's, like,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: kind of on your bucket list?
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's been a couple huge artists that reached out
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: to me, you know, recently.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: One of them is Ty Dollarsign.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Shout out to our brother Ty, man.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: Shout out, Ty. He DM'd me. He said, bro, like,
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: you're incredible. Let's work, so hopefully we can make something happen.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: That'd be big.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: Like I said, there's been so many, like, big people
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: that have reached out to me. Like, you know, I'm
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: pretty sure I'll meet Fat Joe one day. He's been
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: one of the people that's been supporting me since I was, like.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: 12 years old. Now I'm 18 now, you know.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: Shout out to Fat Joe, man.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: Shout out Fat Joe. Tori.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: Tori is, I know, like, it's different, like, you know.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: But Tori, I found out, like, he DM'd me.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: Oh, wow. Yeah. I only seen the message like four
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: months after. And I was like, oh, man.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Am I.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: Like, come on.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: Like, I just found out about this right now. So
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: I wrote him back. And he responded two hours after I.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Wrote him back. What about... You said Eminem. Obviously, you're
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: growing up listening to Eminem. Is there any new hip-hop
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: you discovered after moving to the States?
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Like, what's your favorite stuff that you kind of got
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: put onto since coming over here?
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: So.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: I was, you know, super influenced, like, by the old school,
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: you know, hip-hop. And you can obviously see that, you know,
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: early in my career. You know, the little kid that
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: raps over, like, the Jay-Z beats and, like, Nas and
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: stuff like that. But when I came out here, like,
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: you know, I started making friends with people my age. And,
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: you know, I started going to, you know, high school, too.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: Like, I'm in high school. This is my last year.
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: I'm a senior. And, you know, I just got put
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: on to so many, like, artists. Like, yesterday... I saw
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: Playboi Carti live.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Oh, you went to the Complex Con show.
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was really cool. And he brought out Ye, too.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: I saw. I think he brought him out pretty soon
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: in the show.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Literally, everyone was waiting for Carti to come out. And
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: then all of a sudden, we just hear Can't Tell
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: Me Nothing playing.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: So you're a Carti guy.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: I like his music.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: It's interesting.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: It's kind of like country. it's like yeah it's fine
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: some of it's fine you know it's a lot dude
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: i feel like cardi's live shows are so like they
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: feel like like it's not a it's they just i
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: went to i've seen to cardi a couple of times
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: and every time i see him live i'm just like
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: jesus i need to like take a nap it's just
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: a lot fires flames just weird bros running around on
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: stage and shit like But, man, so your album is
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: coming out next week?
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: In 10 days.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: 10 days. Yeah. What's the actual date?
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: October 15th.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: October 15th. And then you have Palestine Day in the
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Bay is the 17th? Yeah. Saturday?
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah. That's got to be fun.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I can't wait for the album to come out.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: I've been working on it for like a year now,
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: but it's about literally my life in the last two
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: to three years and just everything that we discussed throughout
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: this interview from the moment of getting on the bus,
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: leaving Gaza, you know, being like, yo, finally this is
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: happening after, you know, trying to get my visa to
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: come here for, you know, three and a half years.
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: Meeting people like Snoop.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: Dogg, you know, doing Palestine and having like all these
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: amazing things and feeling like my dreams are about to
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: come true.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: Right. But then this, you know, my life changes. My
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: life's changing.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: I'm forced to like stay out here and not go
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: back home because of everything that's happening back home, moving
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: my family out here. So, I definitely pour my heart
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: into it, and I can't wait for people to hear it.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Do you hope the day comes where you're able to,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: at the very least, visit home?
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. I have family there. I haven't seen them in
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: three years. It's crazy.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: I would have never thought I would ever go this
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: long without seeing all my uncles, aunts, even friends back home.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: But if there's one thing that I learned, you just
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: got to adapt with whatever life throws at you. You
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: can't be taking breaks. You can't be sitting on your
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: ass being like, oh, you know, complaining and all that.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: Because life is not going to wait for you.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: There's somebody out there that has the same goal as
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: you and he's going to take everything you want.
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's also like great, I feel like the resilience
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: of like the people in Gaza and obviously in Palestine and,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: you know, with all the terrorism that's happening in the
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: West Bank from all these psycho settlers and shit. But
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: just to see like people still be able to like
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Do content. There's some dope content creators in Gaza right now.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: There's a skateboarder that's dope. There's really dope shit going on. Obviously,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: it's like you can control what you can control. Have
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: you seen any other kids out there try to do
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: the rapping thing since you've been out here?
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure there's at least a few of them
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: out there.
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: But I'm very happy to see....
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: You know, people trying it, especially them after seeing like
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: how far it took me and, you know, me being
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: like as hope for my people and literally basically anybody
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: that might be, you know, struggling or going through somewhat
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: of a similar thing that I went through and they
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: get inspired like from the music, you know, and they
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: dream like of making it out from wherever like they're
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: stuck at. Yeah, but like the skateboarding, like everything that
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: you mentioned, like I grew up like around these people.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: Like some of the cooking, there's like some people have
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: dope cooking experiences. Pages, obviously they have to show you
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: how we make food in Gaza.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in Gaza there's no gas, there's no electricity or nothing.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: People cooking outside and there's roll-up. It's crazy. But it's
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: dope to see, like, yo, even though this is how
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: we're living because of what's going on, because of this genocide,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: we still have spirit.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: If there's anything that I always try to let people
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: know about the people of Gaza is... No matter what
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: we go through, at the end of the day, we're
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: still people and we love life.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: So we always try our best to find solutions. We
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: love life.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: If it's a terrible day, even if it's a genocide
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: that's going on, we still go to the beautiful beach.
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean? And swim, have fun.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: But you're not allowed to fish, right?
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: Well, there's a certain limit you're not allowed to cross.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: That's so fucking crazy to me. It's so crazy.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: Everything that we've mentioned, like, I used to take breakdancing classes. Like,
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't know if you've seen, like, there's, like,
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: a bunch of kids that do, like, the breakdancing thing
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: in Gaza. I used to be a part of, like,
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: that group and just, you know, try as much as possible, like,
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: be around that, like, anything that has to do, like,
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: with the hip-hop culture, American culture, like, the skateboarding and stuff.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: And I was, I used to vlog, I used to vlog, too. Like, there's,
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna put you on. So, there's this, um, game
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: that i game that i did it's like what's it called.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: Where's uh waldo waldo where's.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: Waldo game so uh but i made it like my
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: own version and the game is called when abdul which
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: means where is abdul and it's basically like a map
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: i'll show you it's like an app it's a a
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: website okay.
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: Like you know what i mean and uh it's a map.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: That's divided like to three sections one like it represents
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: like the chapter of growing up in Gaza. If you press,
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: it's like there's so many Abdul's, but you got to
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: find like three specific ones, like one that represents my
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: journey in Gaza and then first coming out here and
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: then to the person that I am today. Like, you know,
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: so there's so many Abdul's. Even if you press like
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: on the wrong one, it's going to take you to
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: like a video where I vlogged.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: Yo, what's up, guys?
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: I'm going to take you to some different places.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm going to take you to some different places.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: I'm going to this breakdancing class that I have today.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: That's dope. It's in my link on my Instagram.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Do you feel, because I feel like, obviously, man, you
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: are the voice for so many people who don't have
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: a voice, and you are an example for a lot
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: of people to show, hey, I'm from where you guys
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: are from. Do you feel the weight of that on
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: your shoulders? Yeah. As a kid, obviously, I mean, you're
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: 18 now, but, like, you're still a kid. You're a child.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: You're a senior in high school, you.
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: Know what I mean? Yeah. Absolutely. Like, it went from
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: this music thing, it went from, like, a hobby. I literally...
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: I've always had dreams, like, of.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: Performing, like, for example, like, at Rolling Loud. Like, I
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: used to see clips of, like, you know, J. Cole, Ye,
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: performing at Rolling Loud. And I.
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: I don't know how, but I've just always had.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: Like no doubt in my mind that I'm going to
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: come to America one day, even like literally when I
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: started like writing, I was going to, I'm going to
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: come here. I'm going to do this and that. And
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: I just believed it with like all my heart. And then,
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: and then it happened, you know? Um, so definitely with time,
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: it became a responsibility.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: You know, I'm signed now, you know, a hundred percent.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: I wonder for you, man, because you're obviously, you know, you, you,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: you've been out here for four years now, three years.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: Moved out with, With my family, two years. But I've
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: been outside of Gaza for three years.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, and you also are one of the more
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: prominent artists from Gaza and that's Palestinian. Do you hear
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: from fans that are Jewish but aren't necessarily like Zionists?
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: Because I feel like I have Jewish friends who are like,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: like I told you earlier, I had some Jewish friends
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: of mine who are younger and they were like, bro,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: we grew up, we kind of were just told We
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: just found out what's going on there. They do a
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: very good job of, I guess, Seth Rogen is a
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: great example. He said that. You know who Seth Rogen is,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: the actor?
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: I think I've heard of him.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: He's a hilarious actor, but he's from Vancouver. He's a comedian.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: Is he the one that wears glasses? Yes.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: Big pothead, knocked up, great guy. But he said that.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: He's like, bro, I had no idea. Well, we always
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: just thought Israel was Israel. But for you, do you
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: hear from Jewish fans at all that are like sympathetic
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: to what's going on?
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's always good to like, you know, bring
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: awareness to people. Like, you know, no matter like what
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: different part of like the.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: World that you're in.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: And I'm pretty sure there's like Jewish people that, you know,
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: see my stuff. And like, like you said, like the more,
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: you know, you, you know, you have people like me
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: that go out there and, you know, they stay as
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: authentic as possible and try to like, you know, just
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: express the life, you know, the more people that are
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: going to know about it. So to see people and,
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: you know, anybody from different like parts of the world
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: just like really seeing like what's happening there and like
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: the fucked up shit that's happening there is, you know,
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: it's good.
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: It brings awareness. For sure, man.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: Are you working on trying to get anybody else to
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: move to the U.S.? And how hard of a.
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: So difficult.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: It's got to be the... Everyone's kind of trapped there,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: it feels like.
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah. You can't get out. Nobody can get in or
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: get out.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: So that's why I was so lucky to get my
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: family out. I'm probably one of the very, very few
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: families that got out. I was lucky enough to get
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: out literally a month before the genocide started. But my
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: family got out five months after.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: Got it.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: And when I reunited with my... siblings and like my
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: mom um the last thing i had on my mind
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: was was music so i kind of had to take
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: a break from social media and music and gazi i
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: was i was living in in cairo in egypt because
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: that was like the closest thing next to uh gaza
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: and i remember uh this is how the mclemore you
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: know featured happened i remember gazi texts me and he's
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: like uh mclemore wants to do a song with you
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: i'm like oh shit like you know this is this
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: is fire and he sends me the the song and
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: he's like you know do your verse on it and
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: i sent it to gazi and then gazi sent it
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: to macklemore and then i just get a dm from
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: macklemore saying your verse is amazing like you've killed.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: It fire dude that's awesome well listen your album is
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: coming out uh october 15th day by day shway shway
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: go support you could pre-order it i'm.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: Assuming yeah you can pre-save it.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah save it on spotify spotify apple music all that
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: good stuff all that good stuff Is this technically your
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: debut album?
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: This is my debut album. I've only put out one
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: project before. I barely have any songs on Spotify. I
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: have like seven songs, a few features and stuff.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: Well, listen, I hope the Tad Alassane feature happens for you.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: We got to work on that. Man, hopefully. Yeah, so
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: make sure you go support the album, man. And I
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: appreciate you pulling up, dude.
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Yes, sir.
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: MC Abdul.
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: We out.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: Fire good shit man what up y'all we're here at
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: ease you already know if you're in la southern cow
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: man tap in go to the website right now use
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: that promo code bootlegger to get 30 off flower concentrates
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: whatever you're into they got it 30 off go to
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: ease.com right now it'll get delivered right to your door
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: or if you're in la pull up because we're here
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: right now come on man shout out to ease