Mansour delivers her taunting voice, both mournful and mesmerizing, over Arabic phrases of loss, longing, struggle and life. She is passionate about her home country and is revolting with a mic.

Her first album is about to drop later this year but she has accomplished and gained the respect of the hip-hop and music community worldwide by always standing up to her beliefs. She has been featured on many panel discussions and is representing the Arab world in the best way possible. Arab News managed to sit down with Mansour to bring you this exclusive interview.

It’s stressful, empowering, risky, liberating, rewarding, elevating, exhausting and honorable. I believe every woman subconsciously is an MC/activist; we are just diverse in expression.

I stay connected emotionally, physically, mentally and intellectually. Palestine does not only feel like a place anymore; it is me. It is a feeling, a vision, a certain smell, a familiar word or phrase and a sound or song that takes me to that place I call Palestine. I believe I am a reflection of my homeland and its people.

I always listened better and soaked in information through music. Hip-hop does not just come from the mouth; it comes from the soul. It has to; otherwise you are separating your words from the truth. We, as individuals, are the truths of our being.

Life.

I believe hip-hop is the world’s stage. Once you step onto it, everybody is forced to listen.

I have toured the US quite a few times, and if I’m honest, it is humbling to see how much people are paying attention to what we are doing. I have always stressed on and off stage how important it is for our own people (Arabs) in the West to support us. And, I can proudly say their numbers have increased at these events.

Every human is entitled to live their life as they wish and think as they wish, as long as they are not imposing their own prohibitions onto another human being. That’s all I have to say on that.

It is actually an old concept. When I first noticed its transition from a symbol of identity to a fashionable trend, I was honestly happy about it.

I was happy to see all types of people wearing the keffiyeh, especially when it meant it was so fashionable that people who actually knew and hated what it politically and traditionally symbolizes had to see it everywhere they went. I changed the mood of the song after I discovered some time after that a tasteless company had launched what they call "The Israeli Remix" of (in their words) the "Keffiyeh" with the star of David clearly marked all over it. The company passionately stated in a statement that they believe the scarf is universal and anyone is entitled to wear it. That is true, but why are you isolating the rest of the human race by drenching it with religious logos? It is an element of our culture and national identity. If are going to remix something, at least give its origin some credit and respect.

Apart from having the utmost respect for M1 as a brother and as a sincere knowledgeable activist/organizer, I felt that he could bring some common ground for the non-Arab speakers and give his own moral perspective of how significant symbolic identity is.

Call it what you want, but Arabic hip-hop is a musical Intifada. It can only get stronger, bigger and more influential.

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