Saudi Arabia’s first ever hip-hop radio show

The show is a big hit with thousands of Saudi youngsters following. Launched in June 2011, the show runs for an hour and talks about Arabic hip-hop.
Big Hass is a 32-year-old Saudi who started this show after being in the hip-hop scene since 2009 as a blogger hosting the blog .
“I’ve started this blog because I was sick of what FM Radios was playing on their stations, repeating the same old songs over and over,” he said. “At one time I was thinking why don’t we have interesting music on our FM radio and I felt bad, so I tried to investigate and I had a dream of having my own FM show,” he added.
Hass came up with his online blog, Re-volt which was mixed between revolution and voltage because he wanted to revolutionize the whole FM shows and voltage came from his passion for FM Radio.
“My blog used to showcase so much of the underground artists that no one ever heard of,” he said. “I started talking to people (rappers) from all over Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and more about hip-hop and I was shocked about its huge movement, with no one talking about it. Youth are expressing issues that actually matter.” he added.
The Internet was not enough for Hass, as he knew his listeners were 150 to 200 people on a good day. He wanted more and wanted to expand and get more people to listen to him and to learn about his cause.
“I started reaching out to FM stations in all Arab countries, from Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt to the UAE and Saudi Arabia and I was shut down and turned away and all of them said that they don’t play Arabic hip-hop on their radio,” he said.
“I used to tell them that they are airing in Arabic countries and if you don’t play Arabic hip-hop on the radio then this is not supporting Arabic talent. I wanted to talk about the hip-hop movement in the Arab world and not play Western music,” he added.
Hass was lucky to find Mix FM who welcomed his request after seven months of negotiations. “They saw the passion and they thought it would attract good feedback from their audience since they are a new station that was still building their name and they were looking for unique shows that would attract Saudi youth,” he said.
“The show is an attempt to change the wrong perspectives about hip-hop. We talk about why people listen to hip-hop and in the show I play music by Arab hip-hop artists and as well talk about what the essence of hip-hop is and the roots of it,” he added.
Laish Hip-Hop plays music by all the Saudi hip-hop artists who are looking for a chance to show people their talent, according to Hass. “I am hosting underground hip-hop artists in and out of the Kingdom, people who were never on any radio station but are talented. Some can do hip-hop and R&B,” he said. “On the other hand, I am also interviewing known artists such as Russell Simmons who is like the godfather of hip-hop and the guy who founded the pioneering hip-hop label Def Jam and it’s a huge thing for us,” he added.
Hass is also looking to get Sami Youssef on his show to talk about humanity and Islam in a great way. “The show aims to elevate minds through lyrics, through the power of words. When I talk about humanity on the show, I speak how it’s decreasing in the world. When you examine humanity you know it for sure but you never really think about it,” he said. “I talk about the powerful lyrical content and the Arabic hip-hop movement and why it is not recognized in the Arab world,” he added.
Arabic hip-hop has a strong core according to Hass. “Most Arab hip-hop artists talk about social problems, talk about politics and talk about youth problems. You almost never find them talk about love, passion or any of the taboos,” he said “They talk about serious matters and serious problems that they face in their daily lives and put it in a set of lyrics,” he added.
 
Catch “Laish Hip-Hop” every Thursday at 9 p.m. on Mix FM.
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