US witnesses the rise of a Yemeni rap star [Archives:2002/33/Last Page]

BY SALEH ABDULBAQI
YEMEN TIMES STAFF
Internationally renowned Yemeni rap star of American nationality- Hagage Masaed, known as AJ in the music industry, is currently paying a first visit to his original village Guban in Dalae. Ever since he started singing in the USA, Hagage has been continuously on the rise and has become a prominent rap star widely known in the USA and elsewhere.
Born in 1963 in Youngstown, Ohio, Hagage -or AJ- developed a unique and spectacularly new rap music style that combines Arab tunes and words with English rap.
AJ was influenced by such artists as Cameo, Parliament Funkadelik, Zapp and Ohio plays in his high school years. He used to go to Dearborn, a city in SE Michigan, near Detroit, which is heavily populated with Middle-Easterners. During his stay in Dearborn, AJ was influenced by Yemeni and Arab culture and was inspired by artists like Abu baker Salem Balfaqeeh, Ahmed Al-Sunaidar and Sameera Towfiq. AJ was encouraged to learn Arabic by his cousins who supported his efforts to form Yemeni songs in English language. Influenced by the rap music industry which emerged in 1978, AJ started writing his own rap music and songs with an Arabian touch.
Through his poetry and songs, AJ attempted to introduced Islam and monotheism. However, he faced serious criticism by the Arab community that strongly rejected this attempt. Consequently, he stopped singing religious songs that he insists were purely to help in spreading Islam and its traditions among Americans. He then shifted to songs dealing with Arab and Yemeni cultures, which were the subject of his poetry later on. His song Yemen, my great country, in which he describes the historical and tourist features of Yemen was warmly welcomed by the Yemeni and Arab community in the USA. Encouraged by his success in this album, he revolutionized Arab rap music in 1995 by mixing Arabic and English words and melodies using popular Yemeni musical instruments such as the Mizmar a special Yemeni flute. His first musical album was produced in 1996 by Rolar Company in California. The album was a tremendous success in both the American and expatriate markets.


AJ participated in many musical festivities which increased his popularity and paved the way for him to produce other albums by major companies in the USA. However, the September 11 attacks affected his production due to harassment caused by American authorities to Arabs resulting in the hesitation of major production companies dealing with artists of Arab origin. Those negative developments came in a time he was planning to record a new song with a Persian female artist named Suhaila but the terrorist attacks and other circumstances prevented him from implementing his plan.
It is worth mentioning that AJ benefited from being at home and distributed his first album here in Yemen. The Yemeni singer also recorded in prominent broadcasting stations such as Francisco and Brooklyn Radios.
In sum, we can safely assume that AJ is a Yemeni artist trying to bridge the gap between civilizations and of course expose Yemen to the West with beautiful melodies and fascinating poetry.


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