Music Industry Spotlight: PAUSE Meets MC Abdul

For someone who’s just stumbled across you, maybe they just found your page on Instagram, what should they know about MC Abdul?

To the people that may stumble upon my page on Instagram or something like that, what should they know about me? That I’m a young boy from — that grew up his whole life in Gaza, chasing a dream of becoming an artist. That I carry the country of Palestine on my back and the people of Gaza on my back, and give them hope, to the kids, to the people, and show them that their voice is as important as anybody from anywhere, from, from around the world. And I just — I want to inspire people, and all these maybe traumatic things that I’ve went through in life, I only take it as a learning experience and try to become the best version of myself and push myself every single day.

You said you had a dream, and I’m assuming that is to do with music. I might be wrong, but can you tell me about the moment you decided to start releasing music? Was it a moment, or where did that come from?

I started singing and rapping. It was just a hobby in the beginning, and I was only memorising my favourite songs, and that’s how I taught myself English in the first place. I always grew up watching hip hop documentaries and memorised and studied my favourite songs and my favourite albums that, you know, my dad put me on to, and I would just post them on Instagram. 

After only a year and a half — maybe even a little bit less — of rapping and just being consistent on social media, one of my videos went viral, where I was rapping outside of my school for my schoolmates. And a lot of people loved it, and it’s just had so much attention, and a lot of people showed me so much love and support that, you know, I wanted it to be more than just a hobby. Especially after getting signed with EMPIRE at only 11, 11 and a half, I was like, I can definitely change my life with this, for the better. I can help my family. I can help my people. And most importantly, do something that I really enjoy doing from the bottom of my heart. 

So I just stayed consistent and I just did what I loved, and as I started to get noticed — the moment that I got signed, I just realised how big I can go with this. And that’s when I really started manifesting things like coming to America, doing shows, meeting all these amazing people, and finally getting a chance to record in an actual studio, rather than just using my dad’s Android and my $20 speaker and doing 20 takes just to get the right one, and post it. Performing at Rolling Loud. All these amazing things.

Can you tell me about the first song you released?

My first single is called ‘Shouting at the Wall’. I’m pretty sure I was 12, or maybe 13, when I dropped that. It was back in the 2021 Gaza genocide, and the main inspiration behind it was a Nas song, it’s called ‘I Gave You Power’, that was produced also by DJ Premier, a legend. And I remember I wrote the lyrics to that song and I posted the song on social media. I posted it on Instagram and it got millions and millions of views, and that was my first single. It has over a million — a million streams on Spotify now, maybe 1.5 million streams. I posted it on Instagram and it got millions and millions of views as my first, so that’s pretty good.

I would say — pulling from your Spotify write-up — you’re a warrior and a musician, but you’re also a young person who’s obviously been displaced from his home. And I’m wondering, what’s an average day for you now? I know you just came from school. How does music fit in your day-to-day now, living in America?

As I continue to grow, you know, you feel the responsibilities more — the responsibility of taking care of a family of seven, moving them out here in the Bay Area. So it’s just nonstop work. Just getting in the studio and also just trying to have fun with it, trying to do as many shows as I can, as many interviews, and as many songs that I can put out, and just be real as I can with my fans and just have that connection with everybody that listens to me.

What was the process like, moving your family out?

Well, it took me three and a half years to get my visa to come to America. So since the moment that I got signed, I’ve been trying to get out of Gaza, and it only happened after three and a half years. And, funny enough, I actually landed in America three years ago yesterday. So September 7th, 2023 is my first day here, and America, and it was a dream come true.

But everything changed for me a month later, because I literally made it out just before the genocide started on October 7th, 2023. I was so happy, I was experiencing all these beautiful things. I thought my dreams were coming true until the genocide started, and I had to take a break from music, and I realised the most important thing is try to get my family out of Gaza before anything happens.

It took me almost five months to get them out, and it was a lot to deal with, because there’s been plenty of times where I tried to reach out to my family and a week would go by, 10 days would go by, and I don’t even know nothing about them, where they’re staying, my siblings, my mother. And I was just so worried. So if you can only imagine, music was the last thing that was on my mind, although I did a few songs every now and then.

But ever since I got my family out, I really even took more time off just to be surrounded by my family, and just feeling so happy and blessed that they’re still alive with me. And then I brought them out here to the Bay, and I’m super glad and grateful to give my four younger siblings an opportunity to go to schools out here, to have a better chance in life and just a better future. It just really makes me happy.

Your desire to do music, did that come before your desire to speak up for the oppressed? Are they separate, or the same?

Music to me is expressing how you feel. I feel just the exact same way as the other 2 million people that live in Gaza, because that’s what we’ve been through our whole lives. So when I started doing music, I was always writing about the struggles that I’ve went through, about what my people go through.

I just also wanted to write down about, you know, other topics, about things that I, that I want, as a, as a kid, and what do I dream? How, where do I see myself in the next few years? How would I like things to turn out for me? That’s what I was just always thinking about and writing about. So whatever I think about and whatever I’m feeling in the moment, I just write about it. And I’ve always had that mentality since I started doing music. I’ve always had those topics in me. It was just, how can I express myself? You know, and it was through music. That was the way.

I want to ask a bit about your influences, because you’re really open about your hip hop influences, and you said that you learned English through music. Are there also some Palestinian influences, or even just Arab influences, that we should know about?

I was six years old when the thought of doing music just came up to my mind — not even taking it serious, but just the thought of trying something like this. That’s when it came, when I saw Mohammed Assaf, a Palestinian singer from Gaza. Seeing him make it out of Gaza and chasing his dream to becoming an amazing artist that he is today, and just represent the whole — not just Gaza Strip, but the whole, the whole of Palestine. Seeing him on TV back in 2014 and go on Arab Idol to win and raise the Palestine flag, that was just something that inspired me so much when I was a kid.

Even being around my uncles and aunts when we were watching that, because of everybody knew how much I looked up to him and how much love I had for him, everyone, as a joke, they said, “Imagine if Abdul does this one day.” And, you know, it’s funny because look now,  almost 12 years later; I was six years old, and almost 12 years later, things turned out, you know, crazy. And I met him. He’s an amazing person, and I would love to do something with him one day.

I can tell in your responses you’re quite reflective, and you have some emotions that are brought up as you’re speaking. Can you tell me, what kinds of reflections and emotions have you been feeling?

 I don’t know, I just feel like, based off my answers and what I’ve been saying, I’ve just been reflecting the things that I was going through in the last two to three years, and that’s what this album that I’m putting out — that’s what it talks about. The last two to three years that I’ve went through in my life is just completely changed me as a person — and it helped me grow to be the young man that I am today. Everything that I go through, I just try to write about and let it all out through the music, because that’s the only way for me that I can cope through such a thing, you know?

What are you working on now, and what is your biggest dream for what’s next?

Well, I just I finished working on my album, my debut album. It’s called Shway Shway Day by Day, and it’s going to be out very soon. I’m super excited for it. It just talks about so many personal experiences that  I’ve went through, and I felt like I’ve put my, my heart, my blood, my sweat and tears into this. And my dream, it’s just to have the chance to wake up every single day and continue to do what I love, you know. To drop more music, to inspire people out there, and kids. It’s just — it’s the best feeling in the world. Doing shows, obviously. Going on tours, something that I’m, that I’m looking forward to do. That’s the dream, you know.