How Big Hass sold hip hop to Saudi Arabia

Brash hip hop and conservative Saudi Arabia are two things that wouldn’t seem to be a natural fit. But Hassane Dennaoui, blogger at ReVolt Radio and Mix FM Jeddah radio show host, thinks hip hop has something to offer Saudi and the Arab world more generally. “It’s time for us as a region to elevate, to wake up,” he says. “Music could be a tool for that.”

From his online platforms, on which he is known as Big Hass, he posts video performances and interviews he’s done with regional hip hop artists, including some based in Saudi, in an attempt to divorce the genre and culture from what he feels is the “wrong image, [that] of gangsta culture, violence, sex, and drugs.” Instead, he emphasizes the potential in hip hop for social justice and empowerment, and a form of expression for young Saudis.

And young Saudis have responded, in force: Dennaoui has over 5,000 followers on Twitter, his blog attracts between 8 and 12,000 readers each month, a e-magazine he recently launched with his wife has garnered about 3,000 readers per issue, a series of events called The Beat aimed to give local artists a venue are routinely packed, and his radio show Laish Hip Hop? (Why Hip Hop? in English) is the station’s top rated weekly show.

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How Big Hass sold hip hop to Saudi Arabia