Qusai kheder biography books

Musical artist

Qusai Kheder (Arabic: قصي خضر, born 1978) is a Saudi rapper, singer/songwriter, record producer, television personality, voice actor and DJ. He is the first professional Saudi hip hop artist.

In addition to his music career, Qusai has appeared on television as the co-host of Hip Hop Na on MTV Arabia with hip-hop producer Fredwreck, and as a co-host, with Raya Abirached, on MBC1's Arabs Got Talent.

Biography

Early years and early music career

Qusai Kheder was born in Riyadh and raised in Jeddah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A fan of hip-hop since childhood, Kheder began performing and DJing at the age of 15.

At age 17 in 1996, Kheder moved to the United States to attend college, first to Vermont, and later to the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida.

With the introduction of new partners, Eyesomnia Productions evolved into Eyesomnia Enterprises by 2004. Under the Eyesomnia label, Don Legend released two solo albums, and also recorded two EPs and a full album as part of the duo Urban Legacy with fellow MC D-Light. The track "Jeddah (My Hometown City)" from his first independent album, The Life of a Lost Soul, began a buzz for the artist in his hometown back in Saudi Arabia. Legend performed regularly at several performance venues and music events in the Orlando area during the early to mid-2000s. He also performed in shows in Chicago, Atlanta, New York, and other major US cities.^&

Musical artist

Farid Karam Nassar, better known by his stage name Fredwreck, (born 1972) is an American hip-hop recording artist, DJ, and record producer. He got his big break when he became a producer for Dr. Dre's newly founded record label Aftermath Entertainment, and then went on to work with Snoop Dogg's record label Dogghouse Records (now Doggystyle Records) and became a known producer on Tha Dogg Pound-affiliated material. During this time he also was a producer for Snoop Dogg's track: Riders on the Storm ft. The Doors on EA's Need for Speed Underground 2. He has produced tracks from Kurupt's Tha Streetz Iz a Mutha and most of his next release, Space Boogie: Smoke Oddessey; both released during the period the rapper had left Death Row Records. He has also produced for other hip-hop and pop artists such as Eminem, Britney Spears, Ice Cube, Westside Connection, Lil' Kim, Hilary Duff, Xzibit, The Game, Nate Dogg, Everlast, Cypress Hill, 50 Cent, Mobb Deep, as well as non-US acts such as Dizzee Rascal, Tamer Hosny, Qusai Kheder and Karl Wolf.

Early life and career

Fredwreck was born in 1972 in Flint, Michigan to a Palestinian family. His parents to the United States in 1967 after the Six Day War. His father was born in Jerusalem and worked as a tool and die maker for AC Spark Plug, a General Motors division while his mother is from Bir Zeit. When he was 5 years old, he and his father joined a political protest after the Sabra-Shatila massacre.

They later moved the family to San Jose, California, to open his own grocery store business.

When he was 11, he started breakdancing and making breakdance tapes on borrowed DJ equipment. His mother bought him a keyboard, and he made mixtapes. While in high school he worked on a reel-to-reel “mega-mix” for five straight days and sent it to the Bay Area’s hip-hop radio station 106.1 KMEL.

Music career

Inspired by producers Dr. Dre, Mantronix, Marley Mar

Qusai Kheder

Over the last few years, the popularity of hip hop in Saudi Arabia has grown rapidly, thanks in part to the World Wide Web. Artists from the Kingdom and the region have taken control of their art, broadcasting their work online (mostly through YouTube), making a name for themselves, garnering likes, and building a solid fan base. 

Many point to the 1990s in Jeddah as the start of hip hop in Saudi Arabia, with its popularity really growing some 10 years later. Today, the Kingdom’s most renowned hip hop artists include Slow Moe, Moh Flow, Majeed, Abz, Abadi, Klash, and Qusai Kheder, a singer, songwriter, record producer, rapper, television personality, and DJ formerly known by his fans as Don Legend the Kamelion.

Moh Flow

“When I express myself, I have to respect my heritage, my culture, my ethnicity,” explained the 39-year-old artist in an interview on CNN last year. “Once people hear what I say, they might get influenced by it.”

The Kingdom’s rappers produce a unique blend of the genre, merging Khaleeji music and lyrics with conventional hip hop beats. Artists touch on country-specific issues, from love and acceptance, to equality and a shared future. And what is even more distinct is the lack of profanities and vulgarities in the songs.

Recently, however, there has been a movement by some towards producing works with explicit lyrics. According to Arab News, figures such as Saudi hip-hop guru Big Hass, have spoken against the use of profanity and terms such as the n-word, pointing to the lack of knowledge and understanding of the meaning and history behind it.

Slow Moe

The MC, founder of the online Re-Volt Magazine, and radio host of the popular Laish Hip-hop (the country’s first and only hip-hop radio show), said, “Our culture will not allow profanity in the music we listen to. We will shut it down. It doesn’t sum up Arab hip-hop, it’s the power of the word that makes it important. The n-word is not for us to use and, fr