Coming straight out of Palestine’s hip hop scene is ‘The Beat Never Goes Off’, from the acclaimed hip hop MC, award-winning actor, screenwriter, film-maker and activist Tamer Nafar. Tamer is the first ever Palestinian rapper and drops his incendiary, debut solo English-language cut on 20th September, featuring 12 year Gaza-based rap prodigy MC Abdul and the hauntingly beautiful vocals of Palestinian singer-songwriter and internet sensation Noel Kharman.

The track is accompanied by a gritty, exhilarating video that is already going viral, racking up tens of thousands of views daily. Shot by Palestinian director Michael Zananiri the video sees Tamer under low light, dropping bars with intensity, projected behind him is MC Abdul skillfully rapping from Gaza, with Noel Kharman making a stunning appearance to bless the tune with her glorious voice. The trio each have incredible stories and have between them have racked up over 120 million streams/views globally.

The outcome is a banger that unapologetically celebrates unity and the energy and defiance of hip hop, against the backdrop of Palestine, with its lyrics “That was a tank attack, that was a gas attack. Never a heart attack. Because the beat never goes off” – despite the troubles and struggles, ‘The Beat Never Goes Off’ demonstrates that hip hop is very much alive and well in Palestine.

A Palestinian with Israeli citizenship, Tamer Nafar has written and co-produced this exhilarating hip hop anthem that showcases his sick lyrical flow and beats. Tamer reached out to MC Abdul, a child MC who first went viral in the wake of Intifada when he was 9, who quickly jumped on the track to remotely lay down a rap that complements Nafar in delivery and style. With its energy and vibe, clever Western cultural references and humour, ‘The Beat Never Goes Off’ has been a year in the making. It has already been reaching influential ears around the world, with support from high profile Palestinians such as DJ Khalid, Gigi Hadid and Ghazi Shami the founder of Empire (Iggy Azalea, Young Dolph) who will distribute the record.

Tamer Nafar is a pioneer of Arab hip-hop in the Middle East, the first Palestinian rapper and founder of the state’s original rap crew DAM, who rap in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. He is a social and political activist and someone who remains committed to his local community and to Palestinians around the world.

Tamer Nafar explains “When I heard rap for the first time as a teen I knew my life would change. I got the same feeling when I heard the 9 year old MC Abdul rapping from Gaza. He made me grab the pen, write the song, record it and sending it to him asking for a feature. During the production I knew I wanted the amazing Noel Kharman to add a bit of her gentle Arabic vox. The result doesn’t even sound like we planned it. It started it as a sad song, but the energy each individual brought just made us think that the Middle East isn’t only about death and wars, we’re still here… The Beat Never Goes Off.”

MC Abdul adds “It’s been an honour for me to work with a great artist in the Arabic hip-hop scene, Tamer Nafar. I hope you all like ‘The Beat Never Goes Off’ as much as I do.”

With young MC Abdul unable to leave Gaza, video director Michael Zananiri projected him onto a wall behind Tamer, he explains how he came up with the concept “It was a challenging video…how do we bring two artists on the same screen when they have walls between them? They live 30 minutes away from each other, but can’t meet, and the last thing I wanted was to do a split screen. This project is about unity and hip hop, so the best I could think of was to project Abdul on the wall near Tamer just to feel that music and videos can make us dream that we are bigger than walls.”

Coming out digitally, ‘The Beat Never Goes Off’ is taken from Tamer Nafar’s forthcoming debut album, which he has written and produced. He will be sharing further singles and the album release in 2022.

Tamer Nafar grew up in Lydda, a mixed city of Palestinians and Jews near Tel Aviv. As a teenager, Tamer discovered hip hop and became the world’s first Palestinian rapper. His lyrics and activities reflect the Palestinian struggle, women’s rights, and the promotion of alternative art within a conservative society. In 2000, Tamer founded the first Palestinian hip hop group DAM, along with his brother Suhell Nafar and friend Mahmood Jrere. In 2016 new member Maysa Daw joined DAM to replace Suhell. One of their first singles “Min Irhabi” (Who’s the Terrorist) was downloaded over a million times, making DAM a household name among Middle Eastern youth. To date, Tamer and DAM have released 3 official albums (Dedication – 2006, Dabke on the Moon – 2010 & Ben Haana Wa Maana – 2019 via UK label Cooking Vinyl), as well as numerous singles and music videos. The group have toured around the world for more than a decade. Tamer has collaborated and performed with hip hop artists like DJ MK, Dead Prez, Pharaoh Monch, Talib Kweli, Mos Def and many more. To date Tamer has achieved over 9million views on YouTube. Beyond music, he is an accomplished screenwriter and continues to act in theatre throughout the country. More recently, Tamer starred in and co-wrote the feature film Junction 48, which won the Audience Award at the Berlin Film Festival and Best International Film in Tribeca.

12 year old MC Abdul was born in Gaza, Palestine and first gained popularity at the age of 9 when he made a rap about freedom in front of his school in Gaza among his friends, the video went viral and garnered millions of views on social media around the world. He is studying at a school affiliated with the UNRWA. He learned how to speak English from songs he listened to and his main inspirations are Tamer Nafar, Tupac, Eminem, Jay Z, Kool G Rap, J Cole, to name a few. His last Instagram video earned 6million views.

Noel Kharman is a burgeoning singer from Palestine, who gained widespread fame after her YouTube mashup of Adele’s “Hello” and Fairouz’s “Kifak Inta” went viral. Her continued song covers and mashups have earned her nearly 700,000 followers on the platform. In October 2015, she did a cover of Sam Smith’s “Writing’s On The Wall” on YouTube, the video earned more than 1 million views after its release, out of a staggering total 103 million YouTube views.