iHR: I know you came up as a producer and a rapper but what sparked your interest in the music industry?

HASSAN: I think the root of it was like the Ninja Turtles. That was the first time I ever saw rap was when the Ninja Turtles rapped. I was like "Aw man the Ninja Turtles were so cool. They're rapping. They're eating pizza. They're doing karate and s**t." I was like "I wanna be a Ninja Turtle." That's why I think it's funny when people talk about "Rap is Black" or "Rap is white." To me, rap was green (laughs) because of the Turtles. Then shortly after, and this will be controversial to say, but if I'm being honest when I was a little kid, the first time I saw Puffy and Ma$e in those shiny suits, you know, Hype Williams the way he painted the culture, the way he lit the culture up with the "Mo' Money Mo' Problems" video and all those videos from the '90s. That's how I fell in love with it. That was the allure of like "Wow what is this? I need to be a part of it."

After going through your music, I noticed you have a lot of religious-inspired songs and bars. What are your views on spirituality and why do you lean on that in your music?

It's interesting because my father was born in Baghdad, Iraq. His father was decapitated by Saddam Hussein because his father was in the Parliament pre Saddam. So after that happened, him and his 15 brothers and sisters became political refugees, and they basically fled through the whole Middle East. And years and years later they came to America. But I'm saying all that to say he's Muslim. My mother is American and Catholic, and I'm now, at this point, born-again Christian, nondenominational, but born-again Christian.

So it's been an interesting journey because I would come home and see my dad praying five times a day on the ground, but then I'd also be going to church with my mom on Sunday. And so it's always been a big thing in my family and in my house. They even made this spiritual realization society that my mom and dad did together where they would have all religions come every week. So Buddhist would come, a rabbi would come, different people every week would come. I was 7 watching all this stuff every week and now I feel like in music, that's my coding, that's my DNA. What my dad was doing with bringing people together, different religions. I feel like that coding is what I do now. Right now I'm working with the J.U.S.T.I.C.E League, but I'm also working with this producer named Bink who did a lot on The Blueprint for JAY-Z and "Devil In A New Dress" for Ye, which is my favorite Ye song. They have a rivalry, but I'm also someone that's working with Dame Dash. I say this to say I feel like God sent me to kind of be like this conduit to bring — by the end of all this, I'm going to bring everybody back together because it is about the spirit. I don't try to be all super holier than thou, but it's like the spirit of love is going to win because we're seeing this year, we see what's going on. The darkness is exposed, the light is here, love is going to win.

Do you consider yourself to be Christian rapper because of your beliefs, or do you not try to put yourself in that box?

Nah, I still be cursing and s**t and I think being honest about everything, even whatever it is, battling with sex out of marriage or out of wedlock or cursing or whatever, or having idols. We got to be honest with it. We can't be so holier than thou. I have this song coming with Bryson Gray. He was one of the first black MAGA Christian rappers. We disagree. We disagree on theology. We disagree on some of the things when it comes to interpreting the Bible, but I think it's fine. I think we still need to make dope art because the devil got all the dope artists. The devil got all the dope creatives. The devil got all the dope producers. The devil got all the dope rappers, designers. The devil is winning when it comes to fly s**t. And when someone comes to God, they still need to compete at that highest level. You still got to compete with that Future record. You still got to come with that fire in brimstone.

You've been around for years. What would you say was that first song that really got the attention of the people who have co-signed you today?

There was a specific poem that I did called "Sand N***a" which was very controversial because of the title, obviously. The poem then got turned into a record, and that was really the record that Dame [Dash] was like, "oh s**t, the fact that you're doing this and you have the confidence to do this, and you're not scared, you have no fear to do this. I know you believe in this s**t. You risking your life for this. The poem is basically based on my father escaping Iraq and there was a time that I got arrested with 19 guns under my bed when I was a kid. It's a long story, but the police arrested me and they called me a "sand n****r. It was the first time that I ever heard that term. When I was writing the poem, I was like it'd be just funny to use it.

A lot of people gave me smoke about it. I remember having a conversation with GLC and Ali and a couple of different people, and they was like, 'Yo, you can't say that. I was like, 'well, I appreciate your input, but I don't really care.' But yeah, so it was kind of me flipping that situation into a poem. It's not a term of endearment, it's just writing it for what it is. But I think that was the first record that was especially Dame. He was like, oh man, this dude's either fearless or he's crazy. You what I mean?

Clearly that record got a lot of eyes and ears attracted to you. How did Dame Dash and Ye impact your career?

Yeah, that's a great question. I could say how Dame has impacted my life as a man in general. We went to the media room for the BET awards in 2019. He was like, yo, we're going to stop by Adidas beforehand and Adidas headquarters and go get fly and go get some s**t. And I remember going through this whole process. He had to stop to pick up his daughter. He made sure to talk to his son on the phone who was in New York. I was like, man, this man is moving throughout his day, but he's making sure that his family's first. He's making sure that he's picking up his daughter and taking her to school, picking her up from this. And I was like, man, this is what it's about. It's about taking care of your family, being like a real mob boss. I would say he's impacted me as a man first and foremost, and showed me what's important. Think about it. He walked away from all this 20 years ago so that he could raise his kids.

Frankie Robinson