What the Fiqh – Ep 07

Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah Salam alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu. Welcome to another episode of what the fic

your host brother Bono, Mohammed and I'm joined again today with a very special friend of mine, everyone I bring on. I have some type of connection to and people who I've known for many years or people who I've worked with or done events with in the past, and our guest today, brother Abdullah Masami is a great example of that. We actually toured together in Sweden as a lot. Yeah. This was probably nine years ago. Yeah, nine years ago today. And that that was while you are parts of a group, a group called farsan. Yeah, so we were an African drumming group. We used to sing and rap. And at that moment, everyone, there was a lot in the sheet singers. So when people saw three guys

drumming and just making a lot of noise, like, Yo, this is different. Yeah. You know, and you were very different. Yeah. And it was, and I always respected.

You know, your approach to things you're very easy to going by a guy very laid back guy. I mean, maybe that's a Sudanese blood. I was gonna say soon as people generally are very laid back. Yeah, no. But give me a bit of insight for people who don't know you people maybe that aren't as familiar with you. Give me an insight into Firstly, how you got into the arts. Okay, up until that point, you know, I knew you in that light. But what brought you into that, that field as an artist? Okay. So, basically, I was not creative at all, when I was a little closer. So when I was in school, and and in college, I wasn't creative at all. I just, you know, living at home, my parents were like, No,

no, you can't be doing this sort of stuff. Because creativity, you know, for the most, you know, Muslims, we didn't get into that sort of stuff. Again, we went to university, I moved away from home and lived to some, you know, some crazy dudes and few rappers and poets.

And then I got involved in this poetic collective called artistic souls. Okay, and there was about 50 people in that group. I was the only Muslim guy. Based in Birmingham. This is based in Birmingham. Okay. Yeah. So

then, you know, I enjoy myself. We did some theater, we toured the UK. And then this Pakistani brother joined the group. And I was like, hey, what of us, there's another one say his name is Abdullah Sharif. He used to go by the name of double.

So we connected and we thought, hey, as we are both Muslim, let's try and hit the Muslim market. And so we, we went, and we did some shows around the UK. And then we did a calf together in a

local mosque in Birmingham. And we met this Algerian brother, and he was kind of crazy, but unique. And I thought, yo, we need this guy. And he said, he can drum. We thought we can incorporate his drumming skills. We can sing or we can rap. And, and he did, and he brought a different dimension to the group. At the same time, we all learn how to play African drums, specifically with the jambay Yeah. And then we taught Vince over 20 countries. We had so much African drums, you know, that don't don't I can't even remember them. That long ago. It's been a long time. Yeah.

And, and then we told it, some use of that would won't be the same because, you know, the pioneers of the machine industry. Yes. You know, and we will like the young guys just excited to be around all these these dudes and right.

And,

and then after that, I took a break from it, I stepped away because I got to the age where I was like, Yo, I need to find a real profession. You know, so I became a school teacher.

And I've been doing that for the last 10 years. Right. And but within teaching while I was doing while I was still teaching, I still had the fire inside of me. You know, you can never take creativity out somebody it's hard to get rid of it is very difficult. Yeah. And I've got so much more to give. So morehart is a singer who is a dear friend of mine, and I heard you consider yourself a studio. And then he came in. I said, Let's, let's, let's offer the experience. Let me share with you my experience and share the stage with yourself. And then we did that we created the first song we created this called it's eight today. And it was a great buzz. And that's the only

song that we had. And we were getting booked by lots of people. So we would just turn up to the event and say everyone just close your eyes and pretend it's either

you were doing it together with him or he was mainly he was behind the scene. No, no, we were doing it together. We're doing it together. So he was singing. I was rapping. And you know, it was exciting. We told we did a lot of shows. Then outlandish reached out to us because a lot of people said are you guys a UK

version of Atlantis, right? It's cool, because, you know, I love listening to these guys. Sure. So we did a UK tour with them 10 city tour that was like, for us it was, it was, we felt like Yo, we're going places.

And then we had a lot of people get in touch with us, especially record labels, saying you have a unique sound, we would love to take what you have and take it to the next level.

I went to a few meetings with labels. And I really didn't like the the proposition and the contract. And I declined everything really. And I said to my Listen, if all these guys see something in us, then we have to believe that we have something special. So at that moment, I realized, I said, Well, I'm stepping back. I've been doing this for many years, you're still fresh in the scene, I'm stepping back, I'm going to push you as a solo. And I'll be behind the scenes, I don't want to be on stage normal.

So created the organization called Romero entertainment. So we just tell stories through theater, music, and film.

And we create music for lots of singers do all the visuals, we push them out online and, and it's been a year and a half now. And we've been doing hamdulillah we've talked to a lot my other talks to a lot of different countries did a lot of gigs in the UK, and then allowed me to really focus on storytelling. Because I've been writing stories for the last 15 years, right? I think I've written over 1000 stories. I didn't know what I'm writing them for. But now I know, at the time, I didn't know why I'm writing the story, or, or what's the purpose of the story. But now when I'm looking through my notebooks, I understand it was all meant to

I understood that this is it's all meant to be for this moment to create.

And

what we did was, we created the first Avenue sheet musical theater. Right, I saw that and so so just just before that, when I was teaching, I really got frustrated with the policies and, and the way the system was was was was was it the whole thing really frustrated me. So I walked away from teaching. And as soon as I walked away, I wrote the play. And I went and what was it called to play at the neighbors, it was a neighbor. So it was a two hour and a sheet musical. So because I'm around so many artists, I thought hey, I can utilize their skills and bring some actors and, and create something that maybe you know, the Muslim, the Muslims haven't seen in the UK before because

we just used an issued sing as Come on on stage. So we taught with organization called Penny pill. We've we the first year we did three seats, or we just sold out. The second year, we did a six seater, which was nine shows which was earlier this year. And and we're just writing the whole team is just writing, everyone's getting really creative. Everyone's enjoying the buzz. And especially like why the solo singer and and all the other guys that we work with.

They're enjoying the limelight, because they're new to this. But to me, it's like you're reliving the past, I'm reliving like people like I'm supporting wild on stage and people like whoa, you're amazing. I'm like, Nah, I was great. I'm just there just to support the guy. Yeah, you know, I've, for me, it's all about

telling different stories, different perspective of stories from the Muslim community, and creating into a different art form. So what's the big difference you've seen? Because obviously, you at one point, you were kind of lead you say in front of the camera. Now you're more behind the camera behind the scenes, what's the major difference? You've seen doing it once on your own being able to be the artist, the guy in the light and now helping to support those talents? What do you find to be the big difference between the two for me is like, this is where I'm at this is my purpose. Because I'm direct, I'm actually given all of the tools and the skills and, and, and I'm giving them

everything for them to reach a certain level. I'm allowing these guys to develop because I feel like if you're going to be an artist, you need to be the best artist. You can't just be a coyote who wants to be a machine singer. You have to really put your full energy and your focus into some I'm supporting all these people I'm invest in. I'm spending so much time I'm creating opportunities and bringing all the videographers together and the producers together and and making everything easy for the artists because back then is completely universal. Yeah, it was very expensive, very difficult. Now, if I just want to make songs on the sheets with the organization's drummer, right

entertainment, so if they want to make stuff with us

It's cuts cost peanuts, because we know exactly what we're doing. And

for me, it's like, the bigger picture is it's not me it's it's, it's the vision is creative education, educating the next generation of Muslim kids. You know, and that is the main purpose. So being that you've already already experienced a lot of that, you know, maybe someone like my brother right now is, is experiencing many firsts, you know, getting to travel getting to perform in front of different audiences in crowds. Is there any advice you give him that you kind of learned from while you were first on the road? And you say, Well, you know, stay away from this, do this preparation, what to eat, you know how to sleep, whatever there any advices or tips that you would

offer him in advance. Just have fun. Just enjoy this journey. You want to send? And, of course, when you're on tour, just eat salad. Yeah, yeah. Be careful. You don't know where your food's coming from? Yeah, I don't know if you guys can hear my voice. I don't know. I don't normally sound like this. Well, I I lost my voice. Because we did two shows yesterday. And last night.

I wasn't feeling too well. You know, I didn't eat salad.

So you should have followed your own advice. Exactly. But I just tell people listen,

enjoy the journey, and meet people meet your fans, because these guys are looking up to you, you know, go out and meet them respond to them. Because who knows? Your actions can save their life. You know, I mean, so they really need to understand this. And a lot of people just come in doing it for the money. But they need to understand the bigger picture. And, and the bigger vision and then success will come. And it's like a lot of people just they just want to come they think oh, I'm going to be successful overnight. Huh. You don't have to this is a marathon. Yeah. You know, it's like you haven't you've been doing this for so long. Very long. Yeah, almost. Maybe. I've been

performing professionally since I was 19. I'm 32. Now, that's what about 13 years? Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, and what they say is like, you will reach success if you put 10 years into your craft. Yeah. If you've not put in 10 years into your craft, you know, you're you're nobody, you know, there's only a limited number of people who are going to be successful overnight. Yeah.

So, you know, just, it's just got to take your time. Well, also, there's so many artists that I remember that don't exist today. Yes. Right. And I'm sure you've seen that kind of natural progression. People are here today, gone tomorrow. I know that obviously, social media has allowed that, you know, 15 seconds of fame to last a bit longer. Yeah. Right. And And do you remember what it was like coming up without social media? I just wish social media was poppin. And back then I know genocide is so difficult. Yeah. It was extremely difficult than Yeah, I mean, to even to get notoriety. I think the best tool that I probably had was YouTube. YouTube is what really helped me

push the international boundaries. I had some buzz and notoriety in Canada locally in my city in Toronto, but obviously as an artist trying to tap into the mainstream you know, even as mainstream artists you need press you need you know, there's been a lot of money on press junkets you need TV appearances, radio, right, all that stuff goes into helping build portfolio that people can say, Oh, yeah, I saw this person on this channel. I saw them there. And it requires it requires a big team, a lot of people. Now all you need to do is just grab your phone and just sing. Now you can go viral off your off your phone, I find all the people who I work with, I find them all on Instagram. I

worked with a guy from Belgium, I flew him to Birmingham, and he now he lives there. And we create all the music. There was another female from Malaysia, you know, resided in Sweden, in Australia and brought her she came to the UK create all the music on all these guys that just find them on on Instagram. Yeah, you know, so I just feel like, if you have a talent, if you got something to say, Instagram, Facebook, social media, that's the way forward because you're gonna captivate an audience. Now, I don't want to sound like the old grouch, you know, like back in my day. But do you find like the artists today are a little bit. I don't know what the word to be maybe maybe a bit

more spoiled, or they don't necessarily appreciate? Yeah, the access they have to audiences? Yeah, yeah. Big time. They feel like they feel very entitled. Yeah, I'm just I'm sick of speaking out loud. You tell me if you disagree. I find a lot of them. They feel like, you know, people will be performing for like, a year or less. And they will ask themselves, you know, why aren't I headlining? Why Aren't I the you know, the main performer? I had a video that had you know, 100,000 views or whatever. And they go to an event like this or other conferences or big platforms. And they ask themselves, you know, why is this person there? Why

Might not there you see the finish? Yeah, my policy is, if you work with tomorrow for the first 12 months, we do not get you any gigs. Because you have to create songs, what? How are you going to go? What song are you going to sing when you're on stage? You know, you can't, you want to go on, and you're going to sing the best songs. And so for the first year, we don't get them shows. And then they feel like I'm spending all this time. Or there's all these gigs and concerts. Why am I on there? Why is that artist on there? Because they've been doing it longer than you have, the more established and then they, they, they feel like, Oh, I can do this on my own. Hmm. And then they go

on try and create opportunities for them. But then they realize, yo, it's just gonna come back and smack them in that smack them. Or you can say whatever you want. This is uh, this is not pG 13 rated halaal podcast, so yeah, man. So it's just gonna, you know, he's gonna come back to them. And I mean, and like, I was chatting to a few people the other day, and I was like, yo, there's only a few individuals who, when we started, who are still doing it, you know, there's yourself. Muslim Bilaal? Yeah.

I mean, I'm talking about the urbanize. Ah, yeah, our crew, Drew I myself, yeah. And there's a lot of them who came and they disappeared. Oh, yeah. All these new ones turned up, and they disappeared, and people got to understand you cannot just be a singer in the machine industry, you have to offer so much more. Yeah, gentlemen, if you're going to become an A sheet singer, you need to have a full time job. Gentlemen, if there's something that can kind of compensate those losses in the beginning, you might take, you might not be getting paid a lot, you might obviously have a lot of events. Exactly. Because it takes time it takes time. It's a marathon. And my my advice all these up and

coming. The sheet singers, they just need to take some advice from people who've been in the scene or people who've been in the industry for so long.

Everybody's in it for themselves. And they feel like Yo, I know everything, gentlemen, yeah, it's a real shame. Because the main purpose why we're doing this is not for your success. It's not for my success, it's actually for seeing the youth, you know, just just just given a voice to the youth, and just seeing them.

Seeing the next generation

is going to be a positive role model for next generation. Because I don't I believe there's not enough of us. I mean, I don't see myself as a positive role model.

Are you a negative role model?

positive role model? I don't say that. No, no, in terms of because I'm behind the scenes, right. I want to help create Sure, sure. Next Generation of Muslim you have, but you have also a profile people know you. I mean, you're not like super behind the scenes. No, no, no, of course not. Like if someone if someone who wants me to jump on stage, and I'll get on stage, I hype the crowd up, you know, I mean, but also you have the theater stuff as well. So you are in you know, in a sense, you're still on the stage. I'm still on this. I'm just trying to create different opportunities and different markets for the Muslims to enjoy, right?

Because, you know, there's there's lots of different forms of creativity. So it's not singing. You know, this thing in this theater. There's a lot of people just do spoken word and then is singing. Yeah, I remember actually, the, one of the first times I came to Birmingham, your city, my auntie present, right? All my homies out there listening. I remember one of the first times I came to Birmingham, actually, right hand brought me out. Oh, yeah, I performed at one of the universities I think it was might have been Birmingham University can't remember. And I remember performing spoken word poetry. And at this point, I had already been working on my craft for years, right? Like I

performed for non Muslims mainly and now performing for Muslims. The difference was I was I was more finely tuned like I knew the craft a bit better. Yeah. And I remember performing for this Muslim crowd and they just looked at me and all like, what like, What is he doing? Like his hit? And afterwards the real question was, is he allowed to do this? Seriously, it was are you allowed to rhyme words like that and you would just do an acapella just acapella just spoken word poetry. That's it. And and the look of shock on their faces. Afterwards, people came up and asked me, brother just permissible. I heard this and they they're big, you know, the big thing they always

say, is that all you're imitating the kofod Yes. Right. And and, of course, this is a show with the hand movement with the hand movements. Yeah, you only go for a talk like this. Right. This is right. And and it's one of those things that definitely I always mentioned this, and it's something that it's, you know, I feel like I've overstated, but you know, a lot of it has to do with anti blackness and racism is embedded with an anti blackness because black culture inherently is evil according to some different cultures. Sure, right. Anything that is associated with black culture has some type of, you know, they're like the extreme kofod. Like, we really don't want to be like them, right?

Yeah. So that's a different discussion. But what I found it more interesting was that now like 10 years later, when I look back at

I see, for example, all the Muslim spoken word artists that exist today. And I think to myself, man, you guys don't know the struggle I have to go through. Now you guys are out here doing your thing you're performing, you know, and those enjoying the easy will lie. It's easy. There's so many people I had to convince. I had to beg and plead and be like, hey, look, this is okay, let's go to the court. And we'll go to the sheriff, let's ask, you know, you see, you did it with just acapella. We did it with drums, I can only imagine what you're gonna have to deal with. And, and it's like, what would happen is people I've had times where

I'm performing that event, and then the chef would walk in, and they turn the sound system off.

Do you understand all the turn the music, the volume of the microphone down all the way?

And it's like, why was? Why are you doing this? You know, you gotta appreciate art, you gotta appreciate the eyes. And I also believe a lot of these organizations who have all these entertainers, they don't care about them. They don't show them love. They don't show to show them the appreciation. They just like, Hey, we just need to entertain that come on stage. I mean, we have a slot, we'll bring you on. And the main focus is not you, right, the main focus is trying to raise hell of a lot of money for you know, you know, I've got known

for sound calls, which is great. You understand. But I feel like there's a time and a place entertainment, it needs to be its own form.

And then there's, you know, just then there's the other side to it. You know, it's strange. And in the in the Muslim art scene, somehow, charities have become intertwined with Islamic art. But brav charities are the record labels. They are they they run the machine industry, they do they do want a sound. Yeah. And it's a real shame. Yeah. But talk to me about I mean, how did that come about? I remember when, you know, we used to charge admission, you charge five pounds, 10 pounds, whatever, come in the door, you know, you don't make a lot but you you know, that's how the money came in. Now, it's literally Okay, the charity is gonna pay for everything. Yeah. And Brian, but they're

gonna squeeze the hell out of anyone who's in that room, get every get them on a monthly payment, get their card details and everything. Right? When did that transition happen? I think from the start, I think it was from the start, gentlemen. And, you know, we all from the start from when when I started, all I knew was yo charities are the ones who are holding these concerts. You know, I mean, we need to know the people within this charity within that charity. Gentlemen, they doing what they do, right. I mean, they have they have to get the numbers. You know, I mean, and I mean, it's frustrating because you know, an artist they want to perform and they have Antti GC in our front,

Shane got a clue who the guy is, she ain't got a clue what the guy is saying. But she just turned up because the charity as contacted them contacted a fan sent her a text message or email. So you will have to come please come through. Yeah, you know, but there's not a people don't turn up just for entertainment. They come for, you know, for the food. Yeah. For the food mainly. And then when it comes to fundraising, people try and sneak out. Right. Which is, which is that it's not the ideal. I feel like we have to have our own festivals. Just a Muslim art festival, just a Muslim art festival with no charity involvement. No, Jared, I don't know if that'll ever happen. The church charities to

me become like the mafia. You know, you have like in the American mafia, they have like, the five families. Yeah, we have like, I'm not gonna say any names, because they're all close friends of mine. I love them. All right, yeah. You don't want to get in trouble with charities, I'll tell you that much, right. But it's like, they all have their own little niches, their own little areas of expertise and focus. And a lot of times they will find an artist or discover an artist and they will, you know, take that person on the road. And they really milking that person's social media presence to say, look, you know, this person is going to be featured here. Let's see how many people

we can get. My only fear is that a lot of times it almost feels like these charities have no sense of a moral compass. It doesn't really matter who that person is, like, if the job came tomorrow and said, Hey, I'm ready to tour they'd be like, all right, like, well, I'm sure we got a big crowd. Yeah. Right. Because it's really it's about getting bums in the seat. That's all right. It's about how many people can we get in a room? And how many people can we milk for fundraising? Of course, psychology, the psychology of it is, you know, okay, well, they're raising funds to help people over, you know, overseas doing, you know, people that are in immense need, but obviously, we

understand that many of them operate like a business as well. Yeah, Every business has its quota, its yearly quarterly quota. This is how much money they need to make. So in many ways, they're intentional intention. You know, and of course, a lot knows their intentions. But if if their intentions are even minute, Li, not 100%. We're all going to suffer right? Because

They will bring the same people over again they will bring such and such cricket player or such and such Bollywood star or such as this person has very little Islamic value. Yeah, right. But it's literally this long as that person can attract people to sit down. Yep, that's all that matters. Yeah, you know, but But then again, it's like, the judge, they, they, they get creative as well as like, they, they they host various different types of events. Yeah, you know, I mean, again, just to bring people to sit down.

But being an artist being someone who creates and behind the scenes, I would like to see a lot more Islamic festivals around the world. UK charities are very crafty, though. I'm pretty sure all charities learned from the UK. Because UK, there's so many Islamic charities in the UK. Yeah, that and you know, it's really like that type of pressure builds or creates innovation, like an innovation in the good sense, right, that people are constantly figuring out different ways or techniques to attract people. But do you find it to be such that without charities, people would still be exposed or be willing to pay to come and experience art? No, you don't think so.

There needs to be a lot more.

There needs to be actually a lot more different types of events, gentlemen, it's like,

people don't really have a specific Muslim, the sheet artists that they follow to gentlemen is mainly the young kids, right? The younger generation, you know, the turn of the start screaming and a lot these organizations don't want to be part of this. You know, but hopefully, we'll see. We'll see, you know, well, 15 years ago, we were struggling. Yeah, look where we are now. Yeah, you know, in the next 15 years, who knows, man will have big big festivals all over, you know, but how do we do that without charities? How do we get away from them? I mean, not to say there's anything bad like I essentially understand the purpose of Islamic charities, I'm not debating that. I think

they're great. They do great work. I visited sites of many of these different places. But I'm talking about this very strange marriage between art and charity. The charity is always gonna be there. But it wasn't always there before. From when I started, yeah, they were there. I think there was a time of very small window of time. But if it's, if it's, say, for instance, in Canada, they support a lot of Islamic organizations and Islamic festivals, some, you know, in America, they do the same thing. If, if there's if there's investment if there's government support, then then yes, you know, we will be able to see a lot of these

events happening. You ever think they will come a day when

Islamic organizations or massaged will fundraise to put money in a bank or an account to support or foster Muslim talent or Muslim arts you everything, I would love to see something like, like

golf for, like arts and culture. Yeah. I mean,

I would love to see that. And I believe like, check this out. Yeah. Now there's a lot of young, energetic

creative individuals to have fire inside of them, gentlemen, and the crane, great content, and, and they're gonna create their own market, there's going to be people who are going to get involved, like, you know what, you are amazing talent, we need to get you on tour. But we can create our own tours. There's artists who are blacklisted by charities, really UK eyes from around the world. Why is that? Because they attract a certain type of audience where kids are just enjoying themselves, you know, screaming or throwing their hijab.

And, you know, the, you know, the brothers, you know, the the older brothers, they, they don't understand us, they don't understand the younger generation, because

when our families came to the west, you know, my parents, your parents, they came to America, UK, in Canada and in Europe. They established masajid. They built communities, they set up halal restaurants and butchers and they saw the the community structure was solid, gentlemen. Mm hmm. And then they were so busy focusing on the, you know, focusing on the community, and then they had kids, and their kids were like, Hey, we have everything. We're chillin, you know,

let our parents do everything. We're just gonna have fun. And then it comes to our generation. And we're like, Yo, this does there's you got the older generation, who don't relate to us. Everything is hilarious or everything's haram Haram, but we, and then the generation above us, they're completely silent, completely invisible. So we grew up not knowing where to go, Is this right? There was not enough guidance. So because we've experienced the struggle with trying to give the youth the opportunity to

To focus and live righteously and, and to understand

you know, just just just to live a positive life, so we try to become positive role models.

So it's just that gap. And I just hope there's no more generation gaps. You know? Well, I hope I mean, between like, you have children, I have children between myself and my children, there's much less of a cultural gap. Yes, right. Like they are essentially Canadian. In the same way that I was essentially Canadian. I was born here. They're born here. Language culture, even though my wife is Eritrean. I'm almost from Ethiopia, you know, our culture's are very similar anyways. But I mean, externally, there isn't really much difference between, you know, us and your children, obviously now, British Yes, Sudanese but but British essentially. Right. And I think that's something that we

should embrace, right? Why Why should we, you know, hide from that. White, I think there's a notion that, Oh, this is the land of the kofod there's a land of non Muslims or, you know, we can't adopt their culture, but it's like, Dude, it's too late. You brought us here, we're here. We're invested in society, when we want the best for the people around us as well. We want the society to flourish. We want our homes to be the best possible places, right? We don't want to throw trash on our front lawns. So I think maybe for our kids generation is going to be easier, I hope inshallah inshallah like the way in which they're going to be brought up and raised. You know, I hope your kill your

children are confidently British, Muslim, Sudanese, whatever, but confident in who they are is right. And I think that's the thing that our generation kind of lacked a little bit that confidence in the sense of, you know, are you really truly British? Am I really truly Canadian? I was lost when I was growing up, um, Sudanese. in Birmingham, there's not many of them. There's not much of a very, very rare Yeah, not much of a big Sudanese community. So going into college, I'm like, Okay, so I've got the black crew. Okay, I can relate to them. I've got the Arabs, I speak Arabic and relate to them. I've got the Pakistanis, because I'm a Muslim. I've got the the Africans, because Sudanese and

American. And I'm standing in the middle. I'm like, hey, wow, who do I join, huh? And then I'm just like, dependent, dependent, dependent. And I felt lost, and didn't really have a real connection with Sudan, you know, only recently. So you don't need a Sudanese I realized that about Sudanese people that they can really pass in many different circles. I didn't realize that. But I, by the way, this is completely random off topic. But over the years, like always, my best friends have always been Sudanese. Well, I am attracted to these people. They're the I think one of the best groups they look like as well. Like I could pass the Sudanese right, sometimes I go places, but

that's besides the point. I noticed that Sudanese obviously they're considered to be right. African, but sometimes not East African enough for some East Africans. Yeah. Right. Obviously, you know, having Arabic on your tongue, you know, gives you that sense of confidence around maybe non Arabic speakers. Yeah. So you can pass in Muslim circles very closely. But I find like that, that, you know, being Sudanese must be very interesting. Dynamic. Yeah, you track so many people. Yeah, join us on and it's like,

it's like, especially when you're living in the West, you don't really feel like you are. You are British, or you are American. You feel like Yes, I'm still connected to Sudan. At the same time, I'm not. I've not embraced the full culture, because I'm still trying to find who I am, right? Because Am I an Arab? Or my African? Am I British?

And that really plays it really does mess up with your head. And I've spoken to a hell of a lot of Sudanese people, right, and everyone has the same I can imagine it's the same same, you know, it's a very unique position to be in. I bet most time people are just like, oh, he looks Somali. All the time. So they just round it off. But then there's a lot of Somali diaspora obviously is very large. Yeah. So we just kind of get swallowed and you just get rounded off and within it, I mean, at the beginning, it's like when Somalis Somalis came to the UK, I was like, they used to come and speak to me in Somali and I was like, brother, no, I'm sorry. I'm from Sudan. Now as I just like, Hey, you

know I don't even care if someone says you Somali I'm like, similar East African you know say yeah, look the same. Yeah, gentlemen. hamdulillah I mean, it's funny like obviously we look the same to a lot of outside I can kind of tell who's who I could tell Oh, yeah, you don't look Somali to me? No, no, no, you don't know you don't you look, you look Sudanese you look for these or you can also be Eritrean. Maybe like a dark skinned Eritrean, listen, have you ever denied Bengali? Whoa, Are you someone needs to check their glasses? I'm saying I'm Bengali I'm so some Jamaican some some idiot for house Chinese just a black Chinese black Chinese. You got small eyes.

First I've ever heard I know man. That's the criteria. Some small lies. I think I was tired that day.

Oh, man.

How's the situation in Sudan right now? It's, I mean, they asked that the the president So,

by the way, this man, this news might be irrelevant by the time this thing gets out, but just from my own personal information, it's stable, it's stable, it's getting better. Getting better. Sudan is a very beautiful country, man. I wish all the best panel I mean, you know, I hope you know, I hope people can actually live a peaceful life and enjoy life and, and

yeah, any any, we're going to wrap up soon. inshallah any advice you have, obviously, again, back to you know, you're an artist, you're you're kind of in the management field. Now, any advice you have for upcoming artists, people that want to enter into inside the field, people who maybe want to pursue a career in the arts in the future.

Take it slow, this is a marathon. It's not a, it's not a sprint, learn from the elders. Learn from people who've been in this game for a long time, speak to people connect with a hell of a lot of people. And remember, you're doing this for a greater purpose, not just for yourself, not your voice. It's, it's to empower the next generation of youth. And for me, this is the most important thing because you got to teach them creatively. I'm a champion for creative education. 100% and I'm gonna die. You know, I'm not gonna stop, you know, actually really, really pushing creativity in schools and, and in young kids. So I feel like just renew intentions constantly know exactly what

you're doing it for, and enjoy the ride. Because it's gonna be a hell of a good journey.

And I know, we've had some good times. Oh, yes. You know, yeah. And the best thing about it is when you do it, well, you'll have many friends all over the world. You know, beautiful people, man, you know hamdulillah because this world is a small place it is and people got to pick the bags and and and connect to people all over. So just enjoy this journey and

have a great time and it's a marathon Take it easy. If people want to get in touch with you. What's the best way to do so? Social media Instagram. What's your? Yes, so I'm on Instagram is boss Tommy? I am bestowment I spell be USTA Am I

very it's a very unique name. It's my father's name. Now I've kind of adopted that name was Tommy means what? Like I was like, Gardner. No, that's standing standing. Okay. So as Tommy just said, stymies it's it's, it comes from a place in Persia in Iran from the city of Boston. Okay. And it's predominantly a name used in Indonesia, Malaysia. Jordan, okay. Not as not for Sudanese

i think but the granddad had a great a he had a good sense of humor.

So people can find you online and definitely, you know, support the brother hopefully inshallah just just before that, go ahead and find me online on the bus Tommy but we are on the Ramiro entertainments How do you spell that? br i m er o What does that stand for? So basically primero means in Latin is the leader the chief the one and I was like, hey, the industry I'm in is for the Muslims and the Arabs but they can't pronounce the P ah. So we went with Rama Rama

and inshallah your play hopefully inshallah you know the theater that can be hopefully we can bring that different parts of the world we are we're writing constantly have you have you had a chance to present aid with the neighbors? Yeah, so we've done it in the UK. We're gonna take it International, once a year.

And just straight off the aid. We're writing various different plays and different stories.

Working with different organizations so inshallah Braemar entertainment will be in your city very soon. By the way, my background is in theater. Yo, man, this is how I got started so yeah, I'm saying if you need another if you need a Sudanese look alike, hey, some brothers stand in the background. I got you.

Okay, have you for joining us Thank you very much.

Thank you for everyone watching and shot a lot you enjoyed this like it, share, subscribe, whatever you guys got to do, inshallah, get the message out. And we'll hopefully see you on another episode of what the fic bodum I'm signing out Somali come out to LA heat obata katsu