Marwan Abdelhamid (born 2000), famously known as Saint Levant, is a Jerusalem-born US-based rapper. He was born to a French-Algerian mother and Palestinian-Serbian father during the Second Intifada.[1] He is a multilingual rapper and his song "Very Few Friends" has over 50 million streams on Spotify alone. He is also Dior's first ever fragrance ambassador in the Middle East.[2]

Early life

He was born on 6 October 2000 to a French-Algerian mother and Palestinian-Serbian father during the Second Intifada.[1] Abdelhamid's childhood was spent primarily in the Gaza Strip until the Battle of Gaza in 2007 forced his family to relocate to Jordan. Currently residing in Los Angeles, he often returns to Amman to visit his grandparents during holiday periods.[1]

Growing up, his linguistic environment was a mix of English at school, French at home, and Arabic in the Palestinian refugee camp where he played soccer after school. After graduating high school, Abdelhamid pursued further education at the University of California, Santa Barbara. It was here that he immersed himself in American culture, became part of a fraternity, and began to seriously pursue a career in music.[3]

He also lived in a house with Henry Morris who goes by the stage name Playyard and who served as the main producer for From Gaza, With Love.

Career and Activism

Before taking on the name Saint Levant, Abdelhamid wrote "Jerusalem Freestyles" and "Nirvana in Gaza", cementing his interest in writing politically charged music. Around the same time, he took to TikTok to engage in political and social activism posting TikTok videos about Palestinian history and comedic commentaries on subjects like toxic masculinity in the Arab world. A month later, he also co-founded a start-up GrowHome that aimed to connect Palestinian entrepreneurs to those in the diaspora with the resources to fund them. [3]

In November 2022, Saint Levant released his trilingual rap track Very Few Friends which quickly gathered around 2 million YouTube streams in less than a month. This mix of English, Arabic, and French rap swiftly went viral on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, earning a favorite spot among Gen Z. The song's popularity was further boosted when Carter Gregory, Vice President of A&R at Capitol Records, posted a TikTok of Dixie D'Amelio, Sabrina Carpenter, and socialites Zack Bia and Anastasia Karanikolaou lip-syncing to it.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Who is Saint Levant? Everything We Know About the Viral Arab Rapper". GQ Middle East.
  2. ↑ Writer, Shaheera Anwar-Staff (2023-05-05). "Dior makes history with Saint Levant, the first Middle East fragrance ambassador". Fact Magazine. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  3. 1 2 "For Saint Levant, Sexy Music Is Personal, and Political". The New York Times.
  4. ↑ "Saint Levant on Shattering Arab Stereotypes and Why He's Keeping the Mustache". Rolling Stone.
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