Omar Offendum is a

Syrian American Syrian Americans () are Americans of Syrian descent or background. The first significant wave of Syrian immigrants to arrive in the United States began in the 1880s. Many of the earliest Syrian Americans settled in New York City, Boston, and Det ...

hip-hop artist, designer, poet and peace activist. He was born in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

, raised in

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

, and now lives in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. He tours the world performing internationally at music festivals, lecturing at major academic institutions and fundraising for humanitarian relief organizations. Most recently Offendum has been involved in creating several critically acclaimed songs about the popular democratic uprisings throughout the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

& North Africa. He is also working on several new collaborative projects while touring to promote his solo work.

Biography

Omar Offendum was born in Saudi Arabia and raised in Washington, D.C., where he attended the

Islamic Saudi Academy The Islamic Saudi Academy of Washington () was an International Baccalaureate (IB) World University-preparatory school, university preparatory school in Northern Virginia, accredited with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and au ...

. He graduated as

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the class rank, highest-performing student of a graduation, graduating class of an academic institution in the United States. The valedictorian is generally determined by an academic institution's grade poin ...

of his class in 1999 and went on to attend the University of Virginia School of Architecture. After graduating on the Dean's list in 2003, he moved to

where he worked at an architecture firm for 10 years while simultaneously establishing his musical career.

Early career

It was at UVA that Offendum began his career as part of The N.O.M.A.D.S duo, with Sudanese-American rapper Mr Tibbz. After moving to Los Angeles, Offendum started collaborating with the Palestinian-Filipino hip-hop trio The Phillistines. They worked to creat
Free the P
�
a compilation of hip-hop and spoken word
dedicated to the youth of Palestine featuring artists from all over the world – which was the first

Arab American Arab Americans ( or ) are Americans who trace ancestry to any of the various waves of immigrants from the Arabic-speaking countries. In the United States census, Arabs are racially classified as White Americans which is defined as "A person ha ...

rap record to receive national distribution (Ryko Warner). Offendum then began working with Iraqi-Canadian rapper Narcy and co-produced th
''Arab Summit'' album
He also co-authored th
Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets
performance lecture with HBO Def poe
Mark Gonzalez

Solo career

Omar Offendum's song ''#Jan25'', inspired by the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...

uprisings in Egypt, became popular in 2011. It went viral via the internet, which Offendum sees as a key factor in the spread of international hip-hop. It was released in February 2011, shortly before the resignation of Egyptian president

Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011 and the 41st Prime Minister of Egypt, prime minister from 1981 to ...

. Omar Offendum has often collaborated with Yassin Alsalman also known as Narcy and

Shadia Mansour Shadia Mansour (; born 1985), also known as "the first lady of Arabic hip hop" See also is a British-Palestinian rapper who performs in Arabic and English. Much of her music revolves around Middle Eastern politics. Biography Early life ...

, "the first lady of Arabic hip hop."

Discography

His first solo album, ''SyrianamericanA'' was released in 2011. Offendum released "Close My Eyes" , a reflection on fatherhood and immigration

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Offendum, Omar Hip-hop activists Syrian emigrants to the United States 1981 births Living people University of Virginia School of Architecture alumni