Above the Fray: How Atlanta rapper Phay eludes chaos one beat at a time

The following was originally published in Palestine in America’s 2020 Music Edition. Order a print copy or download a digital copy today!

When many artists create their music they write potential lyrics down on a sheet of paper or even in their phone. When Atlanta rapper Faris Mousa, otherwise known as Phay, is ready to create a rap, he gets in his car and listens to the instrumental beat repeatedly to create the structure, lyrics, and mood of a track. He does this without writing a single word. 

Musical style

Phay, who goes by Phayweather on social media, is a hip-hop artist based in East Atlanta and has been creating music for over ten years, alongside creating a clothes and accessories brand titled MAMA.  As a big ‘90s R&B fan, Phay likes to incorporate the era’s sounds into his own music. “I try to pay homage to artists so if they were to hear my tracks they would be proud.” 

The rapper says he wants the listeners to feel the emotions he's feeling when he creates his tracks. The artist conveys his music to be mostly upbeat and says if a song makes him happy when he's creating it, he wants the listener to feel warm inside. Not all of Phay’s music has a happy message behind it though. 

“I like playing with a juxtaposition,” he said. “There are topics I like to include like gun violence and some of my friends that I went to highschool with are locked up or have passed away … so I like to throw in that juxtaposition of a beat that sounds super happy and bright, but the subject matter is kind of dark.”

The MAMA creator made a spontaneous decision to film a music video for “She’s Mine,” a song dedicated to his wife. The video shows Phay and his wife, Courtney, singing along to the track on their wedding day in July 2018. 

“Nobody at the wedding knew that there was a video being filmed,” he said. “I love the premise because it literally looked like we were kind of in our own world while getting married and everybody else that was there was the background … it worked out really well.”

Palestinian Identity

The 29-year-old Chicago-born rapper is a big Chicago Bulls and Chicago Bears fan. He grew up in the Illinois towns of  Des Plaines and Cicero with his two younger brothers and older sister, all of whom are children of Palestinian refugees. 

“My dad would tell you he remembers just packing all his stuff up and being like, ‘Well where are we? Where are we going?’” Phay said. “My grandparents left everything in their house [in Palestine] because they thought we were going to be able to come back … they passed away a few years ago and they were never allowed back. It was one of those things where they thought it would be temporary, but it turned into a lifetime.”

Phay said being Palestinian is something he is very proud of and that although he doesn’t explicitly mention it in his music, it is something he holds close to his heart. He also noted that many Palestinians living in America have stopped identifying as Palestinian after the displacement of their ancestors. 

“In order for us to maintain our nationalism, we have to keep it alive by telling people, ‘I’m Palestinian,’ or, ‘I come from the land of Palestine because that is where my grandparents are from, where my parents are from,’” he said. “A lot of people will say, ‘I’m Lebnani,’ or, ‘I’m Iraqi,’ but if you look two generations down the line, you’ll see their grandparents and great grandparents were relocated [to those countries] due to the occupation.” 

Phay also said that although he adds hints of Palestinain culture to his music, he does not equate himself with other artists who rap about the occupation. 

“I think I have a stance of survivor's guilt,” he said. “It doesn’t feel [right] because the occupation is my family’s reality, I have only experienced it for weeks to a few months [by visiting]. It isn’t my reality. I’m not going to Palestine every year and fighting for my brothers’ and sisters’ rights and activism. I donate and do what I can, but I would feel like a fraud if the only thing I talked about [in my music] was Palestine.”

He continued to mention that he knows many people who the current occupation has impacted and knows how the measures affect their everyday life. 

“I know real people in Palestine, real family members. My brother-in-law's family has to go through it everyday. I think it is so important to tell their stories … but it would be so much more meaningful if they told it because I only experienced a taste of it. They are survivors,” he said. “This country has issues, but at the end of the day we don’t have to worry about our houses getting under us, going through checkpoints, and more. There is racism here, but for the most part I know I could leave my house and not be a target.”  

Racism and Black Lives Matter

On the topic of racism and the current political climate in the United States, Phay calls out the use of the word “abeed,” which translates to “slave” in English, as a term many Arabs use to refer to Black people around the world. 

“We hear a lot of amos using the word and saying, ‘We don’t mean any harm by it,’ but it's wrong and rooted in racism,” Phay said. “It doesn't make sense to me for a Palestinian person that lives in the occupation that's targeted by a soldier … can't make the correlation between themselves and African Americans who are also facing very similar oppressions and oppressions that have been around for hundreds of years.” 

Phay said that police brutality across the United States has been around for a long time. He believes the only reason more people are now seeing it is because of new technology. 

“It's nothing new. It's just being publicized. These moments have been going on since the foundation of this country, and this country was founded on genocide and rape and torture,” Phay said. “We were taught when we were kids to revere people like Christopher Columbus, who was a pioneer, and he brought his ship over here … what came was disease and famine.” 

With recent protests and outcry over the murders of numerous Black people around the United States, Phay said he has a hard time getting himself to see the videos anymore. He said he feels desensitized by the sheer frequency of seeing Black people killed on camera. 

Phay encouraged people to protest and donate to the Black Lives Matter movement, and to be wary of franchises benefitting from the BLM movement through commercials and advertisements. 

“You see it everywhere now — ‘Black Lives Matter.’ And they're trying to sell their product,” Phay said. “They're using the pain of Black people to advertise. It’s a terrible thing, and we need to stop spending our money at places [like that].” 

Upcoming projects

Phay has been working on a new album titled “Bake Sale” and said he wants to release it when the time is right. He noted that due to the lockdowns around the world it was difficult from a creative standpoint. 

“Venues being shut down and all the cities shutting down their venues …  [It’s hard to] meet new fans and introduce yourself to new fans,” Phay said. “So it's been pretty challenging. Also, when you're locked in the house and cooped up for so long, you run out of things to talk about.”

The rapper said his new album is entirely centered around a bakery. “My art director actually drew up the blueprints. I have a friend who I went to middle school with who is a professional baker. So all the cover artwork is a different cookie or a different baked good,” Phay said, adding that he really liked the direction of the album art because he had never seen it done before. 

“The album cover’s my favorite. It's a cookie of me, and everything is baked. [There is] even the parental advisory little cake on the speakers and [there are] sprinkles on it. It's really tight.”