Two months ago, Baban Hussain, a 22-year-old Kurdish New Zealander, was working from a self-run studio in Auckland, putting out music to a few thousand followers as little-known rapper Fat Papi.<\/p>\n
Then, as modern fairytales go, he made a viral hit that has amassed over 7.5bn views across YouTube, gained him nearly 10m new monthly listeners on Spotify, and catapulted him on to global charts \u2013 including the US Billboard Hot 100.<\/p>\n
The last feat made history: Hussain is the first Kurdish artist to land on the Billboard Hot 100, and only the second New Zealand rapper to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a whirlwind,\u201d Hussain tells the Guardian on a video call from a hotel in New York City where he has been promoting his music and meeting with industry. \u201cMy life is completely different. It\u2019s a very intense time and honestly amazing and everything we have ever wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hussain seems candid and relaxed despite having only spoken to media a handful of times. He is joined on the call by producer Owen Omen, an Australian-based artist known as Prodshushy, who is beaming in from Perth.<\/p>\n
Their now-viral song Freaked Out was released in May and initially got little attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was doing terrible numbers,\u201d Hussain says. After various attempts at promoting it online, Prodshushy released a short dance video, backed by a clip of the song where Fat Papi raps \u201cGet that bag, you ain\u2019t ever comin\u2019 last.\u201d<\/p>\n
It quickly clocked up 1.5m views and a couple of days later caught the attention of a UK-based TikTok influencer, Jocelyn Meiere, or Miss Diva Bob, who posted a video to her 3.1m followers of her slick bob haircut, using the song as a backing track.<\/p>\n
Owen Omen, who produces music under the name Prodshushy. Photograph: Emily Nettle<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look back a week later and it\u2019s growing and growing,\u201d Hussain says. \u201cFrom that point, it was over, it was everywhere, it was insane.\u201d<\/p>\n
TikTok has been flooded with copycat videos of people shaking their haircuts to Freaked Out, including British artist Raye. US rapper Megan Thee Stallion posted a video of her making enchiladas as she mouths the words.<\/p>\n
The song became number one on Shazam globally; hit the UK, Australia and US charts; and then debuted at 88 on the Billboard Hot 100.<\/p>\n
Omen, who is of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands descent, says it was \u201ca surreal moment\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one where I\u2019m from has ever reached this point in their career, like music producing-wise. It was such a big moment for me and also my people back home.\u201d<\/p>\n
The song\u2019s success has been similarly moving for Hussain, whose parents fled Iraq as refugees in 1999. He grew up within a tiny Kurdish community in Auckland, and was the only Kurdish student at his school.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s history, it\u2019s insane,\u201d he says. \u201cI think that\u2019s a big thing \u2013 actually just representing people and our home towns. Being able to do that for my people was insane. I still struggle to find the words to show love for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The duo only began working together four months ago, and met in person for the first time in July. Their collaboration came about after Hussain rapped over one of Prodshushy\u2019s beats and sent it back to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t expect him to reply \u2013 he had 20,000 followers at the time, I had 800,\u201d Hussain says. \u201cBut I was like, OK, I\u2019m going to shoot my shot \u2026 and he really liked it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pair say they have an incredible \u201cflow state\u201d when working together, with Hussain praising Prodshushy\u2019s mixing skills and wide array of influences \u2013 including hip-hop, trap and afro-beat \u2013 and Prodshushy lauding Fat Papi\u2019s ability \u201cto flow over any beat\u201d.<\/p>\n
Fat Papi says growing up listening to Kurdish music shaped his ear for different styles. Photograph: Ahmed Gaber\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Hussain is drawn to the sounds of 2015 club music, US rapper Kid Ink, US record producer Mustard, as well as west coast, New York and New Jersey hip-hop. He believes growing up listening exclusively to Kurdish music shaped his ear for different styles.<\/p>\n
Gaining viral fame means every door is now open, Hussain says. \u201cThere is nothing too far away or anything we won\u2019t reach for.\u201d<\/p>\n
They have management and record deals, a new single dropping in September, and are scheduled to play at Australia\u2019s four-date Spilt Milk festival in December. They aspire to one day play at Coachella, and to collaborate with other artists.<\/p>\n
To make this viral moment into something \u201cbigger, forever\u201d will require hard work, Hussain says. \u201cEven if it doesn\u2019t happen, we\u2019ll definitely give it our best go, and we\u2019ve got that confidence with us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two months ago, Baban Hussain, a 22-year-old Kurdish New Zealander, was working from a self-run studio in Auckland,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-576538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}