To celebrate the recent release of El Donia Shabab, the debut single from The 5 – the pan-Arab boyband who found fame on the inaugural season of the Arab X-Factor this summer – we sat down with each of the band-members.
In the second of our exclusive five-part series of one-on-ones, we got to know the group’s rapper, 21-year-old Algerian Mohamed Bouhezza, AKA BMD.
You’re the rapper of the group. Does that put you outside the action?
Not too much. I sing too, I love harmonies, I just don’t want to be far from rap. I don’t want people to say ‘they changed him, he changed when he became one of The 5’. I still want to be me.
Who are your rap heroes?
Eninem or B.o.B. From the old school, Tupac, of course. Jay Z...
How gruelling did you find the X-Factor?
It was hard. I had to write every week, and change the subject every week – all the Arabic songs are about love. I can’t rap about love, especially in live shows. They sent us the beat Wednesday and we had to perform Sunday – it was a short time to write and practice.
Love songs?
I don’t like love songs too much – actually I hate them. As a rapper in Algeria, we only rap about problems, society, politics – this [love songs] is new for me.
So you the big question, are you guys single?
What they [the fans] want to hear, is yes. Of course, girls are jealous. I don’t know, it’s complicated – for me, you can say I’m single.
You rap in Arabic and English – which is more difficult?
For me, it’s good, I get more rhymes by using both.
You’ve talked about releasing future singles in English.
We would love to sing in English. When we first subscribed [for the X-Factor] we did it as an English group, but when they called us to perform, they said ‘you have to sing in Arabic’. We had a fight with them, a real fight. But we weren’t ready to sing Arabic. I’m from Algeria, which is far from oriental music, which is how the famous Arabic songs sound. We hated this, but we did all of them. Then we took English songs and sung them in Arabic, and they went with it.
With this crossover style, do you feel like The 5 has a chance to change history?
Yes – you got me, I don’t want The 5 to only be famous in the Arab world. I want to perform on huge stages – America, Europe – not just this zone. Most of us sing in English, so we have the chance. I expect a lot of big things for The 5.
When we spoke to Ahmed yesterday, he said you were the laziest member of the band. What do you say?
Are you kidding? Of course not man. Maybe he is. I’m not lazy – I just have sleeping issues.
Check Scene & Heard every day this week (September 20-24) for our exclusive series of Q&As with The 5. Tomorrow we speak to Adil Echbiy.
• Eldonia Shabab is out now on iTunes
rgarratt@thenational.ae
