If there’s one thing Two Tone is not lacking, it’s optimism. “Every day is great, man,” he says sincerely, with a smile, before shaking my hand and sitting down to talk.
But then, he probably needed a pretty positive outlook on life to achieve everything he has – and in such a short space of time.
Two years ago, Rachid Ben Messaoud was a businessman who hadn’t rapped in front of a crowd for more than a decade. Today, he is an established hip-hop artist who has topped regional iTunes charts, toured Morocco, Spain and South America, and attracted praise from Drake after warming up for the Canadian in March at Dubai International Stadium. And his debut album will be released later this year on Sony Music Middle East.
Rather than expecting to get rich off music, he got rich first.
Born in the Netherlands to parents of Moroccan descent, Two Tone began rapping in his teens after picking up a copy of NWA's classic Straight Outta Compton.
“That was the only music I had at the time – I would play it 10, 20 times a day,” he says.
In his early 20s, while at business school, he was part of a hip-hop group called 252 Maindrive. His passion for music also led him to invest in a hip-hop club in Amsterdam.
Soon after, like so many other young hopefuls, the world of work got in the way and music became a pipe dream.
That’s normally where such stories end – but Two Tone’s tale is different, because years later, at the age of 36, he decided to give music another try.
“Seven years ago, I came to Dubai and I had the opportunity to invest in a company,” he says. The business was a local franchise of chain store Robin Ruth.
“It became very successful – and that gave me the opportunity to go back to the music,” he says.
Two Tone’s original idea was to launch a record label and invest in other artists. Self-made Entertainment Dubai was born but it wasn’t long before he moved from the sound desk to the mic.
“I knew how to make music, but I didn’t know how the industry worked,” he says. “I went to the States and started recording with different artists in the best studios.
“All the music executives I met said: ‘Two Tone, your music is great, but you need to decide – if you want to do something in the United States, you need to live here and you need to work on your credibility’. ”
He modified his business plan and started off with a territory closer to home – Morocco. He targeted radio, TV and social media, and made a live debut in front of 20,000 people last winter.
But when he returned to Dubai – where he had never even gigged – he was disappointed.
“I was like, what is this? Everybody knows me in Morocco, nobody knows who I am here. I couldn’t even get my music played.”
A chance encounter with Cuban singer and pianist Erick Machado resulted in Two Tone inviting the pianist to jam at his studio, where they cooked up two Latino-influenced hip-hop tracks, Señorita and Keep on Going, both of which became smashes last summer on Dubai's Virgin Radio and made waves in Spain and South America.
Two Tone’s UAE live debut followed last November – to an audience of 25,000 – when he warmed up for Juicy J at Abu Dhabi Corniche for Beats on the Beach. Then he did it in Dubai for Drake – who personally approved his support slot.
Two Tone has attracted a range of notable fans, including radio personality Kris Fade – they collaborated on Fade's debut single In It For Love – and King Mohammed VI of Morocco.
“I got a call from the ambassador [of Morocco] in Abu Dhabi, he said: ‘We have a very special request, the King of Morocco is looking for your CD and he can’t find it’,” says Two Tone. With his debut album still in the works, the rapper burnt a one-off CD and hand-delivered it to the king’s sister.
Two Tone has no intention to slow down. He talks seriously about topping the charts in Europe and headlining RedFest in 2017, after opening this year’s festival with a 4pm slot.
“In two years that’s possible,” says the 38-year-old. “You’ve got 14,000 people there who are fans of different artists [on the bill] – in two years time, if we do our jobs right, all those 14,000 people will know me.”
He sure makes it sound easy.
rgarratt@thenational.ae
