A young musician in Oakland is making waves in the Muslim community: Alia Sharrief. She’s part of a new generation of Muslim hip hop artists following in the footsteps of people like Yasiin Bey, best known by his stagename, MosDef, Lupe Fiasco, Qtip, Ali Shaheed Mohamed, the list goes on.
For her, being Muslim and doing hip hop is just natural, even though she does get a lot of flack from folks who don’t like seeing a Muslim woman in hijab in the public eye rapping. Not to mention the Islamophobic trolls online.
"Getting that feedback from Muslims is like, dang! But you gotta keep it movin'."
It’s a challenge, but she’s pretty resilient. For her, music is an expression of faith that she's not letting go of.
This installment of Bay Area Beats is brought to you by The Stoop podcast.
