Bas: 4 Things To Know About The Dreamville Rapper

Paris-born, Queens-raised, Bas is heading to New Zealand this October to perform two shows in Auckland and Wellington.

Before he touches down, check out 4 things about the Dreamville rapper.

1. Bas Never Wanted To Be A Rapper.
   
   Despite receiving a full scholarship to attend Hampton University, Bas' pre-rap career involved a stint as a drug dealer. A frightening incident during a trip to make a sale, however, was the beginning of a push in a new direction for the emcee.

   Enter Bas's other brother, DJ mOma, who began to try and help guide his brother in a more productive direction. And while rap wasn't yet in the conversation, Bas had always been a fan of acid jazz and house and, according to mOma, had "sharp musical sensibilities."
   
   

2. Travel Inspires His Music.
   
   It’s easy to tell that Bas is a well-travelled man. His songs have a certain type of ability that can only be delivered by someone who’s ventured well beyond their comfort zone.

   Just listen to his songs like ‘Sanufa’, ‘Boca Raton’ and ‘Tribe,’ all off Milky Way. You’ll hear elements of Afrobeat mixed with bossa nova and tinges of Afro-Caribbean on an old-school hip hop beat. And it doesn’t just lie in his production; it’s apparent in his lyrics as well. His words present a worldly overlook that’s respected by his peers, including J Cole and Cozz (Cole even calls Bas’ perspective ‘crazy,’ but in a good way, of course).

   That’s no surprise when you consider his background. Bas’ father was a Sudanese diplomat stationed in France, which forced him and his siblings to live most of their early days out of suitcases. Born in Paris, the rapper spent most of his childhood commuting between France and Qatar before moving to Queens, New York, and ultimately calling America home. In the summer, his family would return to Sudan.

   “I’ve been travelling my whole life since I was a kid,” Bas told Complex in a recent interview. “My father always had us moving around. [That would affect] some of the things that I was into when I was younger, whether it was Daft Punk or Artful Dodger or things on the UK garage scene. My sister would play West African music, like Keziah Jones.”
   

3. J. Cole Is His Mentor & Homie.
   
   Before J Cole became the co-founder of Dreamville Records and a Grammy-nominated artist, he was just another aspiring rapper from North Carolina who moved to New York to realise his dreams. Around the same time, Bas had been building his résumé by spinning at parties, making a name for himself on the East Coast circuit.

   So if there was another way to put it, their meeting was destiny.

   Through Bas’ older brother Ibrahim—Ib and Cole had linked up while they were both studying at St John’s University—the younger Hamad forged a close relationship with the would-be Roc Nation signee. Cole took Bas under his wing and moulded him into the promising artist that he is today.

   Since embarking on his rap career in 2010, Bas has been a frequent Cole collaborator and vice versa.

   The rapper doesn’t mind sharing the limelight, either. In fact, he’s got nothing but endless praise for his mentor and label boss. “He’s seen my growth from the beginning and saw that I had potential pretty quick,” Bas told Kyle Harvey during a 2014 interview with The Grio. “That type of feedback Cole gives is different because he’s already there at the top. He just said keep going, keep rapping. And here we are.”
   

4. He Wants To Send A Message With His Music.
   
   With fame comes responsibility—and Bas knows that well. On “Black Owned Business,” the rapper raps about racial inequality, while his song “Dopamine” shatters the relationship between drugs and happiness.

   Bas believes that music speaks to youths. He has a “serious intention” of using his words to get the message across. “Meeting fans and having them tell you, ‘this touched me in this way or that,’ you really start to understand the power that you have,” he told WRG Mag. “It makes me put much more thought and effort into the content.”

   Don’t pigeonhole him as an activist, or role model, or anything along those lines, though. While he wants to set a good example for his younger fans, Bas acknowledges that he lives a lifestyle he doesn’t always wish to endorse. In an interview with Billboard, the rapper admits that sometimes it can get tricky when it comes to weighing his “art against honesty, truth and reality.”

   “It’s definitely a fine line I try to straddle where it’s not just belligerent drug talk ’cause that’s dangerous and irresponsible. But at the end of the day, I do do some drugs,” he laughed.