Living in the Arab world in late 2022, Saint Levant has officially become impossible to ignore. Real name Marwan Abdelhamid, ‘Lover Boy Levant’ is an 22 year-old Arab rapper with Palestinian and Algerian roots (as well as French and Serbian), who has gone especially viral on TikTok as of late for bringing an energy that is making him into the Middle East’s Drake, especially certifying since himself a lover boy, capturing a ‘sensual’ style that has provoked reactions across the spectrum.
This week, a particular exchange has summed it up. After his latest song “I Guess” was released online on December 13, a follow up to his hit “Very Few Friends,” the account Rap Alert commented, “He rapped in English, Arabic and French all smooth af.”
One Twitter user responded with the cutting line, “everyone saying he isn’t talented doesn’t understand how hard it is to be unbelievably corny in 3 languages.”
The viral tweet generated a huge debate, with one user responding “I love this song. It’s cute. It’s like people think their taste level is under attack if they like something that’s not what they believe to be top-shelf. People need to stop being so weak, and stop pretending they’re brilliant. Not everything has to be so serious.”
Another responded with a more divided response: “*liking this tweet knowing damn well I turn feral every time this song comes on* soooo true,” said Abby Govindan.
Since then, even more viral jokes have popped up responding primarily to the song.
Saint Levant himself frames his approach this way: “As a musician and artist, Saint Levant says he wants to walk in the footsteps of Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said to ‘reclaim the Orientalist fantasies that have dictated the geopolitics of our area for the last three centuries’,” according to a recent profile in Arab News.
Whether he is accomplishing his goals, however, is something the internet can’t stop discussing. But he has certainly proven to be a provocateur who can capture people’s attention.
And as Drake has proven: all discussion, even if everyone’s memeing you and making fun of you, only makes you stronger.
So wait, who is Saint Levant?
Here’s Saint Levant’s official bio, if you’re curious.
Saint Levant was born in Jerusalem during the second Intifada due to complications in the city where he would eventually spend his childhood years – the Gaza Strip. In 2007, him and his family were forced to flee to Jordan following the outbreak of a civil war in the Strip, where he spent more than 10 years before moving to California to pursue higher education. Currently, he is finishing up his bachelors degree in International Relations at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Saint Levant’s career started with the help of TikTok and Instagram, where he has amassed around 120,000 followers and hundreds of millions of views. His first single “Jerusalem Freestyle” was released in late 2020 and garnered hundreds of thousands of streams, followed up by an even bigger success – “Nirvana in Gaza”. After that, the 21 year old struggled with maintaining a balance between his startup company connecting Palestinians in the diaspora to investment opportunities, university obligations, content creation, political activism, podcasting and personal life – which led to scattered musical output. However, late 2021 and early 2022 has seen him dedicate himself to his childhood dream of becoming an artist, releasing over 10 singles and performing live for the first time ever.
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