Modiba: Yas: Iran's Hip-Hop Sensation

This is HuffPost World's regular feature that highlights interesting musicians and musical trends around the world. Know of a great musician doing ground-breaking work outside the United States? Send us your ideas for bands to profile or up-and-coming musicians to follow. Please fill out this survey form. Here is the second installment of World Music Corner. By Marc Gabriel Amigone Since it's genesis in the South Bronx in the 1980's, hip-hop has become one of America's most prolific exports reaching places you might expect, like Africa and Latin America, and places you might not, like Iran. Yas, a 27-year-old rapper from Tehran, first heard hip-hop at the age of 16 when his father started bringing him Tupac albums from his business trips abroad. Since then, he has become the first and only rapper to legally release his music in Iran and tour internationally playing dates in Dubai, London, New York and Los Angeles. Yas doesn't speak English, but once he heard the rhythm, rhyme ... (link)