Hip Hop has saved many a person, especially from a life of crime. When it comes to unrest in the Middle East, the culture may have saved another person from a life of violence.

MC Gaza recently spoke to Global Post about how Hip Hop saved his life and why he chose to become a rapper instead of participating in jihadism. He also details how he got into the culture, citing Eminem as a big inspiration.

“At first I started doing it as a kind of challenge, and then I found I couldn’t stop,” he told the website. “People here think that rap is haram [un-Islamic]… They think that we are acting like the West.”

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He also states how he has used Hip Hop for good, attempting to show the perils of his home country.

“Rap talks about anything you see that is wrong and explains why that is wrong,” he explained, “I want to break the whole country that broke me.”

Gaza recently released a song/video called “My Extraordinary Homeland,” which details the struggle and hypocrisy of warfare in Israel. View it below: