Hossein Tohi
Seyyed Hossein Mousavi, known by his stage name Hossein Tohi (Persian: حسین تهی), is an Iranian rapper. He was born on 26th of January 1986 in the Iranian capital of Tehran. Based on his passion for rap music he started his career already in the age of fifteen. Finally 2 years later, in 2002 he began his professional career as a rap artist. Since 2000 Tohi has created the remarkable number of 40 songs with a variety of subjects such as love songs, religious and society related songs.
The songs "Raghse Andam", the dance of the shapes, and "Keylead", the key, are two of Tohi's most famous hits that count on a considerable fan community. In an interview Tohi admitted that "Boghz", Sobbing, is his own choice as favorite song. Tohi's main, not to say the only target is to cross the Persian speaking boundaries making the Iranian rap internationally noticeable. The diversity of the lyrics in his songs is definitely the reflection of his enthusiastic approach to achieve that target. As of today Tohi's live concerts are holding within the Persian events. So Tohi's potential to come internationally through is predictable by the size of his today's mass appeal. Taking into consideration that his homeland, Iran does not provide sufficient opportunities to such an artist developing himself. Tohi has always succeeded to follow his target highly professional and quick. Tohi loves to support other talented Iranian rap musicians wherever he meets them. So he established his own company called "Estedade No", the New Talent to help and promote young artists.
Despite his success, his new style of music has also come under heavy criticism for its western-ism. Tohi does not incorporate Iranian features into his music and this frustrates older generation Iranians, who feel the Persian culture is disintegrating.