We were lucky to catch up with Ahmed Radwan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ahmed, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The most meaningful project I have worked on, and continue to work on, is The House of Creatives; a non-profit with a mission of providing resources and opportunities to under-represented clean creatives.

In 2022, after going on a journey pursuing a hip-hop career alongside my friend and co-founder of The House of Creatives Mohammad Sadat, we decided it was time to give back to the creative community everything we learned.

Throughout the years, we felt like there weren’t many resources for artists, specifically ones who had clean content, and a lack of opportunities for them as well. As an artist myself, I got to see this firsthand as I had to pave my own way and learn all the tricks of the trade by trial and error.

With this experience, we decided to fill the gaps we saw with our own eyes and provide a solution for artists who come from under-represented communities.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve always been an outsider looking in honestly.

I come from an immigrant family, originally from Egypt. Moved to the states when I was 4 yrs old. I’m a Muslim and was the only Muslim my first 2 years in high school until we moved again.

And as an artist I was someone who seemingly popped out of nowhere. I didn’t get into creating music until I was about 30 years old inspired by a youth group I mentored and a friend who, also my age, decided to begin producing music.

But being an outsider defined the majority of my life, defined most of my decisions and choices in life, and eventually brought me to where I am today as an artist and as a co-founder of The House of Creatives.

Having a very unique upbringing as compared to your typical American, being exposed to people and cultures from all over the world, and having the foundation of being a Muslim gave me an interesting point of reference and point of view when I began my career as Iconic Bond, the hip-hop artist. I was already very focused and motivated to follow a very strict path in terms of my content being of value to the listener and not creating fluff type of entertainment. I was purposeful when I wrote, purposeful about who I worked with, and steadfast in my right to rap without using extreme vulgarity.

So very early on, I had to learn how to still rock a crowd and compete with my opposites in order to standout while my music might’ve been called “too woke” or “too boring”. And I loved that challenge, truly. As someone who grew up against inherent bias every place I went, this was just another challenge for me to overcome. And as I continued down this path, I began noticing that the music scene was very negatively competitive, gate keepers at every corner, and resources either didn’t exist or were being hidden or kept secret only to a select few. And to even knock on those doors, as an artist you had to show them you were willing to pay to play this game rather than be taken purely off your talent and abilities.

And see, that changed a lot for me in terms of how I wanted to move through this journey. Yes I was comfortable walking the outsider path but not when the game was rigged against ALL artists. So it gave Mohammad and me an idea: well if this is how THIS game is played, let’s create a new one with our own rules, because that clearly wasn’t against the rules of the current game!

We wanted a game that was fair, that was equitable, and one that put the artist at the center rather than literally everyone else’s pockets. We wanted to create a game that was constructively competitive, where we could help each other become better through the competition and through the community. A game that was FOR THE ARTIST, and BY ARTISTS. And so The House of Creatives was formed as a non-profit, to provide opportunities and resources for artists.

It’s sad but one of the things that makes us stand out: artists get paid with us and we invest in the artists beyond just the money. It’s sad because the bar is so low when it comes the music scene that just paying the artists is already well above the bar.

But beyond payment, we put our heart and soul into the artists we work with. We create marketable professional content for them, professional photos and videos, we include all their branding in the things we work on, we find ways to elevate them as much as we can because we know as artists, these types of services are a gap in terms of resources available when money isn’t being provided fairly to them in the first place. So we decided to do both, pay the artists and help build their brand and career in any way we can.

And we’re very intentional on who we work with because our mission isn’t to just do this for anyone, it’s for under-represented clean artists. Artists who we believe can add value to the listeners, inspire them and motivate them, true role models that younger generations SHOULD look up to.

That’s our brand. The House of Creatives.

The future looks brighter everyday as we’ve been growing and curating more events. Our goal is to grow this to become a full blown production organization alongside a record label that continues to truly invest in the artists and creatives we work with so NC artists don’t have to leave to find success and to find a creative community that elevates their work.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

The best way to support an artist is to do just that, support them!

Y’all, we live in a world that has essentially free marketing through social media. It costs nothing to like, comment, and share. Start there! If you know someone is an artist, just do that for them to start.

When they have events or shows, make an effort to go. Instead of spending hundreds, literally hundreds of dollars, to go see one mainstream act who is touring here, go see 10 local artist you actually know. That’s an investment. You are now part of that artists’ journey! You were there when they were starting out!

And listen to their music, watch their videos. See the thing is, we all listen and watch all the famous people. And these days, the famous ones aren’t anything special. It’s the local talent that’s special, it’s them that tell stories, create connections, and you can actually build relationships with. So do that!

The creative industry, music scene, it’s always evolving. Music made in the 60’s through the 90’s is still being played today for a reason. It was good! It had value. It had purpose. It made you feel. And back then, we weren’t so disconnected physically because of social media. But don’t be alarmed, you can still find that connection, true connection, by doing all these things I mentioned intentionally for the local artists and creatives. And I guarantee that you will find more quality in the creativity and the music than you could ever find in the mainstream today.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me as an artist, the most rewarding thing is when I hear my kids, my friends kids, people close to me in general rapping my songs, knowing my lyrics, showing up to my shows.

Artists don’t want much. A lot of us do this because we want to be heard and have a voice. So when people engage with us in that way, it’s a reward and an added flame to that fire that fuels us to keep going.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.theiconicbond.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iconicbond
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IconicBond/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iconic-bond
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/iconicbond
• Soundcloud: https://www.soundcloud.com/Iconic-bond
• Other: https://thehouseofcreatives.org/

Image Credits

Mizghund Productions