upper waypoint

At Habibi’s House, the Arab Diaspora Reclaims the Dance Floor

Save ArticleSave Article
Failed to save article

Please try again

San Francisco-born DJ Habibeats, pictured at TIME nightclub in Costa Mesa, spins Arabic music and global genres like baile funk and amapiano at his touring party, Habibi's House. (Courtesy DJ Habibeats)

You might not necessarily think a Palestinian folk song about planting sesame seeds would go off in the club — unless, of course, you’re DJ Habibeats, whose brain contains an endless archive of rhythms from Ramallah to Rio de Janeiro to Miami. At a party called Pangaea last summer, the sweaty, dabke-ing Los Angeles crowd went wild when he sped up the folk song’s sample and paired it with a thumping, uptempo 808 beat that called back to the late-’80s reign of 2 Live Crew.

Freshly signed to San Francisco label EMPIRE, Habibeats just released that mashup as a single called “Miami Mijwiz,” named after the bamboo flute that lends the track its hypnotic melody. When it comes to mixing multicultural sounds that get dance floors jumping, Habibeats has emerged as a go-to selector. His skillful blends of Arabic music with global dance genres like Brazilian baile funk and South African amapiano have earned him high-profile recent gigs, including the Sandstorm music festival in Saudi Arabia with Eminem, Calvin Harris and A$AP Rocky.

Now back stateside after a Middle Eastern mini-tour, the San Francisco-born DJ is getting ready to take his signature party, Habibi’s House, on the road across North America, including a hometown stop at the Midway on Feb. 22. But until a few years ago, Habibeats never would’ve guessed that American crowds, thousands deep, would come to hear him spin Arabic music at mainstream nightclubs.

“Arab weddings, for sure. But any other situation — it had never crossed my mind once, because I just never thought anyone cared to hear that,” he says on a recent Zoom call from his L.A. apartment. “Especially in a bar setting Friday night, people just want to hear Drake.”

Sponsored

Habibeats’ journey of finding his musical lane was also one of learning to fully embrace his identity as a first-generation Palestinian American. He grew up in a tight-knit Palestinian community in Fairfield, the diverse Solano County suburb where many of his classmates were also first-generation immigrants from different parts of the world. His parents owned a coffee shop in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury District, and he had a DJ uncle in San Francisco who loaded up Habibeats’ first iPod with the house and freestyle beats he spun in clubs — plus sounds from Palestine, Egypt, India and Iran.

That early exposure to Southwest Asian and North African music sparked curiosity. But when Habibeats started getting behind the turntables at 13 or 14 years old, he still considered the worlds of Arabic music and American music to be separate.

DJ Habibeats has brought his party across North America, Europe and the Middle East. (Courtesy of the artist)

Habibeats had always been a hip-hop head (in middle school, during the hyphy movement, he grew his hair out so he could go dumb to E-40). But by the time he was DJing clubs in the 2010s, downtempo trap music took over, and he began to look to other genres for more high-energy sounds that would get people moving.

“So I started getting into more reggaeton and Afrobeats,” he says. “That’s when all of a sudden, Bad Bunny became the biggest guy on earth. … Then people like Burna Boy from Nigeria started popping off. And for the first time, all these influences from outside of the U.S. were dominating.”

Habibeats went to law school during the pandemic, and despite passing the Bar, he wanted to DJ full time. When he connected with an L.A. crew of DJs called No Nazar, things clicked. Helmed by MTooray, Omar and Bianca Maieli, the party spotlights South Asian genres like Bollywood and bhangra along with the global, Afro-diasporic sounds Habibeats also had in steady rotation.

“Basically I had this moment where I was just like, ‘OK, this is what I need to do with my culture,’” Habibeats recalls.

His genre-bending experiments attracted a huge following on TikTok, and in 2022, he threw the first Habibi’s House at an L.A. bar. For audience members who grew up hearing artists like Egyptian superstar Amr Diab exclusively at family parties, his remixes of classics hit the right combination of forward-thinking yet nostalgic. “The very first one, it was like 80 people came. But those people had the time of their life, and I had the time of my life. It felt like the two halves of my brain” — the Arab side and the American side — “were whole,” he says.

With so many negative depictions of Arabs in Western media, for people who go to Habibi’s House from New York to London, the party is more than just a fun night out. “I had multiple people tell me that they were crying on the dance floor because they just felt so included,” he reflects, noting that he gets an equal measure of heartfelt feedback from non-Arabs.

With a new presidential administration known for Islamophobic rhetoric and anti-immigrant policies, Habibi’s House rewrites the narrative, especially amid Israel’s U.S.-backed devastation of Gaza.

“Part of my work is trying to showcase that, actually, we’re very loving, caring, inviting, warm, sweet people that just love life,” he says. “We love each other, and we love people, and we love celebrating. We love art and culture. And we have a lot to contribute to the world.”

DJ Habibeats proudly rocks his keffiyeh at shows. (Nate Sukley)

Habibeats says it all feels worth it when young Palestinian kids tell him he’s shown them that they can do anything. And with his recent deal with EMPIRE — the global label founded by another Palestinian San Franciscan hip-hop head, Ghazi — Habibeats is looking forward to expanding his creative potential.

Not only can EMPIRE help him secure usage rights to hard-to-track samples, but the company’s connection to artists all over the world has the potential for exciting collaborations. “It’s cool, because let’s say I want to work with a Brazilian artist and I don’t even know where to start,” Habibeats muses. “I can hit them up. … Basically any time I have an idea, they’ll help me execute it.”

Before he gets back in the studio, Habibeats is gearing up for his North American tour. Last time he played the Midway in San Francisco, a year ago, it was the biggest show he’d ever done. His parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and childhood friends all came to see him.

Like any good child of immigrants, “I feel the need to be a good host,” he recalls, laughing. “So I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off, just like trying to make sure everyone’s good. But I probably should have been worried about myself. I’m excited to come back to that stage more seasoned now, with a different approach.”


Sponsored

DJ Habibeats brings Habibi’s House to the Midway in San Francisco on Saturday, Feb. 22. Tickets and details here.

lower waypoint
next waypoint