The West Coast Icon ‘Fredwreck’ Nassar & Qusai Khidr will host MTV Arabia’s ‘Hip-Hop Na,’ which will explore hip-hop culture across the Middle East and find local talent to compete on television.

FredWreck has a long music history starting in the Bay as a DJ at KMEL Radio - San Francisco, then in the 90’s becoming a hot producer in Los Angeles from making consistant hits for Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, Master P, Daz and Kurupt, 50 Cent and Mobb Deep. He has also produced another potential hit song on the #1 Album “Black Out” with Britney Spears with a song called “Ooh Ooh Baby”.

FredWreck has always been a pioneer helping new artist emerge from the underground and his new venture with MTV Arabia seems to be a natural progression for this music mogul.

Fredwreck says, “There is a unique gap there in that market, and we definitely want to own that space,” he said. “We want to capture a lot of what is happening on the ground with the youth and what is important to them.”
The programming includes a show in which viewers with webcams act as VJs, a behind-the-scenes look at the Arab music industry and tours of Middle East street scenes looking for artists with skills such as beat-boxing, breakdancing or magic tricks.

In the Middle East, families tend to watch TV together on one household set, so MTV Arabia will seek to be “edgy” and “wholesome” at the same time, he said. “You can’t show half-naked women on TV. It’s a different kind of culture,” Nassar said. “You don’t have to show that to make a good channel and have good videos.”

In Beirut, people speak Arabic, French and English, and that is reflected by its rappers, he said. Dubai’s population includes people from Pakistan, India, Sudan and the emirates.

“Every little region has its thing,” Nassar said, comparing it to the way Los Angeles has black and Latino rap. “I bet you there are some tight rappers in Iraq. I’d be really interested in what they’re rapping about,” he said. “The whole thing about rap music is that you can rap about something that anybody can listen to and say, ‘That story can be about me.’ ”

Over 12 episodes, the show intends to search out local hip-hop “heroes” to unveil the music scene in their cities. The hosts will pick new talent to compete to record a track on the show’s compilation album.

The show is “Hip-Hop Na,” or “My Hip-Hop,” the flagship program of MTV Arabia, a new free satellite channel from Viacom Inc. that will debut across the Middle East on Nov. 17.