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Mekka

About Me

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Mekka was born in Dammam, Saudi Arabia in 1978. In the same year that Mekka was born his parents fled from Iraq to Saudi Arabia. This man Mekka is Universal; born in Saudi Arabia, raised in Libya, and he came to Sweden in 1983 at the age of five. As a child he loved to sing and he became one of the best reciters in the Qur'anic School he attended, due to his voice, feel for rhythm and his keen interest in music and singing. Mekka also sang in the school choir. One day a distant friend came to Mekka and gave him a tape with various reggae artists and the first tune on this tape was One Blood by Junior Reid. From that moment Mekka was hooked. And when he was 14 years old the very same friend took him to Stockholm where he worked as a DJ. This was an unforgettable moment for him, as his friend introduced him to the old Swedish reggae elite at that time; Swing-a-ling and Trinity sound. It was from here that Mekka's music career started. He got in touch with a man called Danny Dread (a.k.a Goldteeth) from Jamaica, and that person became his mentor and started to teach Mekka patois, and the art of toasting. Danny Dread was also a close friend to Clint Eastwood and General Saint so without Mekka knowing he was actually toasting together with them, because his teacher set it up. He realized this when he was 24 years when he was looking at a cd cover and saw the picture of Clint Eastwood. And for the first time in history you could see a toaster getting speechless. When Mekka was 18 years old he came in contact with the leading Swedish reggaeband at the time - Cool Runnings - and became their second lead vocalist. They, as a band, opened the shows for both Freddie McGregor and Starky Banton at African Centre in Stockholm, and Gregory Isaac at Gino also that in Stockholm at the end of the 90's. He stayed with this band for about one year.. At the age of 20 he became a member of the Swedish band Natural Way/King Solomon HIFI, as a second lead vocalist. They opened the show for Anthony B at Barowiak in Uppsala in 1999. When Mekka had been a member of the band Natural Way for about a year he felt that he needed to develop himself as an artist and to find his own sound. So from the beginning of the famous millenium until 2005 he basically locked himself inside his studio, developing that unique style and sound that is his trademark of today. In 2008 Mekka got in touch with House of Riddim. Mekka has performed at the Uppsala Reggae Festival which has made him an established artist among the Swedish reggae fraternity.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 19/03/2007
Band Website: houseofriddim.com
Band Members: House of Riddim, S. Al-Joumeyli, I. Blicksjö
Influences: Allah, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Bob Marley, Junior Reid, Lutan Fyah, Steel Pulse, Doniki, Sheikh Khalid Yasin, Sheikh Bilal Philips, Sheikh Yusuf Estes and many more...
Sounds Like:

Record Label: Original House of Riddim Production
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

BOOKING AGENT/MANAGER WANTED!

Are you a manager/promoter/booking agent!?Do you want to promote a reggae artist?Listen to my tracks and get back to me. Only serious people wanted!
Posted by on Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:07:00 GMT