MC Abdul is giving listeners another way into his world, this time beyond the music.
The Gaza-born Palestinian rapper has launched ‘Wein Abdul?’, an interactive online game built around his music, memories and personal history. Taking its name from his recent single, which translates to “Where’s Abdul?”, the browser-based experience turns the question into an actual game: Abdul is hidden three times across a hand-drawn city, with players challenged to find him and compete on a global leaderboard.
But finding Abdul is only part of it. Spread throughout the experience are places, videos and memories that piece together different chapters of his story, creating something closer to an interactive archive than a traditional artist website.
The locations take players back to Gaza through Abdul’s perspective. Among them are the apartment building where he once lived, which has since been destroyed, Pizza Al-Taboon, one of his favourite spots growing up, and an amusement park in Khan Yunis where he spent late nights. The experience also revisits his journey through the Rafah border crossing and the bus ride that eventually took him out of Gaza and into Cairo.
His music career is woven into the same world. Performances and footage sit alongside the personal memories, including his Stoop Session in the Bay Area, allowing the game to move between the Abdul audiences know as a rapper and the life that shaped the music in the first place.
Creative-directed and designed by artist and filmmaker J. Reem Salloum, ‘Wein Abdul?’ uses the format of an online game to tell Abdul’s story without reducing it to a straightforward timeline. Instead, players discover it piece by piece, moving through places and experiences that might otherwise only exist across old clips, interviews and social posts.
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That approach feels particularly connected to Abdul’s career. He first gained widespread attention at 11 years old through videos of himself rapping in Gaza, later relocating to the US and continuing to build his career through performances including Rolling Loud, GRAMMYs Global Spin, On The Radar and From The Block. He has also worked and performed alongside artists including Macklemore, Elyanna, Saint Levant and Anees.
‘Wein Abdul?’ arrives as Abdul continues building towards his debut album, ‘Day By Day, Shway Shway’. The project is executive produced by Suhel Nafar and follows recent releases including “Wait For Me”, “Wein Abdul?” and “Shway Shway”.
For Abdul, the game ultimately makes his story explorable. The songs are still at its centre, but around them sits a growing record of Gaza, family, movement and the experiences behind the artist people see today.
