Meet Odetari, the Palestinian EDM Star Who Went From Substitute Teacher to Chart Topper
variety.comEthan Shanfeld Ask Taha Othman Ahmad to describe his sound and the answer is “final boss music.” In fact, the 23-year-old Palestinian American artist, better known as Odetari, is just as inspired by The Legend of Zelda as Playboi Carti.
His music, which melds pitched-up rap hooks, glitchy trap flare and menacing club beats, captures the climactic melodies and energy of his favorite video games. “A lot of people tell me, ‘I hit a new personal record in the gym today because of your song’ or ‘I went crazy on [battle royale game] Apex today because of you,” Ahmad tells Variety. “It just boots you up.” Ahmad’s alias, Odetari, honors his Palestinian heritage (Odeh is his original family name), and his favorite pastime, by nodding to the pioneering video game company Atari.
Inspired by Kingdom Hearts soundtracks and Tyler the Creator’s “Jamba,” Ahmad started producing and releasing music when he was 13, when his parents gifted him a Native Instruments “Maschine.” It wasn’t until earlier this year that Ahmad’s music gained traction, when he was working as a high school substitute teacher in his native Houston.
Around the time he got fired (he was admittedly more invested in uploading songs to SoundCloud than supervising teenagers), his music started to blow up on TikTok, where Ahmad grabbed users’ attention with bizarre video game edits. “I made a Sonic [the Hedgehog] and Shadow edit, plugging their voices into AI and making them say obscure things,” Ahmad says. “Then my music would come in and rake in millions of views.
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