Antone’s Record Shop hosts Free Hamze for cassette tape release fundraiser

Antone’s Record Shop hosts Free Hamze for cassette tape release fundraiser Categories: Life&Arts Music Antone’s Record Shop hosts Free Hamze for cassette tape release fundraiser Lucy Walker, General Life&Arts Reporter October 14, 2026 Molly Aldridge Free Hamze, Austin-raised Lebanese-Texan Rapper, performs a song from his new album at Antone’s Record Shop on Oct. 13, 2026. When artist Free Hamze traveled to Egypt for a wedding, he requested his friend to take him to the “dopest record store in Cairo.” While there, the two-time Austin Music Awards nominee purchased a cassette tape that gave him the main sample for “al-Shamis” a song that celebrates Muslim influences in hip-hop on his new album Asabiyyah. Free Hamze, the stage name of Adam Hamze (international relations and global studies ‘18), sold copies of his latest release on cassette tapes for a fundraiser at Antone’s Records on Tuesday. Hamze said that while asabiyyah, a term developed by philosopher Ibn-Khaldūn, originally referred to the way communities form along cultural and ethnic lines, it now represents solidarity among oppressed peoples in the face of class division. At the event, Hamze showed the audience how his music embodies that intersectionality by demonstrating how he adapted international analog samples before performing the songs. He also honors asabiyyah by donating all profits from the sale of the tapes to the Sameer Project, a grassroots organization providing aid to people in Gaza.  “When music represents that kind of collective struggle, that mutual aid, I can’t talk about all these topics from the album and pocket all the bread that I make off this cassette,” Hamze said. “It’s more productive and more impactful to funnel the music into something that means something.” Advertisement Hamze grew up in Austin to Lebanese immigrant parents who left their home country prior to his birth. While studying international relations at UT, he cultivated his rapping abilities by performing at open mics with the student organization Spitshine Poetry.  “It was cool to find out that there actually is more in Austin than just random jam bands and blues music,” said Felix Rolón, a fan who first met Hamze at a going-away party. “Jam bands are fun, blues music is cool, but I like hip hop, and unless I’m just missing something, this is where the hip hop’s at.” At Tuesday’s event, Rolón bought a tape from Hamze and a few records from Ben Buck, Antone’s resident sound engineer who helped Hamze make physical copies of Asabbiyah. Buck, whose family owns Antone’s, runs Speaker Bump Presents, a tape-only label with over 300 releases. Hamze chopped samples for Asabbiyah on a tape deck that Buck sold him, and the pair pressed the tapes by hand. “To be able to channel the source material in a way that he did, and execute it so well with the artwork and the audio is a really cool, full circle moment and it’s a really dope project,” Buck said. Though Hamze says that what he does is totally new, he is honoring a long-standing hip-hop tradition of respectfully celebrating Arab music. When he was growing up, Hamze said the only positive Muslim representation in music existed in rap. When his brother showed him Jay Z’s “Big Pimpin’,” which flips “Khosara” by Abdel Halim Hafez, Hamze liked that the rapper interpolated Arabic music without being disrespectful. “It was just a dope sample,” Hamze said. Hamze said he hopes that in several decades, his tapes will be discovered by artists of not-yet-invented genres. “Speaking to anybody else that is in a similar situation as me, where they feel kind of divided between cultures, if they came from immigrant parents or they immigrated here: you don’t have to choose,” Hamze said. “We’re actively creating new worlds.” Editor’s Note: Adam Hamze was on Daily Texan staff from 2014-2015. 0 Like This Story Share on Facebook Share on X Email this Story Print this Story More to Discover More in Life&Arts Bryson Tiller celebrates decade of ‘TRAPSOUL’ Q&A: Joshua Jensen talks ACL performance, gives advice Through the lens: Austin City Limits Music Festival weekend two 'The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane’ unites audiences of all ages SIMS Foundation provides free mental health support at ACL Sumo League hosts first tournament in Austin More in Music Stalefish’s ‘Bueno’ finds strength in playing together Before ACL or SXSW, Austin counterculture peaked at Woodshock Q&A: Advertising student talks debut EP release Dev Lemons makes mourning feel like chase on ‘hunting what we already killed’ Butler School of Music hosts International Opera Competition “A Night In Bridgerton” bridges gap between classic, contemporary music