Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (AP) – The tattoos covering the face of the Iranian rapper Tataloo stand out against the gray prison uniform that the 37 -year -old player now is waiting for the execution, his own climb and the fall in tracing chaos of the last decade of Iranian politics.
Tataloo, whose full name is Amir Hossein Maghsoudloo, is confronted with a death sentence after being sentenced to “insult Islamic sanctities”. It is far from when he once supported a hard Iranian presidential candidate.
Tataloo’s music has become popular among the youth of the Islamic Republic, because it questions Iran’s theocracy at a time when opposition to the government of the country was exploded and largely without leader.
The rapper’s words became more and more political after the death in 2022 of Mahsa Amini and the subsequent wave of national demonstrations. He also appeared in musical clips that criticized the authorities.
“When you show your face in a clip, you say:” Hey, I’m here, and I don’t care about your restrictions “,” said Ali Hamedani, a former BBC journalist who interviewed the rapper in 2005. “It was courageous.”
The Iranian Supreme Court last month confirmed its death sentence.
“This decision has now been confirmed and is ready to execute,” said the spokesman for the judiciary, Asghar Jahangir, for a press conference last month.
The Iranian rapper Amir Hossein Maghsoudloo, also known as Tataloo, speaks during his trial at the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, Iran, April 23, 2024. (Mostafa Roudaki / Mizan News Agency via AP)
Activists have criticized his imminent execution and expressed their concern for his security after he tried to commit suicide in prison.
Of a clip on a warship in exile
Tataloo began his musical career in 2003 as part of a underground genre of Iranian music which combines Western styles of rap, rhythm and blues and rock with Farsi lyrics. His first album, released in 2011, polarized the public, although he has never played publicly in Iran, where his Ministry of Culture and Islamic Orientation controls all concerts.
Tataloo appeared in a 2015 clip supporting the Iranian paramilitary revolution guardian and the Tehran nuclear program, which has long been targeted by the West on the fears that it could allow the Islamic Republic to develop an atomic bomb. Although he has never discussed the motivation behind it, it appeared that the rapper had hoped to gain the favor of theocracy or perhaps having a ban on traveling against him.
In the video of “Energy Hasteei” or “Energy Nuclear”, Tataloo sings a walk of power in front of guards brandishing rifles and later aboard the Iranian frigate Damavand in the Caspian Sea. The ship then sank during a storm in 2018.
“It is our absolute right: to have an armed Persian Gulf,” sang Tataloo.
Tataloo even published an approval for hardliner Ebrahim Raisi in 2017. Raisi later won the presidency in 2021, but was killed in a helicopter accident in 2024.
Screenshot from the video clip of Iranian rap artist Amir Hossein Maghsoudloo, alias Tataloo, 2019.
Fame in Türkiye, prison in Iran
In 2018, Tataloo – which was confronted with legal problems in Iran – was authorized to leave the country for Turkey, where many Persian singers and artists stage lucrative concerts.
Tataloo organized live video sessions when he went to glory on social networks, where he became well known for his tattoos covering his face and his body. Among them are an Iranian flag and an image of his mother next to a key and a heart.
Instagram disabled her account in 2020 after calling for minor girls to join her “team” for sex. He also admitted to taking drugs.
“Although he is a controversial rapper, Tataloo has a fans base in Iran, known as” tatalities “, said Holly Dagres, principal researcher at the Washington Institute for next East Policy. “Over the years, they have flooded social networks with messages of solidarity for him and even campaigned for the liberation of the rapper in the past when he was detained for distinct accusations.”
The rebellious music of Tataloo affected the sensitive string with young people deprived of their rights in Iran while they were fighting to find work, get married and start their adult life. He has also increasingly challenged Iran’s theocracy in his words, in particular after the death of Amini following his arrest so as not to bring the hijab to the authorities.
His collaboration “Enghelab Solh” – “Revolution of peace” in Farsi – called the Iranian supreme chief of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by name.
“We don’t want tear gas, because there are tears in everyone’s eyes,” he hit.
But the music stopped for Tataloo at the end of 2023. He was expelled from Turkey after the expiration of his passport and was immediately arrested upon arrival in Iran.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
The death penalty arouses demonstrations
The Tehran Criminal Tribunal initially inflicted Tataloo a five -year sentence for blasphemy. The Supreme Court of Iran referred the decision and sent his case to another court, which sentenced him to death in January. The rapper has already risked ten years in prison for a series of separate convictions, in particular the promotion of prostitution and moral corruption.
“Tataloo is very risky of execution,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Iran Human Rights advocacy group, in a statement. “The international community, artists and the public must act to stop its execution.”
Tataloo previously expressed remorse during a trial.
“I have certainly made mistakes, and many of my actions were wrong,” he said, according to Jam-E Jam Daily belonging to the state. “I apologize for the mistakes I made.”
Tataloo got married in the death corridor, said his uncle. Last month, Tataloo would have tried to commit suicide, but survived.
His death sentence occurs at a politically responsible for Iran, because the country is “the most isolated,” said Abbas Milani, an Iranian expert at the University of Stanford.
The Islamic Republic “desperately tries to see if it can reach an agreement with the United States on its nuclear program and make the sanctions rise,” he said. Drawing of the anger of Tataloo fans is “a headache they don’t need,” he added.
