At 18, you’re at a new beginning of finding out who you are, what your purpose is, and where you are going. When growing up as a Palestinian, a child’s capacity for resilience, hope, and love is greater than that of many.
Touch, whose real name is Hussien Abo Yonis, was born in Sakhnin in 2007, carrying a lifetime’s worth of heartbreak, intention, and creative fire.
But music wasn’t always Touch’s dream. It came with time.
“I started writing songs when I was in sixth grade, like 11 or 12 years old. But it wasn’t serious,” he says.
He pauses, then continues reflecting on his life thus far.
“I was 16 years old. I had two sisters and a mom. I couldn’t show I was weak, because I didn’t want them to feel weak too.”
Touch speaks bluntly, with no heavy emotion, as he describes the moment his father was hospitalized and he suddenly became the only man in the house.
“I was told my dad was in the hospital and needed a catheter surgery,” Touch recalls. “I didn’t know how serious it was. I kept going about my day like normal.”
Sadly, it wasn’t simple. His father’s condition quickly declined. “ I got a call from my uncle telling me the situation was getting worse, Touch says. All of a sudden, they came and took us from the house. That’s when everything changed.”
In that moment, it felt as though his childhood had ended.
Touch doesn’t discuss this chapter for sympathy. His delivery remains a direct, “ it just is” attitude. “The first month, the situation kept getting worse. Every day, something new came up that killed hope, he states.”
That year reflected numbness, as he kept his head down and wrote, walking through Sakhnin’s streets while trying to make sense of what was happening. “I saw things a kid my age shouldn’t have seen,” he says. “I was living in a place that didn’t match my age.” MSEBEH became a home, a safe space where he could process his emotions.
Touch recalls how relentless and emotionally devastating that time was. “That whole period was a disaster, not just a day or two. There wasn’t a single easy day,” the rapper shares.
Out of this emotion, his debut EP MSEBEH was born.
The EP serves as an extension for Touch’s vulnerability, and it came through the support of BLTNM Records and was produced by fellow Palestinian Smokeaholic.
The title MSEBEH, written as a translation of the Arabic word ” مصيبة” (meaning calamity), refers to the sense of never catching a break.
The name “Touch,” the rapper shares, started as a nickname in the street: “nothing special, just a nickname his friends gave him.”
Now, it holds meaning, touching every wound, joy, and emotion into sound.
Despite being from a region often reduced to misleading headlines, Touch resists turning his pain into a political statement. Instead, he leans into storytelling as a means of survival.
“We don’t speak with agendas,” explains his manager. “We speak by default. By existing, by sharing his truth, Touch is already speaking volumes.”
Touch never tries to romanticize pain. While MSEBEH exudes a raw and confessional tone, he says that he felt nothing.
“The emotions came only after the period ended.”
What he wrote felt real, not what may sound better.
“We don’t like to force anything. We don’t like to tell ourselves, ‘Let’s write this feeling.’ We don’t make a song because we have to. It happens naturally”.
The album wasn’t planned. “We weren’t even planning to make an EP. We were just recording,” he explains, continuing with his carefree spirit and “it just is” demeanor.
Touch affirms how 2023 marked a year of family hardship amidst genocide intertwined with an unwillingness to give up. “I didn’t know I would take something positive from it,” he admits.
Smokeaholic was someone Touch didn’t expect to click with right away. “I honestly didn’t feel like there would be chemistry between us like that. One day, we made three tracks in a single day.”
Although there’s only one feature on MSEBEH, the singer Jude, the collaboration was entirely unplanned. “I woke up and found her in the studio. We made a track together just like that,” he laughs.
The sequencing of MSEBEH mirrors the emotional timeline of that year. The EP opens with the chilling retelling of his father’s health and closes with a kind of reluctant hope. “Life doesn’t hand you peace,” he says. “You have to find a way to live through the chaos.”
Filmed in Sakhnin with an entirely in-house team from BLTNM Records, the track MSEBEH anchors the project both musically and visually. The music video captures Touch’s real life, his real people, and his day-to-day. “I tried to show everything I said in the track, I had to make sure people wouldn’t just hear it, but see it.”
Touch cares about every detail of his artistry and making sure people have access to his story. “I’m new to life, really,” he says humbly as he reminds us that he is merely 18. He’s not trying to make himself bigger than he is, but rather a kid with a story and a mic. “This is what I want to keep doing,” he says. “I want to die at peace.”
When asked how he views the people who support him, Touch is quick to correct the question. “I don’t like to say I have fans,” he says. “We’re family.”
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