A network for the ones who were never one thing.

Discovery

Both artists had an audience before anyone outside the region was listening. Omar Souleyman began singing at weddings in northeastern Syria in 1994, and recordings of those sets reportedly circulated on hundreds of cassettes.⁸ TUL8TE released his debut EP, MAGHOOL, in May 2023 and found listeners through streaming and short video. As of October 2024, GRAMMY.com reported that "Habeeby Leh" had passed 10 million Spotify streams and 8 million on Anghami and appeared in more than 61,000 TikTok videos, with no money spent on marketing the album.¹

What carried each of them further was different. For Souleyman it was people. Mark Gergis, an Iraqi-American musician and archivist, compiled Highway to Hassake for the Seattle label Sublime Frequencies, which began working with Souleyman in 2006.⁷ Online reaction to his "Leh Jani" clip helped lead to a 2009 tour of the UK and Europe, including a Sublime Frequencies night in Newcastle that May.⁵ For TUL8TE it was platforms: TikTok, Spotify and Anghami, and later a COLORS session of "Garee2a Awy" that InterSpace reports has passed 10 million YouTube views.⁴

TUL8TE performs in a white knit mask, and he has said the performer's identity is beside the point.

"It doesn't matter who the performer is, what matters is how the listener interprets the music and lyricism."TUL8TE to GRAMMY.com, October 2024

Infrastructure

Neither route ran without institutions. Four Tet produced Wenu Wenu (2013), Souleyman's first studio album, for Ribbon Music, an imprint of the London indie Domino.⁸ Bahdeni Nami (2015) came out on Modeselektor's Berlin label Monkeytown, and Diplo's Mad Decent released To Syria, With Love (2017), Shlon (2019) and Erbil (2024), named for the Iraqi city that took him in.⁹

TUL8TE's label partner came from the region. Narein (2025) came out through MDLBEAST Records, the Riyadh-based music company.² Apple Music credits his August 2026 album Sadeek El Bernameg ℗ MDLBEAST Records, and the album features Elyanna on "Haneish."³⁴

The difference is where each artist's partners were based and when they arrived. Souleyman's came from Seattle, London, Berlin and Los Angeles, early in his crossing. TUL8TE's main partner came from Riyadh, after his streams were already moving.

Cultural impact

Neither artist had to change his sound to travel. Souleyman has sung dabke in Arabic on Western festival stages for close to two decades, and in December 2025 he co-wrote and sang on Gorillaz's "Damascus" with Damon Albarn and Yasiin Bey.¹⁰ TUL8TE's songs draw openly on '90s Egyptian pop and Amr Diab,¹ and his 2026 world tour reaches US rooms such as Miami on 14 November.⁶

Wider circulation doesn't settle who benefits. Exposure tells us who heard the music. It doesn't tell us who owns the recordings, who publishes the songs or where the income goes, and that is what we investigate next.

What the credits can tell us

Release credits are public. Contracts are not. Our expanded edition, due 16–17 October, compares ℗ and © lines, publishing and listener geography across both catalogues, and keeps verified credits separate from relationships we can only infer.

For emerging SWANA artists, there is more than one route West, and the routes share more than they first appear to. Each one that opens adds to the network.