Hello and welcome to illogicallove.com. My name is Farhan, however many know me as Hani. This site is the home for all my written pieces.

I started writing in 2001 as a joke with my cousin. We tried to act like a parody of gangster rappers. But, we started taking things very seriously when we came up with some pretty good raps.

Eventually, my cousin stopped but I continued, venturing in to music producing and melody creation. This seemed to be my path and in 2003, I started writing my own raps but I took inspiration from the likes of KRS-One, Run DMC , Wutang Clan and A Tribe Called Quest.

I realised that these guys would rap very differently than the West Coast, California based rappers. It was more about street life rather than the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle and I really enjoyed it. It was educational on life in America and the history and evolution of Hip Hop. In fact, it was through Mos Def that I learned about Q-Tip and it was through Q-Tip, I became infatuated with turntables and an art called needle dropping. This is basically creating a sample loop on the turntable by judging where to lift and place the needle. I must admit, I can’t do it but through Q-Tip, I also learned about the MPC, which is a pillar in Hip Hop life.

Anyway, being a UK lad, it was at this point So Solid Crew, Kano, Oxide & Neutrino, Wiley, Scorcher, Lethal B, the Heartless Crew, Lowkey, Miss Dynamite and her little brother, the one and only Akala were becoming increasingly popular.

Looking back, Lowkey, Akala and the Heartless Crew were probably my favourite. And it was only natural for me to try to write based on three simple points:

1. Tell a story
2. No profanity
3. Read the dictionary and learn words. take difficult words and rhyme with them

 

Now, this third point was actually introduced by a childhood friend of mine, when on a bus journey, he told me to freestyle over any word of his choosing… He chose the word ‘ambulance’. No freestyle came from that but I took that as a lesson to adopt the third point in to my writing.

Eventually, I would make beats for the sake of making beats and I would write for the sake of writing. And well, the rest is history.

The reason I chose illogical love is because of my Muslim faith. I found through my journey that I had created a somewhat inexplicable love for our Master and Prophet, Muhammad ﷺ (May the peace and blessings be Upon him).

I hope you enjoy your journey in to my illogical life.