Salome MC

Salome MC (; born 1985) is an Iranian rapper, producer, antimilitarist activist and multimedia artist. Known as Iran's first female rapper, she has been recognized as one of the best non-English-speaking hip-hop artists by MTV and Time magazine listed her as one of the world's best rappers who are revolutionizing the world of rap. She is also a multimedia/video artist and her work has been featured in festivals, galleries and universities around the world, such as Venice Biennale and Yale University. In 2020, Salome founded "Seven Climes", a grassroots art and heritage project that presents the cultural and lingual diversity of the Iranian Hiphop scene.

Activities Music Salome started rapping by collaborating with Hichkas, one of the currently prominent Iranian rappers, in 2002. With German-Iranian rapper Shirali, she released the collaboration album Delirium in 2006, and, in 2009, a mixtape called Paranoid Descent, In 2013, she released I Officially Exist, the first hip-hop album by a female Iranian hip-hop artist, and its first music video, "Price of Freedom", was crowdfunded to be produced by Sahar Sarshar.

In 2015, Salome collaborated with Japanese rap artist Shing02 for a worldwide recording project called 1+1, and the resulting documentary, Passenger, was released in March 2016. She was also one of the participants in the remake project of Fela Kuti's album, Zombie, featuring Seun Kuti.

She announced her self-produced upcoming album Excerpts From Unhappy Consciousness (ناخوشاگاه) in 2016 and debuted the first song "Odium" (رسوا) at the Music Freedom Day festival 2016 in Norway. The music video for "Odium" was released in October 2016, followed by the second single from the album called "Callous". The album was released in August 2017 digitally, and consists of 8 tracks. In the summer of 2018, Salome released her self-directed music video for the last single from the album called "Riddle", while pregnant with her son. Her song "3" was published in the subsequent year along with a personal essay named "Anxiety, Alienation and Control" on an Iranian feminist website. A regular collaborator with artists from around the world, her 2020 release "Home" featuring Tunisian rapper Medusa TN debuted on KEXP Radio. Salome was featured in the 2024 Konceptualizer album as a co-producer of the song "Wasteland".

Salome founded "Seven Climes", a grassroots art and heritage project that presents the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Iranian Hip-hop scene and aims to connect the regional communities through their common passion for creating social change through rap music.

She received the 2009 female change maker and 2018 Artist Trust Fellowship awards. She interviewed A1one, also known as Karen Reshad, the pioneer of street art in the Middle East for Kolah Studio website in May 2018. Another essay of hers named "Anxiety, Alienation and Control", in which she details her postpartum anxiety experience was published on, Bidarzani, an Iranian feminist website, in June 2019.

Sound and video art Salome MC started working as a sound and video art while getting her master's degree in audio/visual arts in Japan. Her work has been screened and exhibited at various festivals around the world, including Swatch's "Faces" exhibit at the 2015 Venice Biennale with her music video "Vacuum," which features Don Porcella.

Other activities Salome is also known as the first female graffiti artist in Iran. However, she stopped writing graffiti in the early 2000s. She focused on her music. Salome organized art workshops for children who were affected by the 2011 tsunami in Japan, and started “Hip-Hop without Borders” as a music workshop for visually impaired youth of all ages in collaboration with WA department of Services for the Blind.

Salome has spoken and written against militarism

Discography Albums Seven Climes Vol. 2 (2023) Seven Climes Vol. 1 (2021) Excerpts From Unhappy Consciousness (2017) I Officially Exist (2013) Paranoid Descent (Mixtape) (2009) Delirium Featuring Shirali (2006)

Films Passenger - Music Documentary (2015) Three Rituals of Perdurance - Experimental Documentary (2014)

Select Art Shows/Screenings Reclaiming the Village Clown - Museum of Human Achievement (2025) Only Partially Here - Shoreline City Art Cottage (2023) From Silence to Exaltation - Activa Fest, Spain (2017) Seismographic Sounds - Visions of a New World - Touring exhibit (Aug 2015 - Feb 2017) Faces - 56th Venice Biennale (2015)