Hassane Dennaoui – better known as " Big Hass " – is the host of Saudi Arabia's first FM hip-hop radio show.

Dennaoui's program "Lesh Hip-hop" (Why Hip-hop) began five years ago and has grown a large Saudi, Arab and even international fanbase. StepFeed caught up with Big Hass at Step Conference in Dubai to talk with him about his journey with music, Arab hip-hop and the "Re-volt" that he sees happening in the region.

"In 2008, I was just a normal guy listening to music. You know, I didn't really have any direction to be a radio guy or a blogger or anything like that. But in 2008 I heard a mixtape coming from a friend of mine in Canada. I heard people like the Narcissist, Low Key, Shadia Mansour and different underground artist I'd never heard of and that pushed me to think, 'Why are these songs not being played on the radio?'"

This led Dennaoui to create his blog Re-volt .

"I wanted to revolt against the mainstream. I wanted to revolt against anything stupid. And 'Re-volt' is a combination of two words. Its a combination of revolution and voltage."

Dennaoui began by blogging about the underground music he found interesting. As he heard more and more Arab hip-hop, a new passion was born. While Arab pop music generally focuses on themes of love and relationships, Dennaoui found that Arab hip-hop was often used to express strong opinions about important issues in society, sentiments he found he strongly resonated with. He began visiting regional countries to interview and connect directly with various artists.

"It went from a blog, to online radio, to actually creating the show on the FM, which was pretty historic, especially for one of the conservative countries like Saudi Arabia. I play real hip-hop, not the booty shaking hip-hop."

And there was definitely a fanbase.

"The show was actually one hour before. After the people demanded on Twitter that the show be two hours, the station approved. So power to the people," he said. "So, whoever is reading this, the power is to you."

While censorship has been an issue, Dennaoui has found his way to manage these issues, although his show has been temporarily shut down in the past when he played controversial tracks.

"Yes. There is a lot of censorship. Not only on radios in the Middle East by the way. Even in the West, they don't want to play political tracks. What's the reason? I don't know why. For me, I believe they are trying to dumb down the people. They are trying to keep you down in one direction."

However, Dennaoui believes things are changing, especially when it comes to the younger generation. With a platform titled "Re-volt," there is definitely a passion for reform and change behind what he is doing.

"When I say 'revolt,' I'm not saying revolt as in change the system. No, I'm just saying change the way you think, change the way you take things, change the way you perceive things. I do believe that entertainment is force-feeding us. They are force-feeding us entertainment, 100 percent."

One particular thing that he would like to see change is an increase of women in the Arab hip-hop scene. While the few female Arab hip-hop artists performing today are among his personal favorite, he laments the fact that more aren't involved in the cause.

"There isn't a lot of females in the hip-hop [scene] in the Arab world," he said. "For my platform, really, I'm dying, if you're seeing a [female] hip-hop artist, hit me up. A community without females is not a community."

Despite the occasional adversity he might face, Dennaoui exudes passion for his work and the music he has come to love so much. And he's not afraid that political pressure or influences will stop the movement anytime soon.

"I'm a person who believes music connects people way better than any politics."