North Carolina rap maker, caretaker duo drops album

George Alyateem — also known as Doc G — doesn’t have much spare time as a first-year UNC medical student.

Yet he still finds time to make beats, write raps and produce a 10-song album with his brother, Wesam Alyateem, a senior at Appalachian State University.

The brothers, from Charlotte comprise the rap duo WeGe, a combination of their two names. The team not only writes their own raps, but they also record their own vocals and mix and master each song while juggling schoolwork.

“First and foremost, I think — and my brother can probably speak to this as well — school is going to come first,” George Alyateem said. “Whenever I have a test or whenever I have to study, hip-hop takes a backseat to whatever I’m focused on at medical school.”

The duo produced its first album in high school, under their original name, The Clinic.

“At the time, it was kind of just for fun, just another thing to do and have a good time with,” George Alyateem said.

“We kind of put it off when we went to college because we were both busy. This past summer, the summer of 2013, we were like, ‘You know what? We should take this a little bit more seriously and see what we can do with it.’”

The brothers bought equipment for making beats and converted George’s bedroom closet at their Charlotte home into a soundproof recording booth.

“I think for my brother and me, this is a creative outlet,” George Alyateem said. “We finally found it. It made sense. We could turn our happiness, sadness, anger or whatever mood we’re feeling into the beats.”

Being at universities hours apart hasn’t stopped the two brothers from working together on their newest album Never Saw It Coming. Wesam Alyateem said they split up tasks by communicating by phone, Skype and through the Internet.

“We both have Google drive accounts, so we’ll just put the songs on the account, and I’ll let him know what I did to the song and what he should do,” Wesam Alyateem said.

Wesam Alyateem said his family and friends love that the brothers make music, and said the thing he enjoys most about making beats is that he is creating his own work.

“I don’t have to have any influence on anybody else,” he said. “Some people just go in and they’re like, ‘OK, I want to make a beat like this person.’ But I go in and just start doing a little something, and it’ll lead to another little thing.”

Gregory Raynor, a friend of the rap duo, introduced George Alyateem to creating hip-hop music when they were in high school.

“When I started making beats, I’d already been writing for a while throughout my earlier teen years, and I don’t think he’d been writing at all, so to see where he started and where he is now is extraordinary,” Raynor said.

Raynor hasn’t heard WeGe’s new album yet, but he said from what he’s seen so far, their message is one of self-empowerment and self-reliance.

“I know how motivated they are and how they’ve always persevered in whatever they’ve done. If they blow up, I’m sure that will be exciting for them, like it will be exciting for me.”

arts@dailytarheel.com