From Tehran to the mic: Rapper’s Nabil ‘Ace’ Esmaeili defiant diss tracks to the Iranian regime

Melbourne-based Iranian rapper Nabil Esmaeili reveals Tehran has threatened his family after he released tracks criticising the regime, while Australia maintains its embassy presence.

Melbourne rapper Nabil ‘Ace’ Esmaeli: The Iranian regime has ‘tried to hack me, threaten me … but none of it’s worked’.

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A Melbourne-based Iranian rapper says Tehran has threatened his family over tracks attacking the Islamic theocracy, as Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s office defended keeping Australia’s embassy open, insisting it was “not an endorsement of the regime” but a way to “protect our interests”.

Nabil “Ace” Esmaeili was 13 when he fled Iran. Now 27, he’s a rapper in Melbourne and the regime he escaped is threatening his family to force him to stop producing music.

The first threat came in a direct message after he dropped a track called Mr Rahbar, meaning Mr Dictator. Then someone in Iran called one of his relatives saying “tell him to stop.”

“I make rap music, and in my music I try to be the voice of the Iranian people who are really suffering at the moment,” he tells The Australian.

“Since the war in the Middle East began, artists, musicians, women, everyone’s under even more pressure back home.”

The budding artist was born into Iran’s Baha’i community – the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, long targeted by the Islamic Republic.

In Melbourne’s outer suburbs, Ace discovered hip-hop as a vehicle of resistance against one of the most brutal regimes in the world. Picture: supplied

They are barred from attending university, banned from government jobs, and routinely arrested, detained or harassed simply for practising their faith.

His family fled in 2011 and resettled in Australia — a fresh start that gave him freedom but left him with a sense of unfinished business.

In Melbourne’s outer suburbs, Ace discovered hip-hop as a vehicle of resistance against one of the most brutal regimes in the world.

When 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in hospital in 2022 after being detained by Iran’s religious morality police for wearing her hijab incorrectly, he said it “broke something” in him.

Iranian authorities claimed she suffered a heart attack. But eyewitnesses said she was beaten in custody. Her death sparked a national uprising — and it lit a fuse in Ace.

“That moment broke something in me,” he said. “I remember thinking, I’m free to speak and I’m doing nothing. So I started writing.”

The result was a series of hard-hitting tracks aimed directly at Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The first track to get under the skin of the regime was Mr Dictator.

Esmaeili performs in Melbourne.

“After I dropped it, I got a message from someone I didn’t know on Telegram. They said, ‘We know where you are.’ Then they messaged one of my friends. That’s when it got serious.”

Soon after, a relative visiting Iran received a phone call. “They asked about me. Wanted to know if I was in Australia. Then they said to tell me to stop making music,” he said. “That’s when I knew they were watching.”

Ace isn’t alone. Other Iranian-Australians have reported similar intimidation.

On Thursday The Australian revealed how exiled Iranians were being stalked and threatened with death by Islamic Republic agents operating freely across the country.

Ace said he now watches his back at shows, online, even at home.

“I’ve seen people at gigs who don’t look like they’re there for the music. I’ve had burner accounts track me. You just never know who’s watching,” he said.

But the fear hasn’t silenced him.

“They’ve tried to hack me, threaten me, pressure my family but none of it’s worked,” he said. “I’m not going to stop making music.”

A spokesperson for Senator Wong said the government would “not tolerate any attempts by Iranian agents to push violence, surveil, harass or intimidate individuals here in Australia’’.

Senator Wong’s spokesperson continued: “The Foreign Minister has raised Australia’s concerns directly with her Iranian counterpart in no uncertain terms.

“Having embassies and diplomatic staff allows the Australian government to convey concerns such as these directly to the regime.

“We have had an embassy continuously in Iran since 1968 because it serves our national interests.

“In all that time, it has never been an endorsement of the regime, it is a channel to protect our interests and our people.”