Iranian pop rapper Sasan Yafte, better known as “Sasy” or “Sasy Mankan”, caused an uproar in his home country by releasing the music video for “Tehran Tokyo”, his new hit. The reason is that “Tehran Tokyo” stars none other than Alexis Texas, one of the most popular pornstars of the current generation. IranWire reported that in 2015, Alexis Texas was the third most searched figure on the Persian-language Wikipedia, beating the likes of General Qassem Soleimani. Namely, despite Iran’s conservative nature and the country’s outright ban on pornography, Alexis Texas is reportedly well known among Iranians.
In response, Iranians called for the rapper to be banned from Iran and for authorities to stop the clip from spreading. Sasy, who now lives in the United States, is a very popular artist among Iranian teenagers, having been involved in controversy on several occasions, most notably when he met Mehdi Karroubi, the reformist candidate for the 2009 presidential election. called him “one of the best known Iranian rappers”. Sasy had already been arrested in 2010 while attending various parties in Kish, an Iranian coastal city. Some sources attributed his arrest to supporting Mehdi Karroubi in the presidential election, and some to “dancing in Kish Bazaar”.
Asking big porn stars to star in music videos is nothing new in the music world anymore. Mainly by smaller bands and artists or with limited success in a specific niche. To cite just 2 examples, in 2016 the Spanish punk and rock band Novedades Carminha had the music video for “Ritmo en la sangre” starring Spanish singer Amarna Miller. In 2020 we also had the Venezuelan indie rock band, La Vida Bohème, inviting the pornstar, also Venezuelan, Lasirena69, to star in the music video ‘MIAMI S&M’.
