The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
CD Reviews  |  Classical  |  Live Reviews  |  Music Features

Rap Hashanah

An old school new year
By STEVEN LEE BEEBER  |  September 24, 2007
inside_DILLZ
LITTLE-KNOWN MATISYAHU: Kosha Dillz

The Boston Jewish Music Connection kicked off the Jewish New Year a week ago last Wednesday not with a kegger or kippers but with a freestyle showdown of Jewish rappers — a show that threw an old-school twist on Rosh Hashanah 5768.

On hand upstairs at the Middle East were little-known mini-Matisyahus like Kosha Dillz, DJ Handler, Y-Love, and RADIx. Whether rapping about Black September (the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics) or the Biblical language of Aramaic, these descendants of the people of the book kept it real by keeping to the script. They were literate social critics possessed of equal parts chutzpah and mishegas. Or, to translate, they were Lenny Bruce prophets, half crazy from the heat and ready to attack, testifying in the classic sense, their Old Testament sentiments buoyed by funky ass beats.

The enthusiastic but small crowd (hey, it was a school night, in the midst of the week separating Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur — and this ain’t New York) gathered in front of the stage to engage in call-and-response with the fiery ravings of the skullcapped prophets. “It’s cool to have something like this,” said a 23-year-old Tufts med-school student on hand with his girlfriend, she a lawyer at a local firm. “It gives you a different perspective on what it means to be Jewish.”

“That’s true,” said Dillz, an Israeli native who grew up in New Jersey and was known as Rami Esh before pickling himself in rap juice. “But it’s not just Jews who get to explore their identities through music.” In Israel, he pointed out, Israeli and Palestinian youth regularly take part in similar events as a sort of peace summit in rhyme. “People who can’t even speak to each other can sing together, and that’s something,” he said with a shrug.

Nothing so earth-shattering was in the works at this Middle East. But as a kickoff to a new kind of New Year, it had this Jew ready to trade a cap in the ass for a skullcap and a turn at the mic.

Related: A taste of Vinalia, Turkey talk, The Big Hurt: Reconstructive criticism, More more >
  Topics: Live Reviews , Entertainment, Hip-Hop and Rap, Music,  More more >
| More
Add Comment
HTML Prohibited

 Friends' Activity   Popular   Most Viewed 
[ 01/10 ]   Barbara Almond  @ Harvard Book Store
[ 01/10 ]   Big Quiz Thing  @ Oberon
[ 01/10 ]   "Sheila Hicks: 50 Years"  @ Addison Gallery of American Art
ARTICLES BY STEVEN LEE BEEBER
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   SPIRITUALIZED  |  August 04, 2008
    Like fellow studio-friendly trance band Portishead, Spiritualized know how to bring their aural soundscapes alive in real time and space.
  •   ISRAELI UPSTARTS  |  March 17, 2008
    The sound of angry Israeli youth mocking the extreme right is growing in volume, so much so that it’s now reaching the US.
  •   NO LATKES?  |  December 11, 2007
    Four bands, seven countries, and a couple of sponsors: that’s what it took to stage the festival of spotlights known as “A Crazy Worldwide Hanukkah Party.”
  •   MEET AND GREET  |  November 19, 2007
    To be a fly on the wall was, well, quite a buzz.
  •   MOJO RISING  |  October 24, 2007
    “So,” I asked, “how annoying was Jim?”

 See all articles by: STEVEN LEE BEEBER

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2011 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group