Celebrate Hip Hop

    arrived in my mailbox the other day. The compilation CD is

    part of the “Celebrate” series, executive produced by Craig

    Taubman, that claims to be “your ultimate Jewish music

    source” (www.celebrateseries.com).

   

    Now, I remember

    Taubman as a song leader from my Hebrew school and camp

    days, and it’s hard to imagine this king of the Shabbos

    niggun as an edgy hip-hop producer. I had to ask, “Can a

    man undergo such a drastic change?”

   

    The answer is

    “yes” — but also a little bit “no.”

   

    So let’s start

    with the highlights. The album features a list of 12

    international artists from Israel, the U.S., (including the

    Hip Hop Hoodios, misidentified as hailing from South

    America), Canada, the U.K., and Russia. Parents will be glad

    to know there is not a single word of English profanity to

    be found here (though I think I heard a word on Russian band

    iSQUAD’s “History” which got me smacked once).

   

    The Israeli

    contributions are particularly strong here. Mook E. offers a

    driving send-up of teenage angst, “Cross That Bridge.” “Big

    Ben” by Sagol 59, featuring A7, is a heartfelt eulogy to a

    friend lost in a terrorist attack and a sad reminder of the

    experience of violence and death shared by Israeli and

    African American youth.

   

    “Hiphopkele” by

    the British-Canadian duo Solomon & Socalled is a wonderful

    romp, fusing Klezmer melodies with a bouncing beat and

    Yiddish lyrics any non-Yiddish speaker could understand.

   

   

    Among the more

    intriguing American selections here are “South Side of the

    Synagogue,” where Etan G. rants against those in his

    synagogue who sought to stifle his creative side and “I’m

    Guessing” by Brimstone 127, a meditation on the things that

    unite and divide all peoples featuring a beautifully

    haunting chorus and bridge by Mariposah.  

   

    Two tracks do

    seem out of place here. The first is the Hip Hop Hoodios’

    update of the Ladino Hanukkah song “Ocho Kandelikas,” which

    opens the album. Don’t get me wrong, “Kandelikas” will light

    up any Hanukkah party, but the grungy celebration of the

    Festival of Lights hardly fits into the genre of hip-hop. 

   

   

    The other

    out-of-place track is the closer, “Just Peace” by

    Antithesis. The rhymes are weak, and the one-sided review of

    Israel’s history from 1948 to the present flaunts

    Antithesis’ ignorance. The song stands in stark contrast to

    the more contemplative tracks on the album, particularly

    “Muslim and Jew” where Remedy and Cilva Ringz offer Jewish

    and Arab perspectives, respectively.

   

    RZA closes the

    joint preaching education as the solution par excellence.

    “Muslim and Jew” also features the most rabbinic flavored

    lyrics on the album: “With your mind open and eyes shut /

    You can’t tell the difference of who’s who and what’s what /

    Please educate our lost children every day / A lesson a day

    keeps the Devil away.”

   

    So, a man can

    change – a little bit anyway. Celebrate Hip Hop does

    present an all-round colorful, albeit somewhat sanitized,

    selection of the current international Jewish hip-hop scene.