RASHI, RAMBAM and RAMALAMADINGDONG
A Quizbook of Jewish Trivia Facts & Fun
A Quizbook of Jewish Trivia Facts & Fun
The 50th anniversary of hip-hop is being celebrated, commemorating a party hosted by DJ Kool Herc in an apartment building in the Bronx on August 11, 1973 which is recognized as the first hip-hop event. The music and culture of hip-hop comprises four main elements: DJing/turntablism, MCing/rapping, B-boying/breaking, and visual/graffiti art. There are many Jewish hip-hop and rap artists, among them Drake and the Beastie Boys, each of whom have offered Jewish moments in their public lives, recordings or performances. For example, Drake performed in a Saturday Night Live skit called “Drake’s Bar Mitzvah,” and he filmed his video HYFR in Miami’s Temple Israel. The Beastie Boys (Michael “Mike D” Diamond, Adam “MCA” Yauch, and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz) included a song on one of their albums called Shadrach, where they compared themselves to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, three Jewish men who defied King Nebuchadnezzar II as told in the Book of Daniel. What Jewish moments have been part of other Jewish hip-hop performers’ lives?
Herc on the Wheels of Steel by Bigtimepeace is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A. The Alchemist, born Alan Daniel Maman, released an album in 2015 titled Israeli Salad made up of instrumental compositions which sampled Israeli songs. One track on that album is called Bone Thugs N’ Haifa.
B. The multi-lingual hip-hop group Hip Hop Hoodíos released a CD titled Carne Masada: Quite Possibly the Very Best of Hip Hop Hoodios which contained the songs Que Pasa in Israel, Asi Loncheamos! (Two Matzoh Balls), and Shalom Obama among others.
C. Los Serenos Sefarad (the “Sefardi Watchmen”) is a Jewish hip-hop group from Seattle which was formed by Rabbi Simon Benzaquen and Mexican-born rapper/guitarist Alejandro “Alex” Hernandez. Rabbi Benzaquen had no particular knowledge of hip-hop until he performed the conversion to Judaism of rapper Nissim Black (formerly Damian Jamohl Black).
D. Rapper Benjamin Landy Pavlon, who performs as BLP Kosher, has recorded songs and videos including Jew on the Canoe and Special K (which includes the lyrics And I'm forever smoking Nazis/I’ma pass the blunt to Anne Frank).
E. El-P, born in Brooklyn as Jaime Meline, was not raised in his mother’s Catholic faith or his father’s Jewish faith, though he noted of his Jewish ancestry that he “got none of it except a circumcision at birth.” He is an investor in the Jewish-style deli Frankel’s in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn.
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