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June 4, 2004
Saying it like it is – Israeli rappers
Tailor-made for contentious remarks, this decade-long music trend
communicates "what real life is about."
BARRY DAVIS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
In a country like Israel, where even the most innocuous of comments
is liable to be construed or misconstrued as having some political
import, artists can sometimes get into trouble for expressing their
views through their work.
There are some areas of the arts that appear to be tailor-made for
making seemingly contentious statements. Rap music is certainly
one of them. In recent years, Israeli rappers from all sides of
the social tracks and of all political leanings have taken to getting
their credo across to the public, come what may, much as their professional
counterparts in New York and London have been doing for some time.
The Israeli rap scene started in 1993 with the release of Nigel
Admor's Houmous Metamtem (Great Houmous). In view
of the thorny political and social issues – both between Jews
and Arabs, and between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews – that have
been the lot of this still young country since its establishment
in 1948, the seeds of rap and its hip hop sibling fell on fertile
ground.
As far as 24-year-old Jerusalemite rapper Roy Assiag, also known
as Rocky B, is concerned, he's living in the right place at the
right time, at least in professional terms.
"It's not easy living in Jerusalem," he said over his
first coffee of the morning in the neighborhood café. He
apologized for not playing host in his downtown apartment, but his
cooking gas had run out. "There's all this unemployment and
security stuff, but I'm staying put. This is my home."
Like his more famous and more feted professional peers in the United
States, Rocky said he feeds off the energy on the streets, including
the bad stuff.
"I live in downtown Jerusalem," he explained. "There
was that terrorist attack a couple of years ago when someone started
firing a rifle all over the place. That's got to affect you. I don't
identify myself as an Israeli or as a Jew, just a Jerusalemite.
I was born here and that's all I know. I prefer a self-made identity,
not a national or religious identity."
Rocky's rap monologues touch on many aspects of life here, and there
are mutilated holy cows strewn throughout his lyrics.
"Political protest is a healthy thing," he said.
Then again, for Rocky, rap isn't just about spouting forth about
the ills of society. "When I go to a party, I want to have
fun. Rap is like the news. You can talk about anything. I have more
power than the media. I improvise and react to events immediately.
I can talk about things happening in this coffee house right now.
That's what real life is about."
Then there are rappers like Kobi Shimoni and Yoav Eliasi –
better known by their stage names Subliminal and the Shadow twosome
– who attract large audiences and appeal to youngsters who
tend towards the righthand side of the political divide. In addition
to the customary rapper's baseball cap, baggy sweat pants and loose-fitting
hooded sweatshirt, Subliminal normally performs adorned with a glittering,
rhinestone-studded Star of David necklace. In between numbers, the
duo's live concerts feature on-stage interjections about the need
to rally around the Zionist flag in these dark times of Israeli-Palestinian
hostilities. Premeditated marketing ploy or no, the approach seems
to be working, with Subliminal and the Shadow record sales in the
tens of thousands.
Meanwhile Mook E, who a couple of years ago shot to nationwide acclaim
with his Hear O Israel album, delicately treads around the
middle ground. One of the cuts on the album, "Talking About
Peace," includes lines like "I see people living dreams
and hopes; people living only through intrigues and plots.... Everyone
talks about peace...."
Palestinian rapper Tamir Naffer is naturally on the other side of
the political and social divide, although he touches on more than
Jewish-Arab issues.
"Everything is, in a way, political here," he said. "I
talk about discrimination, but also about the social woes in Arab
society, about drugs and violence. There are people who don't exactly
like what I express in my music – including guys like Subliminal
– but rap gives me the opportunity to put it all out there,
to say everything that's bothering me."
Political issues apart, the recent upsurge in the popularity of
Mediterranean music has also left its mark on the rap scene. In
a way, the rap-Mediterranean hybrid is the most natural pairing
the Israeli music scene could produce. Both were marginalized for
a long time before eventually achieving across-the-board recognition,
and both originate from, and maintain a symbiotic bond with, street-level
vibes.
"Mediterranean music never really touched on the painful subjects,
like deprivation and identifying with suffering," explained
Avi Azikri from the Soldiers of Vengeance rap outfit. "Rap
is essentially black music and it sort of legitimizes things like
the Black Panthers [1970s Israeli social activism movement] which
was never represented in music. Black artists like James Brown and
Bob Marley sang about deprivation without the frills that you find
in Mediterranean music."
The rap scene may have taken a while to hit the big time but, for
now, it provides the perfect vehicle for youngsters with attitude
and something to say to lay it on the Israeli public.
Barry Davis is with Israel Press Service.
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