you cannot cancel your geography
October 13, 2015 6:55 AM   Subscribe

From activist Palestinian OGs, to Black Hebrew hitmakers from remote desert outposts, to goofy trap about food, rap in Israel and Palestine is a melting pot of voices and perspectives. Mike Skinner of the Streets for Noisey Magazine investigates Hip Hop In The Holy Land.

In episode 1 Mike meets Tamer Nafar who is the co-founder of DAM aka Da Arabian MCs who were the first Palestinian rap group to break through.



In episode 2 Mike spends the day with Ohad Cohen who as a secular teenager was a part of the nascent Israeli rap scene but is now fully immersed in the ultra orthodox Jewish community. He still has high hopes of making it as a rapper though.



In episode 3 Mike travels to the desert town of Dimona where a group of African-American Israelis, that sometimes refer to themselves as Black Hebrews, could have their first breakout rap star in Ben Blackwell. Of all the artists he’s met so far none have an anthem that goes in as much as Blackwell’s “Israel We Go Hard”.



In episode four of Hip-Hop in the Holy Land, Mike travels to the Tel Aviv compound of mythical rapper Subliminal, the first to rap in Hebrew and achieve big commercial success with it, and whose political views still divide rap fans. Mike also drops in to watch popular rap radio show Jigga Juice being recorded and meets a bunch of young Israeli rappers.

In the final part of our series,
host Mike Skinner heads to Jerusalem to meet Rebel Sun from Lucille Crew, a native of Baltimore with no connection to the land. He simply passed through while travelling, fell in love with Jerusalem, and went on to become a key part of the rap scene, performing under various guises.
posted by Potomac Avenue (3 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
"'My grandfather was kicked out of his house in Jaffa.'
'My father was kicked out of Poland.'
'Yeah, by the Nazis, not by me!'"

Boom. This is awesome.
posted by Mooseli at 9:33 AM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


If you're interested in more backstory, the 2003 documentary Channels of Rage covers the collapse of the friendship between Subliminal and Tamer Nafar during the events of the Second Intifada.
posted by zamboni at 9:51 AM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]




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