Forward ranked him among the Top 50 Most Influential Jews. Time Magazine, Bloomberg Business Week, NBC, CBS, and NPR all know who he is so you may be asking yourself, why haven’t I heard of Diwon?
Listen for yourself:
Fans know him as Diwon. Business partners know him as Erez Safar. To some he’s a producer, to others a hip hop artist, an entrepreneur, a global beat mixing master, and to a certain group of people, an Orthodox Jew.
Erez Safar is the son of an American Jewish father and a Yemenite Jewish mother– you can hear the mix of traditional Jewish music with the sounds of the Middle East in much of his work. His influences while growing up include Mizrahi music, a genre more commonly performed in Israel that incorporates elements of European, North African, and Arab descent, and Yemenite music from his mother’s side.
Safar’s first venture in the music scene began while he was studying at The University of Maryland where he played the drums for Juez, his breakbeat klezmer jazz quartet band.
But that was several years ago. Now, at the age of 34, Diwon (Erez) is the CEO of two entertainment companies, Bancs Media, an American hip-hop and dance production company, and Shemspeed, an independent recording label and promotional agency.
He produces the Sephardic Music Festival in New York City, and recently moved to LA where he is launching two companies, Design & Code Creative and Music PR Co, under Bancs Media. On top of these other businesses, Diwon has a lifestyle brand, Semitic Swag. Through Semitic Swag he has produced a line of Keffiyehs and recently released an Israeli-inspired one that is blue and white.
Safar, under the name Diwon, is best known as a global artist. Online, he is known for his mixes of today’s hits, such as:
Lana Del Rey’s “Born to Die”
Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain”
produced fellow Jewish artist…
Y-Love’s “See Me” EP:
When Diwon isn’t producing tracks for the international club scene for artists including Akon, Damian Marley and La Roux to name a few, he has been working on something of his very own.
On Aug. 20, Diwon will release his forthcoming debut solo LP, “New Game.” His website, erezsafar.com says the album is
the classic Diwon mix of cerebral and party-rocking, with hard hitting hip-hop drums melting into psychedelic strings and guitar.”
Check back with JStylemagazine.com for an exclusive interview with the artist.