photo credit: Judy Lash Balint
Following in the footsteps of Shyne, Matisyahu, Drake, Mac Miller, and Action Bronson… okay scratch the Action Bronson… an Orthodox Rabbi from Seattle is the newest name in hip-hop.
From Seattle’s Sephardic Bikhur Holim congregation, Emeritus Rabbi Simon Benzaquen, who has a decade or two on the young bloods above is the long time friend and now “vocal accompanist” of rapper Nissim.
Nissim, 26, converted with his family to Orthodox Judaism last year under Rabbi Benzaquen, upon hearing the rabbi chanting Kiddush one Shabbat. The rapper tells JNS.org “I was blown away by his powerful voice.”
On Memorial Day of 2013 Rabbi Benzaquen and Nissim, formerly known as D. Black in the Seattle rap scene, performed live at the Sasquatch Music Festival at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington. The guys performed right alongside Elvis Costello and Mumford and Sons.
“I used to dismiss rap completely,” says the Rabbi in an interview with JNS.org
I thought it was inflammatory, full of four-letter words and derogatory towards women. But now I feel that rap has got a bad rap! It’s the African American expression of everyday life… “Think about the Torah when it wants to teach us something,” he explains, “it’s often through shira: song or poetry. That’s what stays with you. That’s why rap can be powerful today and convey a positive message.”
Rabbi Benzaquen is featured on the track “Sores,” from Nissim’s forthcoming album set to release mid-September. The Rabbi drops Hebrew verses from Psalms to his own tune while Nissim combines the story of African American oppression and of a Jew suffering during the Holocaust.