The first episode of Vice Media’s new web series, opens with a warning: “Never make a documentary about the Arab-Israeli conflict.” The show’s host, Mike Skinner of British hip hop group The Streets, makes a fair point — however cloying. The ongoing conflict, which technically began with the creation of the State of Israel in…
Nine men in black suits stand in a line across the back of the stage as the first words of Agent Smith’s monologue from “The Matrix Reloaded” come over the speakers: “As you well know, appearances can be deceiving, which brings me back to the reason why we’re here.” Suddenly, the suits multiply; clones appear…
Yes, he does have a very Jewish secret history
History tends to treat the largely cordial relationship between African-Americans and Jews as a thing that ended around 1991, in Crown Heights. But in 2013, hip-hop was one place where Jews and African Americans got along just fine. Some of the most talked about releases in hip-hop this year were recorded by Jewish artists: Drake,…
Growing up in a kosher household in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, Peter Rosenberg became enamored with hip-hop listening to tapes by rapper Big Daddy Kane and scratching records on the turntables he saved up to buy at age 14. Today, Rosenberg is a co-host of one of the nation’s most listened to morning shows, on…
What do you do if you’re “a Yid who thinks he’s a Goy”? You go to your gentile friend “Boris,” of course, for help writing “The Aveirah Song.” Aveirah is Hebrew for “sin,” which, “Boris,” being a gentile and all, would be an expert on. And what kinds of sins does a gentile (or wannabe-gentile)…
It seemed to Michael Prosserman (aka Bboy Piecez) as though his world had stopped spinning when doctors found three congenitally fused vertebrae in his neck when he was 18. Breakdancing had been his passion since he was 12, and his signature move had been to turn continuously on his head in slow motion. Now, his…
Rick Ross may not be Jewish, but he’s seems to know something about opulent bar miztvahs. The blockbuster Miami rapper released a free new mixtape last night called “Black Bar Mitzvah,” an 18-track album featuring contributions from Drake, Pharrell and others. Ross is pictured on the cover inside a gold Star of David. “Black bar…
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