Old and New in the Israeli Hip-Hop Scene

I love the blending of old and new, the updating of a classic, the homage to the original artist and their impact on the face of contemporary culture...and that's one of the reasons I was delighted to find out that one of my favorite musical hooks from the entire set of songs from the TACT Family is catchy and timeless sounding for a reason...because it's actually from another era.

Awesome bad 70s dancing, right? That was "Rakdan Haautomati" -- "Automatic Dancer" -- by renowned Israeli singer Tzvika Pick.  He wrote "Diva," the Dana International song that won the Eurovision contest in 1998. He was a judge on "Kohav Nolad" (A Star is Born, the Israeli version of "American Idol.") And he was once in the show "Hair." (This fact to be important in the next paragraph.) And now, the "making of" video for Booskills' "Rakdan Haautomati," complete with a skimpy, 70s fashion infused set of backup dancers. And Tzvika Pick is in the video, Michael Bolton hair and all.

There's no fighting your past, people. You might as well embrace it. Shabbat shalom from Jerusalem, where I saw Israeli kids breakdancing today. But that's another post for another blog. (Can't wait? Check out http://blog.beliefnet.com/idolchatter, where the post should be available shortly.)

Comments

[Sharon Vance]

There is one thing about the Israeli hip hop scene that is really disturbing and that is the misogyny in too many of the lyrics - including Sagol 59 and Plitim mehaparvarim - who really don't seem like they are from the parvarim at all - that is from the poor neighborhoods and development towns. There is of course misogyny in US rap as well. But there are also groups like Arrested Development and Spearhead that take on that misogyny and actively fight it. In fact Michael Franti knows Sagol and Sagol knows English so why doesn't he listen to Franti's lyrics or Arrested Development? Why do they just listen to the gansta rap that white corporate American likes to promote and take that for inspiration? Not only is it misogynist but it is also racist.