S.O.B.s, New York City
September 13, 2006
Report and photography by Yael Korat

Imagine a glimmering stage for dialogue through music, in context of the bleak reality of conflict and violence, and you have “Hip Hop Sulha”. One stage for Israelis and Palestinians to share. A stage on which Israeli Jews, American Jews, Arab-Americans and African-Americans can assert their cultural identity and opinions through poetic means and musical instruments. Middle Eastern music meets American Hip Hop in Arabic, Hebrew, and English and… Yiddish.  Afropop Worldwides’ on-the-scene correspondent, Yael Korat reports on this ground-breaking event.

2006, 13^th of September—S.O.B.s in New York City hosted Hip Hop Sulha –the first in a series of Israeli and Palestinian Hip Hop Showcases. Taking place just after recent conflicts between Lebanon and Israel, Barzali Productions in conjunction with Fractured Atlas (a non-profit agency) brought together Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Moslems, Arab-Americans, Jewish Americans and others to focus on one love: music. For the organizations and artists involved, Hip Hop Sulha celebrates Hip Hop as one mutual “mother,” encouraging a “sulha,” a ritual of mutual forgiveness and peace-making. On stage, renowned Hip Hop artists from Israel, Palestine, the United States , and points in-between, collaborated in rapping, movement, mixing and scratchin’, and spoken word to unify each other and the audience with the mission at hand. The main acts of Hip Hop Sulha were Israeli rappers Shaanan Streett from Hadag Nachash and Sagol 59 along with Israeli-Palestinian rapper SAZ, preceded by a long chain of performances which were just as interesting and compelling, featuring Yuri Lane, Sharif Ezzat, Y-Love, DJ Handler, Ragtop from The Philistines, Omar from the N.O.M.A.D.S. and the renowned DJ Spooky.

DJ Handler a.k.a. Erez and fellow cultural worker, Dan ‘Mobius’ Sieradski organized Hip Hop Sulha which is part of Oy!hoo, The New York Jewish Music and Heritage Festival. Proceeds from the showcase (and other events) have been readily earmarked for donations to organizations that foster Israeli and Palestinian coexistence initiatives through arts and sciences such as Hand in Hand & Givat Haviva. With music and cultural aims in hand, it’s time for the show!

"Music for me is life. It’s oxygen. And I thank God each day, khamdelila, that I have the gift to write and to rhyme. I hope so in English too soon, but I rhyme in Arabic and Hebrew, and I write words on my life. I just record my life on the CD and that’s why music, for me, I call it my life. And to have something like that, it’s unique. Because it’s like each day I wake up and I say thank God that I have music, music gives me hope. For me, music it’s another word for hope. So that’s what I really love in hip-hop." --Samech Zakout a.k.a. SAZ

The dynamic duo Omar from N.O.M.A.D.S. and Ragtop from The Philistines were first to take the stage. Calling to “Free the P” and cajoling the audience in English and Arabic: “It’s not all black and white…Hip Hop is all about participation”.

"Music for me, I think that “the beauty of music is that it’s a universal language that has transcended space and time. Music has always existed and I think music is everything from banging on the floor to make a beat to, you know, making very, very intricate and incredible beats on computers and synthesizers—all of that is music. And the beauty of hip hop music is that it allows you to see… It’s actually more than just that, it’s a culture."-- Omar Offendum from N.O.M.A.D.S.

"You’re listening to world music because we’re a world community. And while there may be differences in the way we look and the way we talk and the way we eat, and even the music we listen to, we need to understand that all people of all races, of all religions are equal and deserve equal rights. And we make music to voice that ‘cause, music comes from love and if we don’t use love in our daily interactions then this isn’t a world to live in." --Ragtop of The Phillistines

Immediately afterwards, the invincible Invincilana, a hardcore MC from Detroit , ushered in the spoken-word portion of the showcase. Reading a freshly-written, passionate rhyme she wrote about the recent war between Israel and Lebanon, Invincilana called towards “Jews of conscience” to fight for justice in the high holidays, because, “If not now, when?!” 

“For me, music is a great way to connect with people that you might not have other means to connect with, actually. You may not speak the same language, you may not come from the same culture, but you can share a song, you can share a moment of a musical experience in a really profound way. And the capacity of music to be communicative in that respect is unlike any other art form... A dialogue through the audio and the visual." -- Sharif Ezzat, a.k.a. “Witness”


School was definitely in session as Y-Love, Brooklyn ’s own African-American-Orthodox Jew MC, commandeered the stage. Quoting from the Talmud (a sacred text of Jewish laws and traditions), Y-Love spoke about opening up to others; rapping in a staccato mix of English, Hebrew and Yiddish. He instilled lyrical instruction to the audience by advising traveling tips—he suggested visiting Ramallah, and cautioned “you can’t go there dressed up like that!” Indeed, Y-Love’s mere identity and his multi-lingual music challenges Middle-Eastern borders. One of his recurrent choruses approached biblical overtones: “slave to the creator; not a slave to slave.”

”Although we have all these differences between us, we have one mother and I call it Hip Hop. So I think, you know, we’re strangers, but… although we are stranger’s we have one mother and we need to respect her. And that’s why I’m here. It’s because of Hip Hop.”—SAZ



The energy level in S.O.B.s rose higher still as Samech Zakout, a.k.a SAZ, a proud Israeli-Palestinian, took the stage.  SAZ, who claims Hip Hop saved his life transformed into a street warrior in action criss-crossing the stage donned with shemagh and a shirt that proclaimed: “Don’t panic – I’m Islamic.” SAZ got the crowd crazy as he rapped in Arabic, Hebrew and English to a mix of beats and traditional Arabic drums. He told the crowd with a smirk on his face: “They say when you’ll give a Palestinian the microphone he will never shut up. Well, I’m greedy for peace. Peace, As-Salaam-Alaikum (peace on everyone)!” The S.O.B.s crowd was definitely cheering for that.  SAZ dedicated one song in homage to “our mothers who bury their sons…Moslem, Jewish and Christian.” “Till when…till when?!” SAZ cried to the crowd, “I came to New York to search for my freedom.”

Sagol 59 took his turn on the mic, hyping the crowd: “It’s about time to hear some Hebrew in the house,” followed by a loud and supportive cheer from the mixed crowd of Hip Hop enthusiasts, Israeli and American Jews.

Sagol 59 rapped mostly in Hebrew, with his blending of witty and comical lyrics. He dedicated one of his songs to a friend, a DJ who died in a suicide bombing at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 2002. SAZ joined Sagol 59 for an encore performance, further bringing home the unification of this group towards promoting goodwill and comradeire in the Middle East .

One of the highlights of the evening when Yuri Lane, “the human beat box,” performed scenes from  a beatbox/mime/multi-media play titled “Tel-Aviv-Ramallah”. A professional actor, Yuri co-collaborated with fellow mulit-media artist, Sharif a.k.a. “The Witness” in performing “Tel-Aviv-Yamallah.”


Yuri told the crowd: “I’m going to take you from Tel Aviv to Ramallah, ” a performance-piece using a palette of expressions through beatbox sounds, miming and projected images portraying the imagery and feel of both locales separately. Marking a line on-stage between himself and the audience to simulate a wall, Yuri declared in a scene: “this is a security fence”.  As the act reached its end the images and beats representative of Tel Aviv and Ramallah were interspersely broadcast, until it was hard to distinguish between them. Yuri’s performance received a wealth of applause from the crowd, after which he played harmonica as Sharif joined him on stage for some mutual rhyming and rapping.

”Anytime when people of various religions and opinions get together for a same cause, it’s a good thing. It’s a good thing when it’s in . It’s a good thing when it’s anywhere, in , in New York . It’s always a good thing. Humans are humans and sometimes they have a hard time remembering that.” -- Shaanan Streett

Shaanan Streett, headliner for Hip Hop Sulha, is one of eight members of the successful Israeli Hip Hop group Hadag Nachash. Shaanan’s message for the evening was, “endless love, endless love” as he sang in English and in Hebrew. “We come from Jerusalem ,” he said to the crowd, “we love it, we hate it.” Hadag Nachash’s love-hate relationship with their homeland is continually expressed in their songs. The lyrics to their most famous song, “The sticker song,” (a huge hit in ) were written in 2004 by renowned Israeli writer, David Grossman whose son recently died as a soldier in the war with Lebanon. The song expresses the diverse political and social statements commonly found on Israeli bumper-stickers, as an amalgam of Israeli public opinion. The chorus asks: “How much evil can we swallow? Father please have mercy.”

For the finale, which arrived way past midnight, all the musicians performed on stage together mixing languages, ethnicities and opinions in respect of one mother: Hip Hop.

“I am very happy to be that bridge between two cultures. You know growing up, here and there, and being able to expose people in the Middle East to American points of view and being able to expose Americans to Middle Eastern points of view. It’s something I’ve been very fortunate to have. And it’s a responsibility that I take seriously. You might not agree with what everyone is saying on the stage, but if you like the music—and music being that thing that can inspire you—you can at least begin to see someone else’s point of view.” -- Omar Offendum

First published: www.afropop.org