Anti-Orientalist Rant
It happened again. Some other newspaper (this time The Guardian) decided to write about hip hop in Israel. The scene has changed since the last time the papers were writing about it. Before it was Subliminal vs. Mookie. Now it's Subliminal vs. TN, with Sagol 59 thrown in the mix. Fair enough. Subliminal is proud of Zionism (his conception of it); TN doesn't like Zionism (most conceptions of it- he seems to be just fine with Jews living in Israel as long as Israel isn't a Jewish state and there's Right of Return); and Sagol is left-wing and raps with Arabs and Jews alike. Word.
But what is this bullshit about Israeli music being apolitical? And why the fuck does everyone think that any song about peace is leftwing?
Hey Guardian- right after the Six-Day War, a fucking army band sang "don't sing praise, don't whisper a prayer, bring peace." The author of that piece is right-wing now, but it was a political statement in the wake of the Six-day war. The piece was banned.
And in the 80s, Shalom Chanoch released a whole album about the way that the Lebanon war was fucking over the country. and yehudit ravitz sampled an entire song from the passover seder (had gadya) to ask how long Israel would play into the cycle of violence. No politics my ass. Army radio can get away with a lot (so says Sagol), so they play political stuff as long as somebody important isn't paying too close attention. And as Subliminal points out, Israelis don't buy music anyway, they pirate it; if your beat is good, they'll buy the ringtone, so your words can say a lot more.
People need to stop pretending that hip hop came in and changed Israel. MTV changed the way Israelis get music. But their hip hop is just another way of saying musically the same thing they've been saying for 70 years. If hip hop is more open than other genres, it's because Israel has changed to make it so, not because hip hop suddenly allows every Israeli to listen to what other people have to say. It's just an easier way of saying it.
And what's this shit about Sagol being Talib Kweli or Mos def? I like Sagol a lot, and he has some good things to say. But I feel like even Sagol would disagree with that. Half of his songs are tributes to hip hop greats (yom yafe, revolution will not be televised), a bunch are about how nicely he can throw together dirty words. He has Summit Meeting, but he said himself that his music is not about politics. Israel's small enough that one rapper can combine sex, politics, bullshit and the rest, cause there aren't enough people for each to really have its own genre.
Seriously, Israel is not America. Why compare every fucking rapper to someone in America? I used to do it, too, and sometimes I fall into the trap. But we need to stop pretending that whatever happens in Israel mirrors the way it happens in the US. When they have similarities, it's because there are similar roots, similar circumstances, etc. But America is not the world. And not every place outside of America is the same either. So what happens in Israel is Israeli. Not American. And let's stop pretending otherwise.
But what is this bullshit about Israeli music being apolitical? And why the fuck does everyone think that any song about peace is leftwing?
Hey Guardian- right after the Six-Day War, a fucking army band sang "don't sing praise, don't whisper a prayer, bring peace." The author of that piece is right-wing now, but it was a political statement in the wake of the Six-day war. The piece was banned.
And in the 80s, Shalom Chanoch released a whole album about the way that the Lebanon war was fucking over the country. and yehudit ravitz sampled an entire song from the passover seder (had gadya) to ask how long Israel would play into the cycle of violence. No politics my ass. Army radio can get away with a lot (so says Sagol), so they play political stuff as long as somebody important isn't paying too close attention. And as Subliminal points out, Israelis don't buy music anyway, they pirate it; if your beat is good, they'll buy the ringtone, so your words can say a lot more.
People need to stop pretending that hip hop came in and changed Israel. MTV changed the way Israelis get music. But their hip hop is just another way of saying musically the same thing they've been saying for 70 years. If hip hop is more open than other genres, it's because Israel has changed to make it so, not because hip hop suddenly allows every Israeli to listen to what other people have to say. It's just an easier way of saying it.
And what's this shit about Sagol being Talib Kweli or Mos def? I like Sagol a lot, and he has some good things to say. But I feel like even Sagol would disagree with that. Half of his songs are tributes to hip hop greats (yom yafe, revolution will not be televised), a bunch are about how nicely he can throw together dirty words. He has Summit Meeting, but he said himself that his music is not about politics. Israel's small enough that one rapper can combine sex, politics, bullshit and the rest, cause there aren't enough people for each to really have its own genre.
Seriously, Israel is not America. Why compare every fucking rapper to someone in America? I used to do it, too, and sometimes I fall into the trap. But we need to stop pretending that whatever happens in Israel mirrors the way it happens in the US. When they have similarities, it's because there are similar roots, similar circumstances, etc. But America is not the world. And not every place outside of America is the same either. So what happens in Israel is Israeli. Not American. And let's stop pretending otherwise.
posted by Arie | 8:44 PM
2 Comments:
Correction:
the artist who sampled the Haggada's "had gadya" is HAVA ALBERSTEIN, not judith ravitz.
peace
yeah I know, my bad.
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