[HANASHIR:16659] Sixth, Seventh Grades and...Rap

[Jeff Klepper <jeffklepper...>]

Friends,

Someone mentioned rap a few threads ago...

I want to recommend a CD by a Jewish rapper named Etan G. called "South Side
of the Synagogue".

Etan's song "Makin Motzee" has been the big hit of my 5th, 6th and 7th
grades this year.  I play the CD on the sanctuary sound system (maybe a bit
too loudly) and hand out the words so the kids can sing and clap along.  The
first time I heard the song I thought it was really stupid, but now I enjoy
rapping along with the kids.  And because he quotes from the Brazil version
of Shalom Aleichem, I've used it as a jumping off point to teach the new
Shalom Aleichem melody.

The CD is 100% 'clean' and every track is done in a slightly different style
with bits of jazz, reggae and gospel thrown in.  The tracks are quite well
done. Some of the songs are  Kabbalistic and others are just silly, but
they're all very sincere expressions of Jewish identity.

You can hear samples of it at CDbaby.com and you can see some hilarious
video of him at jewishrapper.com, when he was thrown off the stage at recent
L.A. Chabad Telethon!

I'm not saying that hip-hop should or will, replace our beloved and
important 'standards', but I will remind you all that the musical tide has
turned along with the millenium.  It's a new generation with different
tastes and a culture of its own. Hip-Hop has an equivalent meaning for many
kids today as the Beatles had for my generation.

I am often reminded of Paul Simon's great lyric, "Every generation throws a
hero up the pop charts..."

Finally, happy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  We've been singing 60s
freedom songs all week in religious school and that music still resounds
with spirit and hope!

jeff klepper

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