OY! MTV Raps...

haven't had much time to do any write ups for the blog this week...so here's a quick "copy and paste" story I came across that I found to be a bit on the ridiculous side of things...


-They have baggy clothing, backward baseball caps, the "bling bling" and racy lyrics. And these days, rappers sometimes wear yarmulkes too.

Hip-hop music, which grew out of black inner cities, isn't typically associated with Jews, but as the genre has grown more popular, some Jewish artists have embraced it as their own, while transcending theological and ethnic differences.

New York-based Hip Hop Hoodios, whose name is a play on the Spanish word for Jews, is a Latino-Jewish group that has recorded in English, Spanish and Hebrew. Their lyrics include such sardonic lines as: "My nose is large, and you know I'm in charge."

A popular 26-year-old Hasidic singer, Matisyahu, raps in a brimmed hat and dark suit over reggae beats. "Torah food for my brain let it rain till I drown, Thunder! Let the blessings come down," he says in "King Without a Crown."

Another example: Chutzpah, comprised of two suburban New York natives and a Los Angeles actor, whose first single from a self-titled CD and accompanying DVD is "Chanukah's Da Bomb."

Chutzpah treads the line between seriousness and satire. Parody acts in Jewish hip-hop have been common. Among them, 50 Shekel was a takeoff on 50 Cent. M.O.T. was managed by Meshugge Knight, a takeoff on Suge Knight. And 2 Live Jews featured Dr. Dreidle and Ice Berg.

In the video for "Chanukah's Da Bomb," Chutzpah cruises town in a Volvo with a roof-mounted menorah and raps that Chanukah, "whichever way you spell it," is better than Christmas because it lasts seven days longer.

"Humor (is) one of the only things the Jews had when they were being oppressed for century after century," Hyams said.-