{"id":66431,"date":"2019-01-23T17:00:46","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T15:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=66431"},"modified":"2019-01-18T10:16:43","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T08:16:43","slug":"05-05-35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=66431","title":{"rendered":"Israeli-Born Explains How Antisemitism Drove Him From Music"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Israeli-Born Rap Pioneer in Germany Explains How Antisemitism Drove Him From Music Scene He Helped Create<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Ben Cohen<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Israeli-born German rap pioneer Ben Salomo has left the country\u2019s hip-hop scene because of growing antisemitism. Photo: YouTube screenshot.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

An Israeli-born pioneer of rap music in Germany has announced that he is quitting the local hip-hop scene he helped to foster, citing rising antisemitic sentiment as the reason.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an interview<\/strong><\/span><\/a> published in the New Year edition of Lyrics<\/em>, a Swiss magazine dedicated to Europe\u2019s thriving hip-hop culture, Berlin-based rapper and TV presenter Ben Salomo said his repeated encounters with antisemitic lyrics and anti-Jewish hatred among his fellow rappers had forced him to leave the scene with \u201ca heavy heart.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese incidents were the nails in the coffin of my passion,\u201d Salomo \u2014 who was born in the Israeli city of Rehovot in 1977 as Jonathan Kalmanovich \u2014 told the magazine.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the interview, Salomo discussed moving to Berlin with his family at the age of four, explaining that he had first experienced antisemitism at school, both from immigrant Turkish and Arab youths as well as native Germans. His discovery of hip-hop \u2014 which first emerged among African-American musicians in New York City\u2019s Bronx borough in the late 1970s \u2014 was liberating, as the scene \u201cwas a home for everyone,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what skin color, nationality or religion \u2014 you were welcome,\u201d Salomo said. \u201cHip-hop was a counter-concept to the exclusion that I had experienced in everyday life so far.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Salomo\u2019s own career as a rapper and hip-hop promoter began in 1997. With the launch of Berlin\u2019s legendary hip-hop night \u201cRap on Wednesday\u201d two years later, Salomo became a leader of the nascent German hip-hop scene. More recently, Salomo experienced success on YouTube with a weekly video version of \u201cRap on Wednesday.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But last May \u2014 tired of the antisemitism that was increasingly penetrating the hip-hop scene \u2014 Salomo announced that he was closing down \u201cRap on Wednesday.\u201d In his interview with Lyrics<\/em>, the rapper explained that he had been painfully aware of the antisemitism around him for more than a decade, and that he had attempted to fight back. \u201cThis whole generation of teenagers, who had confronted me with their hatred of Jews earlier in school, discovered rap as a form of expression and gained a foothold in the scene,\u201d Salomo said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2006, I had an appearance in Berlin-Kreuzberg at the demonstration for the first of May,\u201d Salomo recalled. \u201cImmediately after my performance, Deso Dogg, a Berlin gangster rapper who professed radical Islam and moved to Syria to join the ISIS \u2018jihad,\u2019 stepped onto the stage and grabbed a Hezbollah flag from his backpack. When the more than 2,000 people in front of the stage saw this, they broke out in a frenetic jubilation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Continued Salomo: \u201cThat was really scary and made me doubt the integrity of this hip-hop scene for the first time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Salomo said he had tried to establish some ground rules for rappers without stifling the scene\u2019s creativity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cKeywords used in right-wing extremist circles \u2014 such as the \u2018N-word,\u2019 \u2018Dirty Muslim\u201d or \u2018Judensau\u2019 (Jewish pig) \u2014 are not compatible with the values \u200b\u200bof hip-hop culture,\u201d he argued. \u201cControversial word games, which are contextualized, are fine. Even if it is distasteful and politically incorrect, you should be allowed to say things like, \u2018I\u2019ll take you to Mecca,\u2019 or, \u2018I\u2019m p_ing on the Western Wall.’\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But, he explained, \u201cmany fans and rappers were not ready to accept these rules. The desire to break taboos was way too big \u2014 no matter who got hurt.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Salomo released his own album in 2016, telling the Bild<\/em> newspaper at the time, \u201cI\u2019m the first Jew to release a rap album in Germany.\u201d Titled Es Gibt Nur Einen<\/em> (\u201cThere is Only One\u201d), the critically-praised record featured Salomo rapping in both German and Hebrew, with a cover that showed Salomo hiding his face with his hands while standing in front of a Star of David.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Jewish musical culture was eradicated years ago in Germany,\u201d Salomo said on the album\u2019s release. \u201cIt took some time for something to flourish again on the scorched earth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But in his most recent interview, Salomo gave no indication that he would ever return to Germany\u2019s hip-hop scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAntisemitism must not be tolerated and everyone involved in this scene is responsible,\u201d Salomo said. \u201cBusiness is going according to plan, but as a culture, German hip-hop is dead.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Israeli-Born Rap Pioneer in Germany Explains How Antisemitism Drove Him From Music Scene He Helped Create Ben Cohen Israeli-born German rap pioneer Ben Salomo has left the country\u2019s hip-hop scene because of growing antisemitism. Photo: YouTube screenshot. An Israeli-born pioneer of rap music in Germany has announced that he is quitting the local hip-hop scene […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66431"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66431"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66511,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66431\/revisions\/66511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}