Mike Skinner, the British frontman of the hip-hop group The Streets turns documentary filmmaker for a new series on Arab-Israeli and Jewish rappers, reports The Jewish Chronicle.
Produced by Noisey, a music channel published by Vice news, episode one of Hip Hop in the Holy Land aired last week. It features an interview with Tamer Nafar, the founder of DAM, one of the first Arab-Israeli rap groups. A supporter of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, Nafar refuses to perform for Israeli audiences, and doesn't hold back in his lyrics comparing Israelis to terrorists and Nazis.
“They’ve taken everything I own while I’m living in my homeland,” one tune exclaims. “I’m a Palestinian, living in Israel, carrying an Israeli ID,” Nafar told The Jewish Chronicle. “So I cannot cancel the Jewish culture around me. I’m influenced by it in a way, for good or for bad … when I rap it’s going to come out.”
In a separate interview with Subliminal, Israel’s most commercially successful rapper tells Skinner about the security concerns of Jews. “But then you speak to Tamer and you can see Palestinians are not exactly happy either,” Skinner says.
Skinner is surpised to meet Ohad Cohen, a previously secular Jew who now identifies as Orthodox and raps in Hebrew. “It is surprising to see someone like that as a rapper. But it is good fun,” Skinner says. “Not many people speak Hebrew, so I guess there is a cap on your audience, whereas Arabic is a bigger language.”
The British musician tells Cohen, “If I was to describe your message it was one of peace whereas with the DAM guys, its one of ‘something needs to change.'”
“The more you talk to people the more complicated it becomes,” the 36-year-old says. The rap community is small and everyone knows each other despite where they stand on the conflict.
“But you don’t get the silly fights we get over here, over a girl or something,” he says. “You get the sense they fight over bigger things.”
Watch episode 1 of Hip Hop in the Holy Land!
