There are whisperings of a new collaboration between London-based rappers Anomaly MC, whose mother calls him Daniel Silverstein (and who's an Orthodox Jew), and Mohammed Yahya (who's an observant Muslim). The two have been jumping on each other's songs for years, trading off tag-team choruses that blur the lines between cutesy, kitschy, and politically incendiary. But with Anomaly's recent departure from his old band, Emunah, the two are pumping out tracks like nobody's business, uploading some to their MySpace page, and tucking others away for the inevitable album.

Musically, Silverstein and Yahya's beats take a cue from 1960s Motown via 1990s hip-hop, with a nod to King Britt in one direction and to Digable Planets in another. As for their lyrics—of course, there's the requisite come-together song, and laments about violence and stumbling toward cultural understanding. But, more often, Silverstein and Yahya shy away from high moral ground, preferring instead to indulge in existential questions about God and getting in touch with their own heritage—"I study scriptures like my LiveJournal," Yahya announces on "Yearning for Home." (And, lest you think the Muslim-Jewish thing is only a front for two kids and a studio, their backing band includes musicians with names like AshleySayed Abd El Gawad playing bass, and "The Tzadik" on clarinet.) In a project like this, it's a very narrow path between saccharine sentimentalism and pissing off everyone in the universe…and, so far, Yahya and Silverstein have been right on course.


Think of this column not as a laundry list of everything new in Jewish music, but as a broadcast from a basement rock festival. What I really want to do is take that five-years-ago me, the pre-Satlah me, slap his face a couple times, force him to listen to Jewish music without pretense, and show him just how good it can be. Maybe I can save some of you the trouble.

Matthue Roth is a performance poet and author of the novel Losers. He is an associate editor at MyJewishLearning.com.

Tomer Yosef: courtesy of JDub Records
Anomaly MC and Mohammed Yahya: Tony Ishola, The Platform Magazine
Kosha Dillz and C-Rayz Walz: courtesy of Modular Moods


POSTED ON 10.23.08 IN: Music Religion Life