Soulico
Sometimes, producing and experiencing music for celebration’s (and art’s) sake is just fine and is, actually, justifiably spiritual in nature. However, other times—and in this case, in other places—it’s difficult to ignore the world you live in when it's so strife with violence and depravity. Here, you get a chance to meet two groups who come from the same small country but take very different approaches to making music. BY LYDIA SPRAGUE
SOULICO: For the love of music
Tel Aviv’s Soulico is not exactly impressive, at first, when seen live with no prior knowledge of the band or its music.
“These guys are kind of nerdy,” was the reaction from my friend a few songs into their set when we saw them open for Balkan Beat Box a few nights ago.
The music is fresh and interesting, but the setup— four DJs on Macbooks and an emcee rapping along and trying to get the crowd revved up—is a little weak. I paid attention, because I was interested in something the emcee said early on:
“We want to introduce you to the music of the Middle East...we don’t care about what the news says, or about the politics we care about the music.”
So I listened to the band’s debut album, Exotic on the Speaker and was immediately taken by the way the group takes traditional Jewish and Middle Eastern music and twists it into modern dance hits — adding electro grooves, hip-hop beats and emcees rapping in English and Hebrew.
The DJs of Soulico take old, rare Israeli and Middle Eastern music they have on vinyl and mix it to create a fresh dance track. Once the track is laid, guest emcees rap over the music. The album includes tracks featuring guest emcees like Ghostface Killah and Tomer Yosef (of Balkan Beat Box), Lyrics Born, Del the Funky Homosapien and Israeli artists like Axum and Onili.
The concept seems to work better in a dance hall setting, rather than in a live performance, as there really are no instruments, just three guys behind computers and an emcee jumping around.
Nevertheless, this group got the whole venue dancing by the time it hit its third or fourth song. Playing songs that jumped continents from Asia to Africa to Europe and South America, there was no denying that this act had a huge arsenal of musical expertise to supply its eclectic mixture of sounds.
Some of the songs sound like Jewish wedding music, and while hearing it in the club I imagined us all grabbing hands and dancing in a circle, smashing plates on the ground as we went.
While Soulico is relatively unknown in the US, the group has sold out venues filled with thousands of fans in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It is one of the biggest DJ acts in Israel, and members of the group have worked with Israel’s top music stars.
The group got started over ten years ago as four friends who liked to mix music for parties together. They were first noticed in the Israeli underground party scene for their unusual mash ups of American hip-hop and Israeli and Middle Eastern folk music. From there they began producing original music to spin at parties in Tel Aviv. Word of the four DJs making fresh, interesting and lively as it was entertaining music spread through the party scene.
The group was signed by US record label JDub, after founder Aaron Bisman found the group’s first mixtape, Masabacha, at a Tel Aviv record store.
With one record under its belt and several US and world tours bringing new experiences and thousands of new fans, the band continues on its mission of melding ancient and traditional sounds with modern dance stylings. But this group is about something more than just making people dance.
Soulico, like its music it seems, is about introducing two completely different cultures to each other. Entwining them and turning it into something new.
“The song ‘El Nur’ is a prime example of the Soulico sound,” DJ Eyal Rob said in an interview with Mobo.com. “We have Saz singing in Arabic, Tomer Yosef from Balkan Beat Box in English and Ghostface Killah. The track shows how people and worlds can collide and not be political. The song has received airplay in Israel and it’s beautiful. This is how we see people making music, coming together regardless of culture. Actions speak louder than words, going ahead and just doing it for the love of music.”
DAM: it’s personal and political
Hip-hop crew DAM gives listeners the unique perspective of Palestinians born and raised in modern day Israel. The group, who has been together since the late nineties, produces mostly political songs that delve into compelling and sometimes taboo issues like freedom and terrorism, drugs and women’s rights, and what it’s like to be an outsider in your homeland.
“We are unwanted guests in our home / But our destiny is to stay physically close to our lands / While being spiritually far away from our nation,” raps emcee Mahmud Jreri on “G’areeb Fi Bladi (Stranger in My Own Country)” off the group’s 2006 album Ihda’ (Dedication).
DAM’s name is an Arabic verb meaning to last forever, but is also the Hebrew word for blood. It’s also an acronym for “Da Arabic MCs.” The group consists of brothers Tamer Nafar and Suhell Nafar and Jreri.
The group has a strong following in Israel and Arabic countries, but is appealing to a wide array of listeners because of its blend of Middle Eastern and Western stylings. It’s known as one of the first hip hop groups to rap in Arabic, but the emcees also rap in Hebrew and English.
The popular song “Min Irhabi (Who’s The Terrorist),” one of two DAM songs featured in the 2008 documentary Slingshot Hiphop, was downloaded over a million times from the group’s website, making it one of the most popular contemporary acts among Middle Eastern youth. DAM has also received heavy media attention in France, being featured in the French version of Rolling Stone and being called the spokesmen of a new generation by French newspaper, Le Monde.
DAM creates beats with Middle Eastern percussion and melodies, and incorporates urban hip-hop hooks. Its members cite Tupac, Mos Def, K’naan, Mahmoud Darwish and Ghassan Kanafani as influences.
The group is from Lod, a town nine miles south of Tel Aviv, and deeply connected to the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The once Arabic town is now estimated to house 20,000 Arabis and 45,000 Jews. It was conquered during the war in 1948.
In December of 2010 Israeli authorities finished building a ten-foot high wall separating Lod’s Jewish and Arabic districts. Basic city public services, like street lighting, running water and garbage collection, stop at the edge of Jewish boroughs. Sewage flows down the streets of Arab slums, making Lod a less desirable place to live for many Arabs than the Gaza refugee camps. The city is plagued by violent gangs, whose many turf wars have led Lod to have one of the highest rates of homicide in the entire country.
DAM does not shy away from these issues in its music, if anything it’s hoping to make people in other cities and countries more aware of the horrible conditions in Lod and other Israeli cities with large Arab populations.
“Let’s take a look at the place I live in, house demolition around / So many educated people but no wall to hang their degree on / Are you ready to enter the ‘hood,” raps Tamer on “Mes Endroits (My Hood).”
“Hold me tight, it’s getting cold in the ‘hood / When the bank account’s below zero / There will be ice [slang for crack] in the ‘hood.”
From the song “Born Here,” off of Slingshot Hiphop: “A week ago there was a demonstration against destroying houses / With 100 people in it and 90 from them were Jews / You should understand that if you look at your neighbor today while he is being taken out of his home and you do nothing about it / Then tomorrow they will come to you and your neighbor will look at you with the same look you gave him / The chain of discrimination is long, and it has an end / But you won’t reach this end if you fail to use your power / the power which is aware and helpless but still is afraid of knowing if it’s able.”
DAM has toured the US and Europe several times, and has conducted workshops for young people on both continents as well. Its members also work in the Arab community of Lod and surrounding cities, helping to provide Arab youth with programs and opportunities otherwise denied to Arabs in Israel.
The group is working on a new album, which is rumored to be slated for release in the spring.
