New EP from Y-Love next week

Erez from Shemspeed dropped me a line the other day about Yitz Jordan's (AKA Y-Love) upcoming EP release See Me.

In a hip-hop world full of negative messages, Y-Love (Yitz Jordan) is leading a new era of"global hip-hop" --where pounding rhythms combine with social consciousness to"elevate, not tranquilize" the world. Back with his first album since his smash debut, This is Babylon, Y-Love is set to release his hotly anticipated new EP, See Me, on May 17.
The club-friendly tracks on See Me are influenced as much by rap vet Chuck D as by new artists like Major Lazer and Nicki Minaj. Producer Diwon (mastermind behind Shemspeed Records) skillfully blends Middle Eastern beats with clubbed-out hip-hop, giving the EP an entrancing worldly sound ready for the dance floor. Y-Love explores a variety of styles, from dance and world to pop, to express his underlying message of harmony: “Unity builds the world, all divisions destroy the world.” Lead single "The Takeover," featuring Jamaican dancehall artist Tj Di Hitmaker, explodes with African rhythms and clever wordplay, while "This is Unity" sends the listener on a sonic tour of the Middle East with its Moroccan melodies and Hebrew chorus.  The title track features, pulsating rhythm and surreal vocals from upcoming superstar Ido Z. It is followed by "Move On," the pop hit that will have Young Money fans wanting more.
Y-Love's first full-length album, This is Babylon, gained worldwide praise and propelled him to appearances from BBC World TV to Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The world’s first black Jewish MC, Y-Love has featured his compelling life story has been featured in hundreds of publications, including USA Today, XXL Magazine and Italy's La Republica.  

Dubbed by The Jerusalem Post as a “crossover success,” Y-Love appeals to the mainstream through positive and constructive energy in his signature multi-lingual style -- "making hip-hop kosher," as XXL reported. With the release of See Me, Y-Love delivers a soundtrack fit for a new global revolution.

Here's a free download of The Takeover, a track on the new album.

Y-Love is a dynamic performer, whose style seamlessly blends various world influences as well as Yiddish, Hebrew and Aramaic lyrics. As Erez Safar (the DJ/producer/exec of the Shemspeed label) describes him:

Before Shyne became religious and Drake started making hip hop, Y-Love took the world by storm as the first black orthodox Jewish rapper. With "See Me", Y-LOVE departs from both the ultra orthodox world and the underground aesthetic of hip hop, Y-Love demolishes the scene with "The Takeover" featuring TJ Di Hitmaker, his upcoming single release. The club-friendly tracks on See Me are influenced as much by rap vet Chuck D as by new artists like Major Lazer and Nicki Minaj.

Responding to Erez's assertion that Y-Love "departs from both the ultra orthodox world and the underground aesthetic of hip hop", I asked him for clarification. Did that mean that Yitz no longer affiliated himself with ultra Orthodox Judaism? What about his political leanings, which manifested themselves very strongly on his debut LP This Is Babylon? Could we expect the same social consciousness that we were treated to with the first album?

Erez forwarded my response to Yitz himself, who took the time to kindly answer my questions with the hope of clearing some confusion:

Hey,
I apologize for the delay in getting back to you.  I wanted to chime in with answers to these questions:
Do I consider myself part of the Orthodox community?  While I do believe in all of the tenets of Orthodox Judaism -- Orthodox Judaism is still "my religion" in that respect -- I don't consider myself part of the Orthodox world, in that I don't have the shtetl worldview and political leanings of most of the community.  I do still consider myself religious but I am far too progressive of a person to consider civil rights and other modern innovations to be bad things.
The new album will have less political overtones than "This is Babylon", but I'm currently collaborating with other artists (AWKWORD, the Guggenheim-winning video artist KASUMI, St. Louis rapper Tef Poe, among others) on a political EP to put my political views out there.  Far from sleeping on the progressive tip, I've decided to focus my political ire on a release further along in the future.
All the best!
Y

While some of his comments concerning the religious community are open to discussion, this is not the time for it. Instead, I'd like to thank him for getting back to me so quickly and giving me a thought out response in lieu of a pre-fabricated sound byte.

Y-Love is a talented artist whose messages of unity are universal.

Enjoy the album!

Great post from Neil Harris

I found this post to be particularly touching and inspiring:

A true win in the eyes of the non-sports fan

Loose lips...

I just finished a particularly difficult session of damage control after someone wasn't careful about what information to impart on a recent shidduch reference call, nor how to phrase said information. I don't know whether I've accomplished anything, but I hope so.

A cautionary tale:
A woman called her son who was learning in the Holy Land, and asked him to find out about another student in his yeshiva. She had heard conflicting reports about this boy; on the one hand, his teachers had only nice things to say about him, but on the other hand, she had heard that he was lacking a certain refinement. Someone had told her that this boy hoarded food in the cafeteria, and spoke in an overly loud voice. The woman wanted her son to observe this boy himself, and confirm whether this boy acted in such a way.


The next day, the son went to the cafeteria and spotted the prospect; he chose a seat where he could observe the other student inconspicuously.


As it turned out, his mother's informant was correct - at least, partially.


Yes, the boy took a very large portion of food...in order to make sure that his two brothers who arrived later than him would have lunch to eat.


Indeed, the boy spoke with an extremely loud voice...so that the partially deaf fellow who sat at the table would be included in the conversation.


We must be very careful about what we say, how we say it, and to whom we say it to, and for what purpose...

New BRI Promo!

Get a FREE Book Sale!

The Breslov Research Institute - the organization headed by Rabbi Chaim Kramer that is primarily responsible for translating and disseminating the Torah of Breslov chassidus to the English speaking world (not to mention several other languages) is having a sale. If you buy their coffee-table edition Breslov Pirkei Avot, you can get a free book.

The BRI is a boon to those who wish to make an entrance into the world of Rebbe Nachman and Breslov thought; their various writers work tirelessly to advocate the study of chassidus and the nurturing of a close and personal relationship with HaShem.

As we say in Hebrew: "Zeh magiah lo"

Neo-Nazi leader is shot dead by son,10

Time Share Opportunities

A prominent rav who was an ardent opponent of the nascent mussar movement once came across Reb Yisrael Lipkin (aka Salanter, the father of the modern path of mussar). Trying to bait him, this rav challenged Reb Yisrael. "Tell me something," he queried, "if one only has time to study for ten minutes during the day, what should he learn? Should he learn mussar or perhaps a page of the gemara?"

A murmur rippled through the crowd surrounding the two rabbis. Such questions don't seem to have any good answer; no matter what Reb Yisrael could answer, he was opening himself up to a counterattack by this rav who sought to discredit the movement!

Without batting an eyelash, Reb Yisrael replied: "Without a doubt he should use that time to study mussar - because one who learns mussar will learn that there is always more time in the day!"

WOW!

Du, du, du!

I always appreciate it when two seemingly disparate things that I'm involved in come together; we have a tradition that if we come across similar concepts in separate limmudim during one day, there's a certain significance that we must take notice of.

This past Friday night after the seudah (meal), I came across the following:

It is well known that no Jewish person is ever utterly excluded from the totality (II Kings 14:14). When a person comes to a nadir, God forbid, and is about to commit some transgression - especially if this will cause his exclusion, God forbid - then God does not abandon him. We have learned in sacred literature that the miluy of the three Hebrew letters yud-tzadi-reish comprising the word "yetzer" (inclination) are (Y) vav dalid, (TZ) dalid yud, and (R) yud shin. The last letters of the miluy are the three letters of the name of God, Shad-dai (shin-dalid-yud). In order that the person not succumb entirely to his inclination, God forbid, the Holy Name Shad-dai is there at the end. When the person reaches the end, God does not allow him to fall any further. - Reb Kalonymos Kalman Shapira, Aish Kodesh (Kedoshim 1940)*

The next morning before shacharis, I found an idea that reflected the same concept:

There are places which are so low that they seem totally divorced from God. Yet it is precisely there that the most exalted life force is concealed: there are the "secrets of the Torah." A person who has fallen far must know that in the very place where he finds himself he can achieve unique closeness to God because of the exalted life force which is concealed in that very place. When such a person turns to God, a very high revelation of Torah comes about: the "Secrets of Torah." - Rebbe Nachman, Likutei MohaRan I:56 (as quoted in Meshivat Nefesh)**

The fact that we can find God in any place, no matter how far we seem to be from the Source, is a profound and fundamental teaching of chassidus (other paths of Jewish thought discuss this as well, but more so in chassidus, in my experience) . It is one that gives tremendous chizuk to many, including myself. I remember times when I felt so low, so disgusted with myself and my failings that I nearly despaired.

Despite all my efforts to the contrary, it always seemed like my urges and desires would get the best of me; even those times when I didn't necessarily feel the draw of my ta'avot, I would think about ways of stimulating and arousing those thoughts. Any victories would be short lived and fleeting, overwhelmed in the face of the sheer volume of times when I succumbed to my basest desires. Compounded by the existential struggles and questions that I grappled with in my adolescence, along with the negative experience of my high school years, I actually believed that there was no possible way that God would hear - let alone listen to - my prayers.

(Concerning one specific problem which is common amongst young men, I never felt so alone as when I was in high school. In my naivete, I believed that I was the only one who had this problem, certainly the only one who actually transgressed. This erroneous belief was reinforced by my teachers and peers, who stigmatized this particular sin as being heinous and particularly deviant; only the most evil minded people actually perpetrated this act. One particularly embarrassing moment was when my roommate "confided" in me that he had heard "someone" (I knew that he meant me, of course) in the bathroom, and proceeded to mock "that sicko" for what he had done, forcing me to join him in the lambasting to keep up the deceit.
The first time that I openly admitted it to a trusted friend, and he responded in kind with the reassurance that many of us go through this struggle, and that we must stay strong and help each other was like a weight lifted off of my shoulders; when I transferred to another yeshiva later I found a small group of honest individuals who were interested in reinforcing their shmirat einayim through the focus of a mussar seder with group support. But I digress.)

The teachings of Breslov and Reb Kalonymos Kalman specifically, and chassidus in general is about the omnipresence of God. The paradox of tzimtzum (Constriction) versus the panentheistic belief of God is irreconcilable to our finite intellect, and yet we believe in both. The very idea that there can be a place devoid of God's presence is antithetical to our ability to function as human beings engaged in the struggle for perfection. The knowledge that no matter how bad it gets we are not alone and all we need to do is fight back in earnest is an integral part of the human struggle. "One who comes to purify himself, we assist him."

This is the importance of real prayer, as explained later on in Meshivat Nefesh and other places: no matter where you go, the power of speech accompanies you (Rebbe Nachman explains that speech is the "mother of all children"; the same way a mother will follow her child into even the filthiest of places, so does the faculty of speech). Therefore, one should always engage in prayer and honest conversation with God, and with those whom he feels closest with, gaining mutual support.

*English translation adapted from Sacred Fire: Torah From the Years of Fury by J. Heshy Worch (Aronson)
**English translation adapted from Restore My Soul by Avraham Greenbaum (BRI)