Jew Tunes a la Chanukah!

Chanukah is right around the corner (only a month away!), and every year I'm looking out for some stellar Chanukah tunes. For the past few years, my only option has really been The LeeVees, whom I love to pieces, but I won't link you to their website because they haven't bothered to update it in two years. You can buy their album off Amazon or iTunes , though, and it's definitely worth the purchase. They also have three shows this year: December 7 at a NFTY event in Chicago, December 21 in Boston, and December 22 with Matisyahu in New York.

But this year, there's something new out on the market -- "Songs in the Key of Hanukkah" by none other than the brother of the infamous fellow behind Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen. The album, by Erran Baron Cohen, was released just in the past week and includes songs in Ladino, Hebrew and English and even has collaborations with Idan Raichel and blends hip hop, tango, klezmer, and reggae.

I highly, HIGHLY recommend Erran Baron Cohen, as he's one of the founding members of the group Zohar , which doesn't have too many albums out, but what they do have out is absolutely beautiful and brilliant music that blends Middle Eastern sounds.

(Note: I was going to make a mixtape using Mixwit.com, but the site is functioning like crap!)

Jew Tunes!

I'm sure everyone on the planet knows who Matisyahu is by now. The man gave a voice to Hasidic rap/hip-hop/reggae and since then the tiny little niche area of the music world has blown up. You don't have to wander very far to bump into someone who knows, has heard, or who maybe is Y-Love. Heck, the ever-talented Y-Love and I are chums on Twitter and I follow his blog, and it's fun watching him globe-hop doing what he loves.

But there is a whole crop of these talents out there, including one who I saw just this evening at a UConn Chabad event -- Nosson Zand, formerly known as NIZ, a Ba'al Teshuvah who is taking on the Kosher Hip Hop biz by storm. This guy, really, seriously, is pretty outstanding. Even Matisyahu has given him some love. So check out the ever-so-brief clip below from the performance tonight.

NossonZand
by kvetchingeditor

Now, I'll admit that after discovering Matisyahu many years ago I didn't really break beyond that barrier of the Kosher hip hop scene. Y Love changed that, but even since then I've been stagnate. But I recently discovered ShemSpeed.com, run by Erez Safer. The site has a boatload of music, merchandise, some free downloads, AND -- best of all -- a radio that you can click open and it streams tunes till your soul is contented with the vibes of hip hop and urban tunes as well as klezmer and Sephardi mixes. There are a bajillion ShemSpeed picks of various artists, including Y-Love, but my favorite simply for name has to be Kosha Dillz -- with a name like that, how can you not want to explore the music?

Oh, and this definitely isn't as an after-thought, but if hip-hop isn't your thing, try Stereo Sinai -- "the Good Book like you've never heard it before" -- on for size. Alan and Miriam are absolutely amazing and are some of the kindest people I've met. "Dance" is a beautiful song, so give it a listen!

The thing is, folks, this is positive, Torah-loving, G-d loving, Israel-loving music that sounds beautiful, is performed magnificently, and darn't, it's just good. These people have some amazing talent and the music simply flows like milk and honey -- it's smooth going down! So take a listen, explore around, and show your love to our super talented Hasidic Jewish/Hip-Hop styling brethren!