Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

(JTA) Two leading Jewish hip-hop artists have adapted Adam Sandlers 1995 breakout hit, The Chanukah Song, for the present moment.

Nissim Black and Kosha Dillz dropped the video for The Hanukkah Song 2.0 just before the holiday began on Sunday evening. It features the musicians galavanting around New York City, riding the subway and hobnobbing with sidewalk vendors in Times Square.

The pair are two of the best known Jewish rappers making music today. Black is a Black American and Hasidic Jew who moved to Israel in 2016, while Dillz isthe stage name of Israeli-American rapper Rami Even-Esh.

Together, they borrow Sandlers earworm Hanukkah melody and knack for inventing words to rhyme with the holidays name. Aw man, yes, Hanukkah, they sing in the chorus. The flow is so iconikah.

But where Sandlers lyrics ran down a laundry list of notable Jews, from David Lee Roth to Tom Cruises agent, The Hanukkah Song 2.0 tackles weightier topics, including the miracles at the heart of the holiday and the role of God in protecting the Jewish people over time.

You know weve been down, but weve come around, they put our heads down and God took us out, sings Black at one point. For eight nights we make a great light and we show the world weve won.

The video begins with Black arriving at the airport, presumably from Israel, where he lives in a haredi neighborhood that he has described as uncommonly diverse and accepting. The strains of Sandlers original hit are audible in the background.

The haredi Orthodox musician then raps about the miracle of Hanukkah and the power of God. But he declines to name either the many people who have tried to destroy the Jews or which day of the holiday it is. (Im not saying it eight times youll have to replay this, he sings.)

Throughout Blacks solo performance, Dillz can be seen surrounding himself with a variety of menorahs. The pair meet up on the subway, where Dillz begins a solo of his own. In the songs final section, the pair dance on the steps of Penn Station as masked passersby gawk and stare up at a (simulated) poster in Times Square advertising their upcoming performance.

Its a billboard for the pairs shared Bright Lights tour that is set to begin next week in New York City and to criss-cross the United States through December and January.

The Hanukkah Song 2.0 pays homage to its inspiration in more ways than its title and melody. Black and Dillz mention Sandlerwho has in the decades since releasing The Chanukah Song gone on to a critically acclaimed, genre-spanning movie career in the lyrics. (Sandler is Gen Zs favorite actor, according to one recent survey.)

If you see Adam Sandler on the street, Black raps, tell him put me in the scene in the movie!

Read more from the original source:

Nissim Black and Kosha Dillz, Jewish hip-hop royalty, remix Adam Sandlers Chanukah song on the streets of New York - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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