Einav Jackson Cohen demonstrates a bit of the hustle that most musicians have to do to get their stuff out there. ch-ch-ch-eck it out:

COME JOIN EPRHYME AND THE SHEMSPEED FAM FOR…

WHAT: VIDEO SHOOT (for eprhyme’s single, PUNKLEZMERAP, off his upcoming album, WAYWORDWONDERWILL, released by MODULAR MOODS/SHEMSPEED)

WHEN: TUESDAY JUNE 23 7pm-10:30pm

WHERE: THE 1929 (levi okunov’s boutique in soho- 176 MOTT STREET- on corner of mott and broome)

WHY: FUN, FREE DRINKS, MUSIC PERFORMED BY EPRHYME, ARRINGTON DE DIONYSIO AND OTHER SPECIAL GUESTS, APPEAR IN AWESOME MUSIC VIDEO PRODUCED BY LENNY BASS (de la soul, timbaland, y-love and describe)

HOW: COME DRESSED UP AND READY TO HAVE A GOOD TIME (or at least look like your having a good time)- THE FUNKIER THE BETTER- FEEL
FREE- BE CREATIVE

WHO: YOU!!!! and bring some friends too. (this is not an all night event and its a small space, so GET THERE ON TIME!!!)

facebook rsvp

This might be old news and an old clip for some of you but I just found out about it and think it so interesting I guess here in Seattle we get things a little late! Jeremy Piven’s character on Entourage Ari Gold is based on a real life fellow Israeli name Ari Emanuel who they say is even more over the top in real life then on the show. But wait its get better Ari Emanuel’s brother is Rahm Emanuel President Obama’s right hand man. Their other brother Ezekiel Emanuel is one of the nations top doctors. I wonder what their parents put in their potato latkes growing up!!

Check out this interview with all three of them

- Joseph Mandelbaum

Last month we threw this exact line up/live show in Williamsburg and it was the most fun sold out show we have been to in a while, so we figured why not do it all over again, but this time at a bigger club.
Monday eve at South Paw with performances by Six Point Star, The Constant (Steven Baggs) and Diwon, as well as DeScribe, Y-Love, Kosha Dillz & Eprhyme.

When n where it at?
June 22nd
South Paw
doors @ 8 pm / 18+ /$10
125 5th Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11217

* facebook invite

p.s. don’t forget the Eprhyme Video Shoot June 23rd (info here).

We at Shemspeed are massive fans of Real Ultimate Power and Homestar Runner. What could we say, we love Ninjas and dudes who wear boxing gloves to check emails. We were turned on to the sites by Matt Wetstein of Juez. We just got this email from him turning us on to some new stuffs:

Yo, guys!

Just got back from the honeymoon. Will look into the Juez shows stat. In the mean time, you HAVE to check out the user reviews for these amazon.com items:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Mountain-Three-Wolf-T-Shirt/dp/B000NZW3KM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=apparel&qid=1244502909&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Wolf-T-Shirt-Available-Various/dp/B000ESJLBW/ref=pd_sbs_a_3

http://www.amazon.com/Zubaz-Pants/dp/B000WVXM0W/ref=pd_sbs_a_6

http://www.amazon.com/O500-Otomix-Baggy-Workout-Pants/dp/B000LKLN28/ref=pd_sim_a_2

Apparently there is a whole world of people flooding amazon with amazing sarcastic reviews….If you keep clicking on “similar items” you will find other, equally awesome reviews.

Matt

I think K’naan’s 2006 “The Dusty Foot Philosopher” is one of the best hip hop albums ever made and not only because its catchy as anything, but because it is so full of life and wisdom. The music fuses Somalian rhythms with commercial hip hop beats as K’naan rhymes in his Lil Wayne voice and sings in a way that is reminiscent of Will.i.am. Each song is fresh and the album gives the listener a feel for K’naans life. It is a true sonic journey, my only complaint is how similar some of his songs are to mainstream artists. “I Was Stabbed By Satan” sounds so much like Will.i.am that even as I write this I can’t help thinking my ipod mixed up the artist names and the title track, “Dusty Foot Philosopher” which is set to a Dre style beat has K’naan sounding and spitting just like Eminem on the verses and it all gets way too familiar when he Eminems the chorus which even ends with a “da da de da de da”. On his follow up “Troubadour”, Chubb Rock, Damien Marley, Adam Levine, Mos Def, Chali 2na and even Metalica’s Kirk Hammet join K’naan to spread the Somalian artists story to the streets of the world. K’naan is on tour with Matisyahu, another artist that has created his own music with sounds from his tradition and mixed it with popular music. Grab the Dusty Foot record, then his newest album and if you are in love like us, find his “My Life is a Movie” mixtape.

K’naan - My Life is a Movie (clip)

- Guy Emanuel

We just got back from the Shemspeed Australian Tour and so we were away when CBS aired the special on Diwon, Y-Love, and DeScribe, but fret not, someone threw it up on youtube, enjoy!

A bit of info:
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So, Above is the first round of the Hot97 Battle. Kosha Dillz says, “He was tryin to battle me with a prewritten rhyme he prepared for me after i gave him the freestyle vs written flyer!! at hot97″ Info on what went down…Israeli-American Kosha Dillz entered the boost mobile/hot 97 battle SUMMER JAM 2009 this past sunday and suprised the competition as the only white guy who wasnt even supposed to be there, besides Asher Roth.  Originally scheduled to make an appearance at Wakarusa Festival in Arkansas with friends such at the Uniphonics and Matisyahu, he cancelled his ticket after  receiving  a stand by slot after making it to the finals of the Jersey City preliminary event. While the winner stepped down from making the trip to hot 97, Kosha earned his slot. Convinced with the opportunity to make history, he went forth to skip his flight in order to be one of the last people to perform at Giants Stadium. 
    With that, he smashed the competition by blazing 12 man emcee battle  with witty freestyles, winning the 5,000 person crowd over, and earned a record deal with legendary Brooklyn based record label, Duckdown Records. Later this week, he will record the single with hip hop veteran Buckshot. As Peter Rosenberg and Cipha Sounds  from Hot 97 described Kosha Dillz And Asher Roth on thier critically acclaimed morning show, it is the “Year of the White Guy.” Lets see what they can create.

Watch the other rounds below:
- 2nd round
- final round

The Y-Love & Diwon Australia Tour has been nutzo. 20 performances in 13 days. Last nights show was packed and attended by Shemspeeds two biggest fans. They ran up and quoted lines from our videos when we looked surprised they just said, “Dude, we are your biggest fans! We drove 650K, two days man!”. Nina Safar caught a lot of the tour on film and Andrew Harris of Elsewhere Promotions shot amazing photos. Click play below for a taste of the Melbourne show from The East Brunswick Club. To watch videos from some of the seminars, freestyles with Elf Tranzporter, Little G, Soloi & more as well as other performances keep checking Shemspeed TV (here). For photos from everyday of the show check, Shemspeed Photos (here).

I remember this kid from Role Models which is a pretty underrated movie and Superbad which was a bit overrated, but also totally awesome. Bobb’e J. Thompson who goes by BroMitzvah aka Black Bar Mitzvah in this music video is ready to become Jewish for the gelt (trying to get that BroMitzvah cash). ch-ch-check it:

After a million New Yorkers keep asking us when is the Y-Love, DeScribe, Diwon CBS doc airing. In NY it is airing tis Sunday at 1pm.

for everyone else check our old post for days & times here.

A bit of info: Internationally-acclaimed hip-hop activist Y-Love stars in an upcoming CBS documentary on interfaith music and culture. “Music is often a vehicle for expressing religious faith and belief,” the network said in a news release. “This broadcast looks at some modern music inspired within the varied cultures of four religions.” Y-Love, the monniker of Yitz Jordan, will be featured with Shemspeed brethren DeScribe (Schneur Hasofer) and Diwon (Erez Safar). The trio of observant or frum Jews from Brooklyn speak about their experiences and perform during the special.

Shemspeed is here in Australia on the Y-Love/Diwon tour and caught up with Michelle Rojas of Stand with US at the LimmudOZ conference in Sydney. Michelle was speaking about the situation in Israel and how many of the anti-Zionist and anti-Israel rallies at college campuses around the world are actually anti-Semitism in disguise. Y-Love presented on racial diversity in scripture, social justice and unity, and doing some anti-racist community organizing. The two got down with Shemspeed to film a conversation about the situation in Israel and some of the misconceptions that have been going around.

CLICK TO WATCH BOTH PARTS:
VIDEO PART ONE
VIDEO PART TWO

whoa, Jay-Z’s “Death of Autotune” track is really really not good. In fact it would be a good track to promote using Autotune on bad tracks. We just learnt that the track is actually co-produced by Kanye and after watching this video it is obvious that this anti-autotune track is one of the worst moments in hip hop history. As he rhymes how he is a multi-millionaire and on top of the game, you just watch this feeling bad that after all that he choses to make a gimmicky track over a horribly annoying song thinking his weight will stop autotune. Although if the track was made by a Jewish producer it would be kinda cool that he threw in some klezrinets in a Jay-Z song. Anyway, MCs use autotune because it sounds cool not because Jay-Z thought it was cool, so not sure why he thinks he could end it, but rhyming about the death and asking for a moment of silence and chanting about how he doesn’t need a melody while getting the crowd to sing ” shananana hey hey hey goodbye” just is not working for me or for him, for that matter.

to watch the best use of Autotune click below
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I have been a fan of Dennis Prager since he turned his 8 questions into 9. (if you get it, cool if not, nevermind…). Either way, check out what Obama should have said: “Thank you for the honor of addressing the Egyptian people and the wider Muslim world.

”I am here primarily to dispel some of the erroneous beliefs many Muslims have about America and to thereby reassure you that America has no desire to be at war with the Muslim world.

”To my great disappointment, many Muslims have come to believe that my country has declared war on Muslims and Islam.

”Because of this widespread belief, I said in an interview with al-Arabiya a few months ago, that we need to restore “the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago.”

”Lets’ look a little deeper at that relationship. For the truth is, as noted by the Pulitzer-Prize winning columnist for the American newspaper the Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer, in the last 20-30 years America did not just respect Muslims, it bled for Muslims. We Americans engaged in five military campaigns on behalf of Muslims, each one resulting in the liberation of a Muslim people: Bosnia , Kosovo , Kuwait , Afghanistan and Iraq .

” Bosnia and Kosovo, as well as the failed 1992-93 Somalia intervention to feed starving African Muslims — in which] 43 Americans were killed — were all humanitarian exercises. In none of them was there a significant U.S. strategic interest at stake. So, in fact, in these 20 years, my country, the United States of America has done more for suffering and oppressed Muslims than any other nation, Muslim or non-Muslim.

”While I recognize that gratitude is the rarest positive human quality, I need to say — because candor is the highest form respect — that America has not only not received little gratitude from the Muslim world, it has been the object of hatred, mass murder, and economic attack from Muslim individuals, groups, and countries.

”Just to cite a few of many examples from the last 40 years:
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