DARKCHO IS AN INDIE FOLK ROCK ALBUM OF MYSTICAL HASIDIC MUSIC AGED IN THE BARRELS OF EASTERN EUROPEAN FOLKLORE AND IT IS OUT TODAY WORLDWIDE!
* Shemspeed has taken on this beautiful record that was almost lost to the world, in order to ensure that it is heard and available around the globe, aged in the barrels of Eastern European folklore and steeped in centuries of Jewish musical tradition. The album plays like a Tarantino soundtrack to the deepest, most spiritual moments of life; full of depth and style, antiquity and freshness.
Prodezra Beats, an independent artist, broke out big on the scene when he produced “Change” with Y-Love & DeScribe, released on Shemspeed. Now with the “Shofar Callin’” track for Rosh Hashanah, he is back with another viral hit!
Download the Free MP3 only on Shemspeed.com (HERE)
A Chabad Baal T’shuva, Prodezra Beats - L’Shem Shamayim hails from Savannah, GA where he started making beats as a hobby in early high school with just an old Casio board & computer. Being a member of school bands from a young age contributed to his knack for creating hard-hitting tracks early on. Time passed & he Read the rest of this entry »
Sept: Y-Love & Electro Morocco ISRAEL TOUR Sep 25: Diwon @ Yale, CT Sept 28: Shemspeed Sukkot Show @ South Paw, NY (RSVP/Buy Tix) Sep 28: Y-Love @ Kraft Stadium, ISRAEL Oct 10: Y-Love @ 92Y, NY Oct 19: CMJ Shemspeed Showcase @ Coco66, NY Oct 30: Y-Love & Diwon @ GhettoShull, Montreal
please click the “events” icon in the top menu
Electro MoroccoSweetly Down (single), EprhymeGive Me Shelter (sukkot remix), Sephardic Music FestivalCompilation Album (Nov.30), BrodyAd Matai, Diwonpsychadeliciwon, DeScribe & RemedyMy Keffiyeh, & Levi Mordechai
& more.
* to pick up all other CDs on Shemspeed Direct,
please click the “store” icon in the top menu
Axum’s self titled debut is an in-your-face album that has broadened Israel’s definition of Hip-Hop, Reggae & Dancehall by adding a unique Middle Eastern and Ethiopian sound. It was co-produced by Sabbo of Soulico, who will be performing with Y-Love on Sept 28th at Jerusalem’s Kraft Stadium! Sabbo also remixed Y-Love’s “Move On”, we sort of have an ongoing obsession with all that Sabbo touches. He bridges Mad Decent & Mizrahi and there is nothing cooler than that for a Sabra. Check Sabbo’s Soulico album or Diwon’s “Sabra Sessions mixtape to understand what that line is.
MazziveMazels to Kosha Dillz who will be featured on MTVu’s Freshman 5. Yes! “DooDoo” is up on MTVu The Freshman! The contest will run for 2 weeks and voting has begun for Kosha Dillz video “Doo Doo” on MTVu’s Freshman 5. The winner will be on massive rotation on the network and the voters will receive free Shemspeed goods if we win….so vote now and vote often! voting ends on 9/10 at 2pm.
It’s not just Y-Love & Drake. Check this article in the NY Times: In yeshivas, they are sometimes taunted as “monkeys” or with the Yiddish epithet for blacks. At synagogues and kosher restaurants, they engender blank stares. And dating can be awkward: their numbers are so small, friends will often share at least some romantic history with the same man or woman, and matchmakers always pair them with people with whom they have little in common beyond skin color.
They are African-Americans and Orthodox Jews, a rare cross-cultural hybrid that seems quintessentially Brooklyn, but received little notice until last week, after Yoseph Robinson, a Jamaican-born convert, was killed during a robbery attempt at the kosher liquor store where he worked.
Shemspeed’s been following Dmitriy Salita’s career for a while now and we are really excited to work with him on his Redemption fight on Sept 1st at Oceana Hall! We will all be in the house VIP chillen and welcome you all to join with our Shemspeed discount tickets. Each ticket comes with a free pass to our after party which will be hosted by DeScribe, Y-Love, Remedy of the Wu-Tang, Diwon and Dmitriy Salita himself!
Check out ‘The Socalled Movie’ about our boy Socalled from Montreal took the world by storm when he released his “You Are Never Alone” letting the world know that there is nothing unusual about being a Jewish Cowboy. The track showcased his production and inventiveness beyond any of his other previous tracks…it featured C-Rayz Walz from Shemspeed’s “Freestyle Vs. Written release with Kosha Dillz and our favorite Canadian vocalist, besides Drake, Katie Moore.
MyJewishLearning are throwing a High Holiday Poetry Contest and the winners will receive stuffs from Shemspeed and Simon & Schuster! So send in your poems to mjl.poetry@gmail.com by 5:00 tomorrow night for the chance to win!
Of course, even if you don’t enter, keep your eyes peeled and your RSS feed set to stalk the MyJewishLearning blog, where we’ll be announcing the winners and reprinting the winning poems.
Behind the scenes of possibly the biggest Jewish unity recording in history, Mordechai Ben David (the king of Jewish music) and Y-Love, (Jewish music’s best and most revolutionary rapper) took a few minutes from recording to shoot a snippet for Shemspeed TV. The session included Lipa Schmeltzer, Gad Elbaz, Piamenta, DeScribe, Yeedle and countless other superstars in the chareidi world.
p.s. check out the Na Naach gang sign throw-down at the end of the clip.
We were walking through the streets of Brooklyn and saw a poster for Edan’s show at the Knitting Factory, in Brooklyn, this Tuesday. If you aren’t familiar yet, it is worth checking out the show and reading our post from his last performance at Knitting Factory when they were still located in the city. (side note: if you are in Brooklyn Saturday night Y-Love & Diwon will be performing at Status for the FAME party, RSVP here.)
POST: Edan aka the Humble Magnificent aka the Rap Beautician just performed super human rap tricks displaying his lyrical gymnastic super phat scratch shtick and modulating vocal synth style fabrics. I don’t even know how to go into describing what it was like being in the audience for his show. The opener…..Prince Paul and his son, Prince Paul Jr….together call themselves Niggas on Ice. Considering Prince Paul is one of the legendary hip hop innovators, his set was not so satisfying. I mean if it were a party than it was coo. He basically DJed all classic jams from the 90’s even playing B.I.G. more than 3rice. Anyway, back to Edan!… It was amazing! I’ll let the photos and videos do the talking…
Edan is beat juggling and rapping at the same time. Beat Juggling by itself is a test of ones skill as a DJ, but rapping at the same time is unheard of! Check it out and see if you could catch the intricasy of all this…
Kosha Dillz is touring Europe right now and Y-Love will be touring Israel in the fall, but for those stuck in NY where the two live, well, we found a map at Heeb of Jew York City (as Y-Love calls it in this Free Download). So, print out their map and begin complaining about the spots they can’t be forgiven for leaving out.
Yossele Rosenblatt died in 1933, one of the most celebrated cantors of his time, a time before clear recordings and digitized music. Mr. Rosenblatt earned his name, the Jewish Caruso with his impressive two and a half octave vocal range. This beautiful music would be lost to the world if not for Mendel Werdyger, the proprietor of Mostly Music an expansive site and storefront for modern and old school Jewish music. Seventy seven years later Mr. Werdyger, frustrated with the sound of Mr. Rosenblatt’s recordings on 78’s, took it upon himself to remaster and restore each track, second by second. Mr. Werdyger did this without any formal training in sound engineering. This past month Mr. Werdyger has released three CDs, the first of which has sold over 15,000 copies. The CDs include 35 tracks of which Mr. Werdyger spent 4-5 hours on each song, restoring the audio quality, removing the hiss and noises without loosing any of the original qualities of the music. The song are a collection of the records Mr. Werdyger found on eBay and borrowed from various University libraries. The overwhelming interest in Yossele Rosenblatt’s music, has been a great surprise and has inspired Mr. Werdyger to search out other cantors from the older generations bringing their music to life.
Darkcho is an album of mystical Hasidic music, that sounds more like an indie folk rock album with tradition than what you would expect of a religious album. The music is very real, very meditative and very very human. A physical copy of this record is hard to find. As we look at the art we see how mysterious it all is. Hand written lyrics and notes cover the panels, but there is no label, there is no website, there is no way of finding out any more information and to top it all off, when you flip the cover over you read these fascinating words:
“These songs collected here belong to the Jewish people. They originate from holiness. They speak of self nullification and redemption, the need for healing and discovering the depths of the Holy One Blessed Be He in this world and the next.
We take no recognition for any part of the material, lest the actual performing of the music itself.
The recognition was meant for the Holy One Blessed Be He and to the nation that lives by His word.”
Shemspeed has taken on this beautiful record in order to ensure that the world hears it, aged in the barrels of Eastern European folklore and steeped in centuries of Jewish musical tradition. The album plays like a Tarantino soundtrack to the deepest, most spiritual moments of life; full of depth and style, antiquity and freshness.
Sample below & get ready to pick it up worldwide on Sept 7th!
Diwon will be throwing an all night party this saturday night at NY’s Bulgarian Bar, mixing his favorite Balkan, Israeli, Bhangra, & Bmore tracks. To get you ready for the all night dance party, we are posting his Sabra Sessions mixtape here, FREE!
8/14 - Bulgarian Bar
113 Ludlow between Rivington & Delancey.
11:45PM to 4:00AM / $10.00
Y-Love’s first single from his hotly anticipated forthcoming record This is Unity, ‘Move On’, produced by Diwon and featuring DeScribe, is the beginning of the era of “global hiphop” — where global social consciousness combines with pop for the kids on the street. The club-friendly track is the first off the upcoming album, takes a page out of the Young Money playbook while keeping with Y-Love’s signature anti-prejudice message — ‘unity builds the world, all divisions destroy the world’. Y-Love, “the soundtrack to social consciousness”, as URB Magazine called him keeps This is Unity’s tracks ready for the mainstream while still pushing positive and constructive energy in a world often content with misdirected rage. Israeli superstar Sabbo of Soulico fame was feeling the track and went in on the remix - bringing the world-changing party atmosphere to a whole new level.
Y-Love has just recorded a track for the Gulf Restoration Network, produced by Diwon, the track is an audio fundraiser helping to bring awareness to the Gulf Coast Oil Disaster and a call for action to help rebuild it! Please visit http://shemspeed.com/dl/grn and donate as you see fit.
Now for some info: Since the times of the civil rights movement, slavery and time immemorial, the call for justice has often found its voice in music. From the oldest spiritual to the singer-songwriter movement of the ’60s to the politically-charged hip-hop of today, the voice of the oppressed have often been heard on the stage from an artist on a stage hoping to change the world through his art.
Today, the BP oil spill, the worst environmental disaster in our nation’s history, is the headline on our minds. Millions of gallons of oil poured into the Gulf of Mexico for week after week, ruining delicate ecosystems, poisoning waterways, and devastating entire communities whose livelihoods revolve around the sea. America watched as BP tried to downplay the tragedy, before turning to accountability and resolve to fix the crisis they were responsible for.
We just saw this on ynet! Sixteen PresenTense fellows from US, Israel England and Australia work to improve Jewish communities in Jewish state and abroad. Through grassroots initiatives and small business models, 16 fellows from the PresenTense organization presented their projects in a Launch Night in Jerusalem recently. A Jewish keffiyah and a social awareness clothing brand, the promotion of peace through sports and mapping out grassroots organizations, seeking out refugee asylum in Israel, and the revitalization of 20 and 30 something Jewish communities are only some of the examples 16 startup organizations presented at this year’s PresenTense Global Summer Institute launch event, which took place July 22 at the Hebrew University campus in Givat Ram. A budding organization founded in 2007, PresenTense promotes community outreach and fosters innovation in today’s youth. The organization hosts a six-week summer institute geared towards endorsing small business models in Jewish communities both in Israel and abroad.
This summer, 16 fellows were selected from across the globe to participate in this intensive institute in Jerusalem. According to Chair of PresenTense’s Steering Committee Flo Low, “The Jewish operating system needs to be remodeled, PresenTense utilizes the incubator system to do just that.” Participants in this year’s Summer Institute ranged from the ages of 19-50. Eitan Press, a self-described member at large, summed up the participants in three words - creative idealist Zionists. By the looks of the fellows’ presentations they appear to be exactly that. An Arab political fashion statement altered into a Zionist calling card. The Shemspeed Foundation has turned the stigmatized keffiyah into a symbol of Jewish pride. Yishai Mizrahi-Varon presented his keffiyah project as a mixture of hip-hop and fashion “to make Judaism exciting” for today’s youth. The project aims at engaging an “interactive dialogue about Jewish identity, community, and Israel,” according to Mizrahi-Varon. (www.thekef.com)
There comes a time in a man or woman’s life where they have to stop listening to Miley Cyrus and responsibility kicks in. This time often comes with a heaviness of heart and a new outlook on life. It is most often accompanied by a desire for a new soundtrack to these new expereinces that this person will undoubtedly begin to feel. The soundtrack’s single is entitled, Yehi Razton (final prayer) and it is available for a ‘name your price’ download on our download page. preview or download it in the box below. This song is the single off of Brody, Diwon & Dugans’“Shir HaShirim“.
“DeScribe’s ‘Harmony’ music video celebrates understanding between the Black and Jewish communities of Crown Heights; it is a positive and useful instrument for promoting unity and harmony in our diverse Brooklyn neighborhood.” - NYS Senator Eric Adams
“I have always believed that music, like sports and food, brings communities together,” said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. “I applaud DeScribe for creating the ‘Harmony’ song and music video, for celebrating Brooklyn’s diversity and for reminding us all that, overwhelmingly, Brooklynites live side by side in peace. Mazel tov!”
C-Rayz Walz will be stopping by as a special guest on Kosha Dillz’s band performance, the two might perform a track or two off their famous collabo record, “Freestyle Vs. Written!” . This is the summer show, you just don;t want to miss! It all goes down tonight (8/2) at NYC’s Le Poisson Rouge! The evening will be in celebration for the release of “A Tribe Called Tes” by Brooklyn’s own Tes Uno as well as Y-Love & Diwon’s new single, “Move On”. If that is somehow not enough, Shemspeed will also be hosting some of their other favorite artists that night, including; Kosha Dillz, Ted King & guest Geng Grizlee, Night, Meyhem Lauren, J. Stone, Kyle Rapps & special guests.
Tonight’s Art & DJ Night at Gallery Bar was the second event as part of Shemspeed’s Summer Music & Art Fest and was amazingly fun. People of all ages and backgrounds came to view and buy art which expanded existing notions of what Jewish “looks” like. The evening was presented by Be’Chol Lashon & Shemspeed and curated by Elke Reva Sudin. Look out for more collaborations, art nights and of course, the rest of our Summer Music Fest! - shemspeed.com/fest
DeScribe (pictured on the right) will be performing at this years Shemspeed Hip Hop Festival on August 2nd at NYC’s Le Poisson Rouge! The evening will be in celebration for the release of “A Tribe Called Tes” by Brooklyn’s own Tes Uno as well as Y-Love & Diwon’s new single, “Move On”. If that is somehow not enough, Shemspeed will also be hosting some of their other favorite artists that night, including; Kosha Dillz, Ted King & guest Geng Grizlee, Night, Meyhem Lauren, J. Stone, Kyle Rapps & special guests.
p.s. DeScribe, Shemspeed, a ton of elected officials, a senator, Bob Marley’s son and people you wish you knew will all be at the “Harmony” Music Video press conference, if you are a journalist/tv reporter/influential blogger and would like to attend the conf, be in touch ASAP. For conf info, please visit - www.shemspeed.com/harmony
It’s not just Y-Love & Drake. Check this article in the 
We were walking through the streets of Brooklyn and saw a poster for 
Yossele Rosenblatt died in 1933, one of the most celebrated cantors of his time, a time before clear recordings and digitized music. Mr. Rosenblatt earned his name, the Jewish Caruso with his impressive two and a half octave vocal range. This beautiful music would be lost to the world if not for Mendel Werdyger, the proprietor of Mostly Music an expansive site and storefront for modern and old school Jewish music. Seventy seven years later Mr. Werdyger, frustrated with the sound of Mr. Rosenblatt’s recordings on 78’s, took it upon himself to remaster and restore each track, second by second. Mr. Werdyger did this without any formal training in sound engineering. This past month Mr. Werdyger has released three CDs, the first of which has sold over 15,000 copies. The CDs include 35 tracks of which Mr. Werdyger spent 4-5 hours on each song, restoring the audio quality, removing the hiss and noises without loosing any of the original qualities of the music. The song are a collection of the records Mr. Werdyger found on eBay and borrowed from various University libraries. The overwhelming interest in Yossele Rosenblatt’s music, has been a great surprise and has inspired Mr. Werdyger to search out other cantors from the older generations bringing their music to life. 
We just saw this on ynet! Sixteen PresenTense fellows from US, Israel England and Australia work to improve Jewish communities in Jewish state and abroad. Through grassroots initiatives and small business models, 16 fellows from the PresenTense organization presented their projects in a Launch Night in Jerusalem recently. A Jewish keffiyah and a social awareness clothing brand, the promotion of peace through sports and mapping out grassroots organizations, seeking out refugee asylum in Israel, and the revitalization of 20 and 30 something Jewish communities are only some of the examples 16 startup organizations presented at this year’s PresenTense Global Summer Institute launch event, which took place July 22 at the Hebrew University campus in Givat Ram. A budding organization founded in 2007, PresenTense promotes community outreach and fosters innovation in today’s youth. The organization hosts a six-week summer institute geared towards endorsing small business models in Jewish communities both in Israel and abroad. 
