Y-LOVE

* please find, topics & videos below

"Crossover success."  "The soundtrack to social progression." Undeniably one of the decade's most dynamic artists -- Y-LOVE.  Y-Love (Yitz Jordan) has made a name for himself as a hip-hop artist, multicultural educator, conflict resolver, fashionista, activist for social change, and political pundit -- all in six short years.

Yitz Jordan (Y-Love) is an award-winning inspirational hip-hop artist whose compelling personality and multilingual musical talents have received worldwide acclaim from New York to Ukraine. An Orthodox Jew for ten years, Yitz's unique perspectives on Jewish identity and cross-cultural relations have captivated minds at schools, theatres, and various houses of worship worldwide. His unique musical style, blending holy tongues such as ancient Aramaic and Hebrew, Arabic, Yiddish and Latin over ethnic and futuristic urban beats, was called the "soundtrack to social progression" by URB Magazine, and XXL Magazine said that Y-Love "is making hip-hop kosher." Students of all ages worldwide have been enthralled by Y-Love’s interesting takes on Jewish text, social justice, and music appreciation since 2006, when Y-Love began speaking after the release of his first mixtape. Y-Love engages students to the point that one administrator from Sydney Australia’s Kesser Torah College was driven to remark, “Y-Love just accomplished in forty minutes what would take us (the administration) forty years.” 

Before Shyne became religious and Drake started making hip hop, Y-Love took the world by storm blending Kabbalah and Talmud in Aramaic at clubs in New York. He went on to gain worldwide praise with his first album This is Babylon which 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 perspective in hundreds of publications, including USA Today, XXL Magazine, The Australian and Italy's La Repubblica.

Today, Y-Love also speaks on topics as varied as his musical styles. In addition to learning with students in his own novel Scriptural learning style, blending hiphop with ancient text and language, some of his recent workshops have included:

The future of hip-hop is Y-LOVE, and the future sounds beautiful.

TOPICS:

From Baltimore to Brooklyn/From Tragedy to Triumph
• Y-LOVE relates his compelling life story from tragedy to triumph

Hip-hop and Social Progression
• Where Torah commentaries are combined with today's most pressing issues.

Politics & Torah
• which party's platform does the Torah fit into?

Bible Text Study / Torah in Modern Music
• finding Torah allusions in pop songs. where people of all ages use popular music as a tool to reconnect with their eternal traditions.

If it's Hebrew is it Jewish?
• a close look at HaDag Nachash, Idan Raichel, and other Israeli artists and how the fit into the "Jewish music" genre...

Torah & Social Equality
• is the Torah anti-racist? feminist?

Judaism and Racial Identity
• Confronting Racism in Jewish Communities

Holiday and Lifecycle
• Revolutionary hiphop-flavored takes on Passover, Chanukah, Tisha b'Av, and Purim.

VIDEO:

Introducing Y-Love Video Reel
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsBd52_6iB0

Charter for Compassion: Yitz Jordan, USA
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LVcrY-jWRU

Y-Love on BBC WORLD TV
www.youtube.com/watch?v=92bFOor7Sj4

Y-Love, Diwon & DeScribe on CBS
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9cLAsr2nSo

Jewish Hip Hop Artist - Educator - Activist Speaker Reel
www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_ITmHdTgOQ

Extended Bio:

Born in East Baltimore, Y-Love was raised by a single mother who earned less than $20,000 a year, in a neighborhood where drug addiction and hopelessness were rampant. In 2004, he lost his mother to cocaine and alcohol abuse, follwing a life peppered with family members in and out of rehabs and jails, while his Puerto Rican grandmother attempted to keep the family together. Growing up, Y-Love became involved in the anti-racist punk rock movements, which would provide the revolutionary force behind his yet-to-be-written hip-hop lyrics.

Losing his biological father at 15 and his stepfather at 21 to cancer, Y-Love learned to become self-reliant in the absence of the parental figures that so many take for granted. Enduring considerable racism during his initial transition to the Orthodox community, he was denied apartments for 11 months and, even after his Hasidic Orthodox conversion in 2000, was still unable to find employment within the community until 2003. Anti-Semitism from the Black community would also impact his transition, with verbal insults becoming quite common when he would visit his old neighborhood.

Y-Love began doing hiphop while studying in Ohr Somayach yeshiva in Jerusalem, initially as a mnemonic device for Talmud study. He and his study partner would "freestyle the Gemara back and forth" to breathe new life into the ancient texts, and upon returning from Israel in 2001, he and his then-study partner began performing in New York. After learning in Ohr Somayach yeshivas in Jerusalem and Monsey, NY, Y-Love had a brief, arranged marriage in the Hasidic tradition, which ended in 2003."

This would begin a period of tragedy in Y-Love's life, culminating in the deaths of his mother and grandmother in summer 2004. Y-Love would leave the Hasidic community in 2005, and after signing to Shemspeed (Modular?) the same year, Y-Love began to turn his tragedy and passion for equality and justice into an inspirational medium for inspiring future Jewish generations.

• "Y-Love has been a featured speaker at Limmud conventions — the world’s largest convention series for informal Jewish learning — around the world, and has been invited by diverse institutions of both religious and secular learning, both elementary and secondary education."