Episode 48 | Does Nissim Black Feel Like He Belongs?

we have with us today the legend himself niss black as an artist you have so much control over your listener at the time that they're listening to your music like I always knew that at some point I was going to be God's guy I don't know who the real me is but I for sure this this ain't I was already living in Conflict I didn't grow up with a religion any religion that was in my life I went through about it how do you see all right everybody welcome to another episode of mislabeled thank God a very very special guest one we've been going after for a long time finally got him here in our house uh but before we get to our excellent guest couple of quick things uh number one if you're enjoying our content please like subscribe and comment and none of you guys are doing that enough I wanted to jam that like button this second thank you so much everyone we really appreciate it number two um this episode is sponsored by Ena tax advisors Ena tax advisors uh is a tax strategy company that helps you limit uh your tax liability using a variety of financial instruments uh I personally have used them would never recommend someone I haven't used uh really helped me out they're great people um they also offer free consultation so you do not need if they're if you don't need their services uh they will not um they will tell you straight up also uh it's for $10.99 um and self-employed people third and final thing before we get to our guest we are sitting on a disgusting couch uh specifically because of the fact that we are actually redoing our entire studio if you guys notice we have the mislabeled sign back here I don't know if you can see it with the cameras um but we are actually building out a really really nice studio um I think y'all are going to really enjoy it but because of that we're not in our perfect setting but our guest is perfect so we don't have to there's no worries all right we have with us today um the legend himself Nissan black how are you n I'm doing am amazing how you doing thank God I'm I'm I'm doing really well Zach how are you fantastic awesome amazing n where you when did you get in I got in uh it's a trick question I'm in and out so much I never know when I really got in uh we got in uh Thursday got in Thursday and uh already Friday Saturday and Sunday were one day already so I got in on Thursday straight to the ohill oh wow that's my thing I come in I go stra oh yeah you go from the airport there yep straight I love that that's um how long you here for it's another trick question if my manager doesn't keep adding dates I'm leaving on porm you're not leaving on leave on porm because for me I still have at least a little bit of a shot for shushan porm which will be in Jerusalem so I can do the next day so as of right now I think I'm leaving late late porm to go back home Perman Israel Zack I don't know if you've ever been there but it's way days for sure a different religion way better different Religion different religion yeah definitely definitely way better yeah so I mean you come in often right yeah yeah yeah I come in often I just did the counting it's crazy I did well I I didn't count exactly but I was able to to figure out from when I was going through everything with my accounting and everything I spent 83 days away last year wow tour 83 days that's a lot of days that I was not at home do you live in like a permanent state of jetl yeah I mean I'm so jetlag that I'm good wherever I go you know what I mean like my my body just like immediately adjusts to to wherever I am yeah where are you for 83 days you're not shooting a concert here every night because I would know about that where are you doing course I'm all over I was you know just I mean Kaneka was the last tour I was on uh before this one we were in um uh St Thomas we were in uh La we were obviously here in New York we're in uh Georgia I think I'm going I'm going to Alabama soon also too like I go to some random places sometime I was in Poland also too in Poland also too yeah it's crazy so yeah I was all over the place that's unbelievable over the place that's really really cool so I just want to get into the basics cuz I I'll be honest I probably should know more about you in the details but almost in in a lot of ways I don't like knowing things going into interviews because it allows me just to be much more natural about it and not ask questions no problem um so where did you grow up I grew up in Seattle Seattle Washington got it um born raised and then they let me leave they let you leave um so Zack I know that you're very familiar with the hip-hop world and Zach I don't know if I'm very familiar familiar enough familiar enough um but going back to to Childhood because I think that's a very interesting um space obviously you've had an incredible journey um what what was your family like growing up you have a lot of siblings what was the the dynamic so the dynamic was very different I I come from both you bring up hip-hop so both my mother and my father were both rappers so I didn't just pick it up as a as a hobby um but they both also sold drugs you know I was exposed to drug violence gang violence uh drug abuse I mean uh gang violence very early on uh myself I was smoking weed at 9ine I was already running with a street gang by the time I was 12 13 years old was expelled from the school district already I was uh heading heading nowhere fast but what's very interesting ironic about it is that I was was I was conscious of of the bad behavior I was doing because I was busy trying to replicate what was going on in my environment I always wanted something more I was a deeper kid but I was replicating what was going on in my environment because it's a survival of the fittest so you have to fit in if not if you're different then you know automatically you're going to get picked on or treated otherwise so um that was just that was just the things you seen as a regular inner city kid you see drug deals I mean we were battle ran by the FBI I think when I was like eight time I woke up to everybody with like guns on their face you know um so I I carried that in in with me into my music into hip-hop and I was like 13 I recorded my first professional song um I was 15 when I first got my uh first national press it used to be a uh hip-hop magazine uh named the murder dog murder dog magazine they gave me my first International press and then from um from then on um things got very interesting in terms of like uh religion and stuff I was 14 I converted so right before that was 15 so I I converted the year before to Christianity I was involved in an after school hip-hop program that was ran by Christian organization it was like their way of getting kids out of the out of the streets and um I ended up going with them to a camp had a crazy experience everything changed around I was able to go back to regular school and you know life lasted that way for I should mention also I met my wife then 16 with high school sweethearts and then right around I think it was the end of my junior year a demo of mine that made it to the desk of anr at a big record label um it was Virgin Records virgin was more active as a as a label imprint back then I think they were in the Universal at the time and um and and the biggest thing in Hip Hop at that time was 50 50 Cent yeah as we call him in Israel um but he was the biggest thing at that time and so hip hop had already taken back on this this you know really hard gangster sound uh because of him and the whole genu the movement and everything so one of the things that the label was like really pushing was for the gangster music now obviously me telling you where I was holding in life didn't it it would have matched up but uh I caved in for the uh for the opportunity and I thought initially I would just make the music but I wasn't going to change I would just make the make the sound but I slowly started to see that everything started to change my friends started to change my way of thoughts started to change and I but but I was still in there and I was trying to figure out like you know what what's what's with me you know so to clarify like mean the label is pushing you this was as D black that was under D um which is still on Spotify yeah I can't take this stuff down you know yeah my kids not not able to use Spotify so this so for now I'm okay for now you're good so as DL like the labels pushing you to put out a certain specific sound which it's not like you're completely foreign to that sound because you came up early I mean first of all th your parents from like the scene you came up with that sound but now you you were like this religious person religious Christian at the time and it just didn't feel like you and you're saying it it started having an effect on who you had effect on me because you can't you can't just make the music you got to you got to walk when I go to the shows I need you know 10 15 guys with me and you know so the Entourage started to change and um and and because I met like I said I met my my wife who was my girlfriend at the time when I was around her I was one guy when I was with the guys I was a different guy you understand so so I had a double life already so there was already stera whatever contradiction going on inside of me already up until that point so um finding not OD though because of that though you know later on fast forwarding you know I get into a beef with another artist my friend goes up to try to kill him he misses and he ends up in prison so now I got to beef cuz they think I send somebody to kill them or you know and if I don't go kill them they're going to kill me if they don't kill me I'm like in face and it like in a blink of an eye I felt like my whole entire life had just shifted like you know what I'm saying like I have a completely different life in front of me and it felt that it was so quick and it wasn't it was you know obviously for years of of you know person personifying something that wasn't really true to me but but after a while just like how did I get here so after you know thank God through a miracle that this this guy called me cuz where I come from nobody calls right like nobody ever calls you to find out if you're trying to kill them or not now when you come from where I come is that just not a question you're going to get and and and what's so crazy is I'm looking at it now my life and I've been I've been reflecting on this a lot just this year um because I have to tell my story a lot so obviously I need to uh find something that makes it interesting for me to talk about those two but when I reflect on it I think about it like how much of a miracle was that he called me because that whole next year I lost maybe 8 to 10 friends friends you know from gun violence that were killed by other friends that all of it could have been solved with a conversation so all I had to do is talk my sister who was 13 at the time she was shot in her leg she I think she said has met on her leg her friend who was 15 was killed so it was a lot of like you know craziness just that very next year and um so I'm looking back on it just like man that really was am mirica but because I had that that that contradiction that steer whatever going on inside of me that made it that when the time came when everything was done and we squashed everything that I was able to say that this wasn't the real me anyway you know what I'm saying I don't know who the real me is but I for sure this this ain't me I was already living in Conflict so um I think that's what made it easier for me to to want to change my life at least when you say conflict could you just uh identify clearly what the conflict was conflict was like this like I wasn't just like just some Christian kid who was like you know because I didn't grow up that way so I actually converted right so I got to be a g three times I converted to Islam I converted to Christian I mean cuz I converted from nothing to Islam that was my grandfather I was very young though so it was less influential but uh but you know I got stronger when I got around 13 years years old I had an uncle whatever so religion I didn't grow up with a religion any religion that I that was in my life I went to it you understand or or it came to me um Christianity the same way it came to me but that that because I didn't grow grow up that way I wasn't a pastor to well now my father became a pastor but I would I didn't grow up as like a pastor kid a pastor's kid so I didn't grow up with religion so always going into something I always were was probably a little bit more inspired than other people around me um so when I was 15 16 17 years old I was like in my room locking myself in the room crying praying to God you know what I mean I was like like in this when I say a conflict so by the time I'm I'm there I'm like I was like just building orphanages in Mexico I was feeding the homeless in downtown Seattle I was running Bible study groups I was like like how like and it just like it felt like a blink of an eye am I like you know 50 cents little cousin like you understand what I'm saying like it didn't it was a it was a conflict so I felt inside that I was denying you know so to speak my call to life I didn't know spiritual side was my spiritual side absolutely um I felt like I was I was completely like uh uh in this place you know we did it one time though I was uh I was backstage and I was doing an interview and um and the guy who was interviewing me he we finished the interview and he says to me he says you know what you're actually like really a nice guy like I just didn't expect that and I'm like why didn't why wouldn't you expect it that it's like I don't know I just Ed them from the music I guess I don't know I thought about it like you know if you're coming in darkness how do you expect people to see light you know what I'm saying and you didn't like that you didn't like that your music would paint you to a stranger as right right exactly it it it painted me obviously to that individual with somebody that would be hard to get through a conversation with let me ask you this what do you think the effect is on hip-hop on the world right now do you think overall it's a negative effect um do you think that there's any positive to it um listen I look at it like this it's a tool you know what I'm saying a hammer is a tool you can kill somebody with it you can build a house you know um so but if you but predominantly right now with hip hop has definitely been been hijacked by by a lot of you know horrific and horrible content that I think is which is being pushed by the label it's being pushed by the LA because it's but why is it sale though that's the question I have a theory as well like no but the question is I'm trying to figure it out for myself like how all of a sudden I said what like happened to like fight the power what happened to to you know to respect our Unity by Queen Latifa what happened to all those revolution music it was Revolution music like you know what I'm saying like it's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I think from going out like how do we get from that to like you know what I'm saying I'm going come kidnap your grandma and shoot you you know what I'm saying like that's what I'm asking you like how who told who told us that that so I think there's a lot of people out there who want to I'm interviewing you they want to they want to they want a cosplay almost as as that sort of gangster culture because it allows most people most people on Earth do not experience what it's like to live in the streets to to to have gun violence in your communities to have to be a gangster to be that sort of hard that masculinity and it's it's it's fun to play with it right so so but I'm saying at some time at some point yeah our culture changed to where that became like the cool thing like I was talking to someone uh recently about like growing up in the hood in the streets like I remember all the ogs the people that you know we call ogs that were that were like they used to look at us be like man little dude stay in school you know what I'm saying you know go out get a job they were never like really encouraging us to be there in the streets with them you know what I'm saying they had some type of conscience where they felt really bad about I'm not saying that for every person I'm sure there was some ignorant people but I saw that there was a certain sense of I I'm doing this cuz I'm stuck I'm stuck here but I want better for you but I want better for you you know and I don't think that's in the streets anymore when I've talked to some of these young guys I mean just a couple Generations after me I mean in high school I mean a couple years I would say After High School like just the whole mindset has shifted you know what I mean it's like I I I I I don't know but I'm saying is that I don't think that that's that's a cultural component of of of the of the those who would consume music and entertainment is that naturally that I think that somehow we've been conditioned to to think that it's cool to be a gangster it's cool stre you know that some of you know uh you know it wasn't that long ago they were outting Tupac records you know I'm saying piing against Tupac like you know there was there was uh you know so like you think about it uh you know things uh things have changed and I I'm not so sure that uh that the the the desire to hear such things is natural to us as a society you think it was It was kind of it was sold to us and then built in sold to us and built in I mean I'm just saying like look any way that if I if you know let's say you want to really break a record right any record company could break any record I I I'm a firm believer that if I play you a song long enough you know what I'm saying even if you hate it and it gets stuck in your head look at all the radio stations they've done this for years and for years so I you know you don't tell us what's hot we'll tell you what's hot by playing it over and over and over and over again we get it stuck in your head so who's the one creating the music then is it the is the record labels or is it you guys it's it's definitely it's definitely the the artist but you you know like like I just told you my story I caved in because that's what was hot right what was going and that's what's going to going to pay me I'm a mature adult now that you know will make a different choice but but most of the kids today like it's like you're telling them they coming from crazy impoverished situations someone's offering money offering them money even little money you know I I was I I talked to some of my friends EXA and I I know some of these new artist I make more than that that's an independent Jewish artist you know what I'm saying but they handling these guys crumbs but for them it's a fortune and they're willing to sell their whole souls for it can we talk about that for one second because I think that's very interesting right um specifically in coming from the hood could you give us obviously we're Jewish people in a way we are I don't like to call privilege in a way we're very lucky right we we're you know thank God we're blessed we have people around us that are smart make you know in a lot of ways good choices we have money we we're we live a good life could you give an example to everyone listening what it's like to actually grow up in the hood like you're talking about how they're getting crumbs how difficult is that lifestyle you know I I for me I I wouldn't even be able to do it 100% Justice because even as Hood as I could tell you like my story was like there's people who come from like you know you know Chicago or from or from New York even that's doing way worse than what we I grew up in the house most of these people grew up in the projects I never grew up in the projects so um but but I mean you you're you're talking about people are just not privileged I and I I I can give you from My Own Story one of the things that I've shared before was that you know um going to my high school we were last in test scores right um means we were at the absolute bottom of the the rest of the state number one in the country I think in basketball we ranked high in football I don't know what it was number one in the country basketball so so when you looked at and you were able to break it down I remember my ninth great year we protested for books cuz we didn't have books we're using Xerox copies and a public school Xerox copies for we can't get books but we had a brand new football facility right brand new uniforms every year I never wore the same Jersey the next year brand new basketball the whole Court was done over shout out to Jamal Crawford he came back and buildt a beautiful court but like like you know I think I think lowkey I think it's years after Rick nisle who was the coach for the Huskies had an issue whatever I forget whatever issue he had a betting issue something like that so he took a few years out of college football and he came to coach my high school we were most talented I think his thought was like you know we're going to eventually he's going to get back into the into the in the NCAA and and whatever so he wants to be on the ground with the with the high school boys already anyway but um I think I think like low key he bought books for the school like you know what I'm saying like it was just one of those things where it was like duh like if I'm here like why the kids don't have books why are we protesting for books so I'm I'm look I'm I'm using that an example to say that things are sometimes systemic and things are sometimes feel very set up because who's allocating these budgets that we don't have and we're filling publico it is but here's my question is it not to get too political right but just on your opinion is it self-inflicted meaning who first this is social issue it's not a political issue just only in 2020 everything became atic no I hear you but I'm saying when you say that there's you know a brand new uh football field you know and all these you you know obviously all the things they wanted for you know the money to go towards who's the one allocating that money is that people with that's what I'm saying I don't know but but but does not somebody feel responsible that like the schools also like don't have books like who's sitting in that seat I want to know you tell me I don't know cuz I want to know right now I guess what I'm asking is it the is it the principles of of the school as oppos like is it a self-inflicted thing or is it like the outside Ian definitely can't be a self-inflicted thing cuz we would have been responsible for that we wouldn't have protested for books so um but but it's one of those things where I'm just highlighting that to say that these these things are happening in communities you know nonstop where kids are not up to par with with math and and and and with their and with their reading even I mean I mean and and they're so like under privilege and for sure we have father absence is a big big issue but these are like what I'm saying is like these are not like um um issues and I feel like as a culture we're creating this like this goes back to to the music and everything I'm not saying music responsible but I don't think it's I don't think it's Innocent but it's the way that we that we allowed ourselves to be betrayed and and entertained over years I mean we meaning black people is like man look look at what it's doing to our communities and to and to our kids now I'm I I also don't I'm not an advocate of apologizing for being talented right in in basketball and football and and rap and entertainment and everything like that but like at least play to our strength then so let's say that we were last in test scores because we just we were less um um less focused no I wouldn't say Focus say we were less talented in Academia right but we're more talented so why not create African-American schools surrounding Performing Arts surrounding the things that we're talented in you know what I'm saying like who says who gave the standard that you have to be a baky in in math like you know what I'm saying or you have to be a Bak I'm not against math I don't think math is racist by the way I'm just saying I I'm just saying whatever the case is I'm just saying like you know that was always our thing well give us a a a a school and a structure and the education that's surrounding our talents I don't it's potentially there a there's I think that some people would have an issue with that idea CU they be like that's not the way to Make It in America Performing Arts how many you're you are one in a million how many performing artists actually make money and like have a career where they could raise a family on I'm not saying I'm not saying you have to be be be a rapper but I'm saying but things are okay well then I I'd be more interested in it if I knew how to become become an agent if I knew how to become you know the person that that was that was behind it whatever the case is I think more focused learning for things that we were actually interested in would have been much more would have been much more uh helpful for us well yeah can we talk for a second about the finances like you started young did you ever have I know all artists we we've discussed this before all artists have trouble from the financial side it's very very difficult of course um so when you were growing up right and and were you someone that had financial success early and therefore you know was fine or did you run into that roadblock at some point no I live live with that roadblock right uh my like like as soon as I was off on my own and and I was independent so in the end I never end up taking the deal that was even worse I conformed and I didn't even end up taking the deal because I had a few labels involved and uh I ran it up and tried to get a bidding war going and none of the labels bit after that each one it kind of backed out so I was left with the new persona but I went independent and so we were literally like selling CDs out the trunk you know what I'm saying like that real up and down the I had boys I had boys I had had a team and we had like our own little independent imprint and um and uh and so that was the beginning of everything but that was like the hard struggle you know what I'm saying like very my own real grind real grind real grind you know love that how many shows are you playing back in these These are the early D black early D Black Days oh man I was playing a lot of shows I was you're playing 50 100 200 people uh yeah yeah 50 100 people yeah for sure and then on my big shows back then were like maybe six s 800 people you know what I'm saying like that was a big show can me take a little moment here what what's a big niss show look like now come on Flex on Flex on us I'm going to flex I'm going to flex play 5,000 not we did you know sometimes it's really good cuz they you know it's set up that way but I mean Kan show yeah I think we did w 5,000 I was just with C C team was 3,000 but it was a C team event but it was you know much bigger shows these days and and sometimes we do have small ones we had a small one the other night withas which was very nice and which I still appreciate because something about the small shows that that you don't get by the bigger shows is like you know first off you can't like run back there's no need to have security run you back to your room you know what I'm saying it's like it's a smaller show it's less people uh but these usually people that show up for those are like real deal fans that you really touch their life so you get to like hear what's going on in their lives and how you affected them and different things like that so I I'm not like shooting on the small shows I just it is also exciting to be you know there and and have thousands of people singing your song that you you wrote I was going to say what's that feeling from being on the stage 5,000 people be dop that feeling is like crazy it's like so crazy I remember my first show I think I did uh jewi so so I think it was the second shows that we did the first one I did was a Master Theater about 1300 people I think in feel in Brooklyn over there Master Theater when was this this was like uh 2018 it's the first time I took on and was like I'm just doing my own show that there's no promoters nobody we're going to be our own promoters or whatever we took the venue over there I like the venue over there and then so the next time we did it we did it two nights in a row I we did it two day two two shows in one day right so it was 1300 people so we back back there but that show like you know even was but those things were Monumental for me because it was like there's no promoter I'm not nobody else is doing this this is all on us be able to fully independent and we're going to go and do these shows but those shows are like like like super powerful to me because when people are coming because of your output and things that you pushed and then to come there and like people like singing your for previous years it's culmination of a lot of years of work yeah for sure so many years of war with promoters and then do yourself I got to ask you this if I hope you don't mind me going into this but well first of all let's start with this who's coming give me the breakdown of V show I I'll be honest I haven't seen you live yet I hope to that's not true I saw chosen chosen I was a new mom with you 2018 uhhuh I saw I watched what I'm wondering is you delivered don't worry they you you know they God you got to a level success that like most artists only dream of like you're you got thousand people at your shows M but it's a very different I'm assuming type of crowd than you were than you were imagining as D black right right is there a part of you that looks down to that crowd and like wishes that I don't know who that crowd is I don't know who's coming to your shows in Brooklyn but you look out and go like I'm really Happ for these new fans but like like like where are the hip-hop heads Ah that's a good question no I actually prefer the fans oh no I I I think it's not that I don't I I'm going tell you what I did some I did some homework on myself right the homework I did on myself I was forced because I was in the hospital I had Corona and I was sitting there like sick every day it was a different day one day I thought I was good I wasn't good whatever I was there for about six days or whatever but I did a lot of reflecting and audience was big for me it's like cuz you're thinking I was in the middle of Shifting obviously when I dropped motherland balance that was like a whole different you know I was I've noticed you're like me 3.0 at this point I've been following so so so like I I was sitting I remember being in the hospital and I'm just like like who who's my audience people ask me all the time who's my audience I never asked myself who's my audience I have you know I have hip-hop Bubbies I have you know I you know I have kids who are three years old who know like I didn't you know anywhere I've always been surprised about who was listening to me so I never thought about it and I think because of because of Corona yeah and because of all that was happening socially in America over the over the last couple years since 2020 I would say there's been a lot of what what we would call birim there's been a lot of being able to identify and separate and sifting out and people much more so saying that I belong over here I don't belong over here right For Better or Worse some of it's not good um but other other in another way it is really good because then you start to realize certain things so you realize your and and sometimes types are not bad sometimes types lead to lead to purpose lead to T like I know what I am because I belong over here it's hard to explain but um so for instance for me I started to think about who's nissim's audience generally people that care about like God right that's one thing right like we got God in common um generally people that that would would would value family that that that have hope that that generally would want to to be in areas and amongst people that are lifting them up as opposed to bringing them down right so I started to think more more about my audience which helped me realize the way that I needed to make my music unless I was just trying to make it for me and sit in the car you know what I'm saying but but but that's those are the things was like messages of Hope and then it was like okay well God why did I start making music again cuz I I left music you know 20 yeah 2009 really was my last album and they forced out the last few records of 2010 but I was done already in 2009 mon contract was up I was done I thought I was done and when I came back I knew that it was to be able to use what I had in order to to to do PR for God that was it I'm God's uh PR and so I felt like a little bit like that within it you you Lose Yourself and you become you know just an artist and worrying about your art and your craft but it's like why am I doing this for and so my audience helped me get back to you know what what it was that I felt like I was supposed to be doing in the first place so I would think in a certain way tell me this is true that you know creating music for other people as opposed to just for yourself it almost in a way allows you to it takes the pressure off of needing to you know it takes the pressure if I would think of the creativity because you're not just trying to you know you're not looking for other people's approval exactly you're just trying to make what you know it's it's a PR move like you said for God and you're making what you're it's not about you it's about the audience right exactly it's about the audience which is connected to you like because the audience ultimately is a piece of you listen I've always said this like but think about this really go in into this with me as an artist you have so much control over your listener at the time that they're listening to your music at least 2 three minutes you that person is engulfed they're with you and they doing this usually cuz they're nodding their head they're agreeing with you they're already agree with you already agreeing with you two three minutes of whatever that that you you generally at that at that point you're controlling that person's emotions you're controlling the the way they're thinking they're feeling the moods or whatever that's a big thing that's not something big responsibility that you have on your on your hands right there so when you look at the at the at what you have and you and you could recognize music much more so as a like I always say like this like I pick on him cuz he's Jewish all right drezy drezy knows Drake knows when he's in a when he's in the studio when he's writing that if he says a certain word right and he says it on the snare this type of way he knows what type of emotions that's going to bring out of the person he could manipulate and and and persuade someone's emotions of course absolutely so I say if you can use something for for for the bad you could use it also too for the good so for me and these things are already within you anyway the easiest type of music to make is music that's honest to yourself the thing that's hard to make is things that are not honest to yourself um but so so your audience generally will will will have similar interest and similar things to you to your liking generally you're not usually going to make music for people that are completely the opposite of you generally you're not so so um so so you like the new audience because they're with you they're not the opposite we have what the said if I was stuck you know sitting in the dentist office I can also talk to the person it's not just you know what I mean are there are there religious but non non-jewish niss fans oh yeah preach you as sure I get stopped all the time for people who are not Jewish at all like happens a lot in fact we had a big you know a couple years ago I I did uh not this hanuk tour but the hanuk tour before we did dates with uh you know non-jewish agent was still Jewish but it was a non-jewish agency whatever um that dealt much more in the more mainstream and we did a few shows like that smaller like ticketed shows but the whole point was to not really promote towards my audience but to like try to promote to the to the non-jewish so what do you think happened Jewish people showed up Jewish people showed up right okay and then and then at all typical Jews at all the Jewish shows all the Jewish shows you know theab just like you know n we had a lot of non-jews registered so they're coming to the Jewish shows so I was like I said to hey I said like what are we doing like let's just do our thing and they they're all coming that's what I was going to say I feel like with art like if you're confident with your art tell me if I'm right or wrong or you know you can't create like your audience comes to you you got to do it feels right and and it's like you can't sell something that there's no there's no market for right sales you got to find out what people want and then create do your thing and then people right absolutely and if and if it's true to you then it's going to have a longl lasting effect if it's not true to you then you know you're going to have to find some I got to ask another question because you've already said in this conversation that there was a point in your life when you were making music and you were putting there was Artistry in it but it wasn't fully honest to you mhm mhm do you feel like you've experienced that at any point once post the Orthodoxy when because there is there does seem to be a little bit of a direction right since motherland bounce you seem to have gone a little bit for La for better term some of the swag back like like cuz I listen to old stuff and then and then you know you were something else for a while which was also beautiful but it was very like yeah you know yeah something that would get played at like a a c event for kabad and and now there's there's there seems to be so how do you as an artist like are you so ironically enough motherland bounce is like one of my least favorite songs that get out here what a b yeah exactly and it's a banger and I I agree and I give that to you why don't you like it um so so but the thing was is because it's really where it came from in my life it wasn't it wasn't um so I was I was going through a lot trying to get my kids into school and you know people were not politically correct yeah I was I was living in Mayar but I didn't I for sure didn't try school and may sh I wasn't like that crazy um uh but uh God bless it's for who it's for but it wasn't for me um but I I like when I was going to schools and we were looking trying to get the kids to school these were like schools that had you know predominantly uh you know American population and we we we thought out we didn't like destroy here or there we a lot of the rejection we met then we were told very much so because of the color of our skin obviously that was very very hard for us we we had a lot of it was Dumb and it was crazy and it's not everybody but it was the choice few um and what happened was that uh also around that time because the story broke it went live now first off I would never go to the media on some even something like that cuz it just even it was personal to me I could talk about it now cuz it was already out and it's been asked to me a million times but um so what happened was I got called by the radio like unannounced like they just called me up because a picture of me in Rim went out and I went to go talk to raim kenki about the situation and say everything that he said but one of the things he said to me was that your color is your mil not your it's your it's your virtue not your lacking and uh and obviously he's probably you know arguably the the biggest Rabbi in all of Judaism right now that I don't know how I don't know how many people would have argued it at the time um and so when that went out everybody's like why' he say that you know I didn't think of why he why would why would he why why would he say that I know why he said it cuz I was there so the radio called me but I had just released my song I think it was like king of the world or something like that so I thought he was calling about the song so we're talking and he was like why re he dropped the bomb and I'm like oh because of this and you know what and I just really didn't think about it and I don't know when I listen to the interview I hear myself trying to like pull back and he's like getting more upset about the situation they want that sound bite they want that didn't want the sound bite and and it went out and then it was all over the papers and I stuffed my head in my pillow for two weeks and and waited for it to be over and uh but what it did lead to was a lot of other people who were calling me afterwards like man telling me their stories and I was like whoa how do what do you think about that I mean you know I think such a proud Jew but and then you're proud of Israeli now right right and like to experience that sort of racism it was it was crazy but I had to do some Thank God I'm a breast lover and thank God I I I do his b this and I talk to AEM if I didn't talk to hashm I don't know what I would have did because there was a few key things that were able to be put back in place right first off is was one you know you know how many people said to me how could you keep doing this why would you keep going like what after what's happening to you like how you you know must up the strength and and there were two things one thing was is that I was a I'm a big Tanakh guy very big in tanak and and David was a th% right shaik Sha was chasing him to kill him King David knew he was right right had every every every opportunity and and and and right that he could have took his life but he realized that Hashem gave him the malus he gave him the kingship he is the OED I will not lay a single hand on and if anybody else does I'll take him out right that's how much King David was in line with with God's will so I said these are hashim's children these are hashim's babies I came here because this is where I'm not going to allow myself to to to to get upset and backlash and go to the media and the I'm not I'm not doing it that was one the second thing was was that I came to a place where I I I mean I guess I would to say that I realized but I came to a place where I had to say to myself Hashem why did I come here I came here for you Hashim you brought me here so if I'm leaving it's because of you no person is taking me out I didn't come to Judaism for the schools I didn't come here so I could fit in with people I didn't come club for thew no I came to give my heart over toim and and and and and to be and I tell shim all the time I said I also think come for mediocrity also too I didn't come here for mediocrity Hashem I I when this when my chapters close I want to be aad G I came here with fire serving your I'm not I didn't come here I didn't sign up to play games so I'm not going to allow that because this situation to stop me nothing stopping me a unless you come down here and and tell me something else it's not stopping me so there's a certain resilience that came from my my prayers that's an incredible level of like self weirdness dedication and honestly like to me that's honestly incredible so many people would have just said the hell with this like this community you know it's crazy um that's really unbelievable uh I wanted to ask you um something else um why did you just going back a little bit you first went to Christianity first Islam Christianity then Judaism why did you leave Christianity and then go to Judaism was there a specific and wasn't there was a stop Gap there also right um yeah was a Messianic yep y so first off if if you're asking think about it so like Islam Christianity Messianic then the Judaism I just went in chronological order man I just like digging you know I'm saying like it it was just a natural grain of like of of digging things up and trying to figure out well how'd you get here well how'd you get here well how'd you get here um and that's really what it was I mean I was sitting with the you know the different text from the different religions for 8 hours a day I was going through and trying to just find the truth man I was sitting over there like until my brain was fried I was crying and I started praying and fasting and all that TR I really I really sincerely wanted to know the truth because there nothing worse than feeling like you know you had this like aome relationship with God you like had this Clarity like your whole world gets rocked upside down you know what I'm saying and with with the simple things you know and and nothing against you know obviously Christianity but I'm saying like it was very simple for me to realize like hold on well I just in a matter of seconds I just figured out that the holidays had nothing to actually do with even Christianity like where did all this come from like you know it was like one thing that just like toggled me up I'm like hold on so so but I went I did a deep dive I went into a lot of church fathers which you know you ask average Christian today they W even know what it is but that's almost equivalent to their tal and and and and so um it's not as praised over there because amongst Catholics obviously more traditional Christians they know of these works but um the average Evangelical is not very well versed in church fathers and know the about the origins of Christianity in the beginning so I I went very very I did a I did a deep dive but I was I was searching I was on a hunt and so I went a chronological order also to finish the answer because the feeling about about the song was because I felt like I was coming from such a a place of of of venting you understand also too in my life I should say at that point I'm sorry to jump around but that every time I came in like to New York or you know another place to Hy black population I was getting it from them also too you know I'm white now cuz I you know cuz I dress European you understand what I'm saying and and and and so motherland bounce was birthed out of frustration was you basically telling me hey I'm still very black I'm still very black and I'm very Jewish you know what I'm saying and get along so and I think it was done with a certain type of uh you know certain way a say certain type of you know whatever I don't transl I don't know what to say but that and I think that but because I don't I don't want to be in that place you know what I'm saying it's just not my preferred place to be my preferred place to be is in one of of of like you know inspiring let's get up you know what I'm saying let's get out you know so that that's probably why so it it'sit a that type of nuda for me let me ask you this you seem to for someone who again you started practicing what is it like 10 12 years ago 10 years ago yeah you know a lot like you're really you seem really tapped into like real like from culture like in a real way like learning like you're you're spinning it like you've been doing this your whole life are you learning every single day there a couple years that you just definitely learning every single day in the books I travel with seor with me I have my gamar with me I have my I have he learns more than us with me this with me you said something before which was awesome and you said every religion you do you you've chosen it yeah this something you want to do some some degree I the the other I would at least with Islam and Christianity the difference was that they came to me and I chose it but I still to choose it uh with Judaism I I I had to go out to go find so that was the biggest difference were they upset were people you know betrayed and upset when you made a choice from each no I don't Rel because I don't I don't think so my grandfather was already in in in prison uh my uncle who was also Muslim at the time also he could have felt some type of way but he he he was good about it um and then the Gap in between Christianity and Judaism was kind of long because I did have that Messianic St for a couple years but did you put on an album as a Messianic because there's an album under D black where you have a Talis on yeah yeah yeah so that was Aliah that was my last album you not Jewish je but by the time the album came out I had started my I had started my uh my conversion process oh so you were messian I was Messianic and then by the time it came out I was already I saw that you literally took no profits from that album no I took nothing I took nothing from alrazy because the problem so early on in the conversion why were you already willing to do that I I get this I had even started my conversion yet I hadn't moved to the neighborhood I hadn't even made my mind up that I was converting yet but but the but I knew but I was already faithful to has in the sense that I wanted to at least not work on Shabbat and I wanted to not you know what I didn't know I didn't know even that I could have anyway so just to be clear I don't know if the audience understands what we're talking about you there was an Aly putah under D black before you were Nissan black right that did not take money from profits because it was worked on on shs no because the the it was it was a the what I had sort of um the way I put it out there was uh with my business partner at the time was that you guys keep all the money as long as I don't have to work on Shabbat I don't have to do any concerts on Shabbat I don't have to do anything on the yamim to you guys keep everything and that's my tradeoff is that on those days I don't I don't have to work wow now I started working a job that year and now mind you not I was not Jewish right I had no real obligation to really to do that yet um and um but that at the job I was working I got four raises that year four raises it was like somebody quit the person got fire and got elevated youing he still me up is what I'm saying still I'm so curious what what does n and black do in between being a rapper and then being a rapper I was in Property Management I guess I was always jewi you were Jewish yeah you're Jewish that's great that's he ran a Healthcare company for a while amazing um okay I got a question for you cuz you said you know thank God you're a breast liver right um and I actually didn't know that until I did research on this I I just I thought you were just Jewish I didn't know you were wruss specifically um um what do you think is breev is brov's they're a little out there you know the average average definitely the average American Jud doesn't really know what's going on there they know him as the guys who dance on buses do people not what do people what do you wish people knew about bre what it really is bre what do you think people get wrong about it bre is you know sitting with one of my m in bre I remember I used I had the opportunity to learn with him he was just he's a was he is he's a he's just a depth of knowledge she's a in breast he's a he's an almanac in breast um but to sit with him and I will never forget his words and what he's saying because I was ask him essentially all these different things if you look at like withar the the main the main book of of bre rabman essentially as rabman himself calls it this is a commentary on the sh this is essentially everything he's telling you to do ysf car already said to the B said inside the sharo but and and and and Ras goes even deeper and but what he said to me was is that breast love is at its finest everything is telling you to do is to keep Y at its finest you know and according to the Z bre love we you know is a very big thing for us to have to be happy um obviously um was was far ahead of his time when we're looking at a world today that is dealing with anx anxiety depression and and this whole thing was all about being that out out of it you'll be able to to to not only rescue yourself but you can lift up every single person around you with with just Sim being happy uh the the the amount that we put into prayer so what's funny is it I tell you about breast love is because for me I I came from you know obviously nothing come from Christian come from where I came from I came to breast love because I came into Judaism with a very big fire like I was on fire cuz I I you know I did something that's so today considered very very not Jewish to do and that's read tanak I read the Hebrew Bible I was going I was I was going to say that's pretty uny I haven't looked at that since I was in high school I don't know if you make it as aish guy I'm not really sure exactly so the people of the book that never read the book um so but reading it obviously filled me with a a lot of fire and a lot of passion that Jud de I come in and I'm very big on prayer and all these other things but you know what happens you move into a community everybody's just sort of like looking at you like dude why are you so excited like bro relax like relax we've been doing this for a long time we don't enjoy this that much you know what I'm saying you know hang and so which is you know natural and and and so for me for a minute I just like started thinking I was crazy for a little bit you know what I mean like I was like I thought it was crazy like if I tell people all these stories these things that happened to me and on my way to yish and from all my and like people going to think I'm crazy until I came across and talking about the and he's boted Us in the co of it and and what it does for a person how it's it's a it's a aspect of Holy Spirit of yeah like these things like so it was lifechanging for me so but if I it sounds little like you found breast because you found the Jews that are okay with being very passionate and they're you're it's you're allowed to be on fire in this part of J exactly exactly was ask you was Brea the first thing that you bumped into when you decided started started no no no soad and then huh kabad and then BR kabad and then no no no and then Safari that's and and everything everything I ran into I kept a little bit I'm still very still very big on on the bar Rebel but uh but so I I was myy the Safari Sho so shout out to Rabbi Benin who took me in like a father um and and but while I was there you know I couldn't help you know the fire of of of Rabbi Brody who was was over there Rabbi schm Brody um who's now in Baltimore shout out to Rabbi schm Brody who was really big for me because um he was like that other person that was like you know you know like I thought I was crazy right so everybody else is is is Jewish and they're living and then you know the regular thing my bro was he was like in love with the shim and I was like this is the guy I've been looking for this guy cuz I need to talk to this guy and that's he really for me is in America he's in America he's in he's in but you said heo wasab broish he he he I don't know if he had a long stint in breast he was in spot for a while so he took cloudy from a lot of differentes now he's in Baltimore and where I'm going tonight so I'm going to sneak up on them tonight you're really every you're really everywhere you said you going to the city also now yeah I'm going to the city yeah wow that's unbelievable all over the place you yeah could you speak to that a second you lost your mother when you were young right yeah I lost her mother I was 19 she was also young she was 37 wow was young and she I read that she passed away from uh from pills yeah from pills oxycotton oxycotton overdose and uh in cocktail P what was that like for you being 19 years old and were you closer with your mother oh man my mother was was my was my heart um I was very close to my mother um she it was it was hard for me because first off it was so unexpected like who would expect that you know that your mother you know like everybody you know you I think at at some point you know a few times in my life I imagine life without my mom like being at a funeral or something like that you know and and even the thought would make me tear up but like when it happens to you it was like wow was like the whole entire world came yeah it was like crazy for me so that was hard for me um and and especially at that point in my life because her and I had become even closer I was a teenager now you know so who else to talk to but my but my mom I was dating already my my wife to be because I've been with my wife since we were 16 so um so I was already so she was you know she was my my anchor you know really at that point but um so that was very hard for me to get over that but and it and it put me in a place really where where I think that that was really like um I wouldn't say strike but it was like the first thing that cuz I don't know I have this thing where when when hard things happen to me I don't I don't go out I go in meaning that meaning that some people it hurts their belief in Hashem when they have struggles I I I tend to believe in him more when I have bad bad times and it brings me to a state of of bital so I remember even back then when I was 19 that like God like I feel like you know he put me like in headlock you know what I'm saying I mean figure speech but I'm saying like you know so to speak like I was in a headlock like I couldn't move like this is that's how my heart felt that was very very very hard on me so I think you know that was that was another thing you know that would later on help in my transformation that I I I felt a little bit more like uh B I think is the word you know again you felt like you say got you were in a headlock but in that situation you went closer to him I went closer I think that that was another thing that made me realize that you know as I was going on cuz it was only the next year before I get into that beef with the other guy right so it was the next year you a lot of like the the hardship happened kind of close it happened like close together enough for me to realize like man I'm not I'm not trying to live this life you know what I mean like this is not you know and I think the mother thing was was a was a big thing also too cuz I I didn't I didn't become harder I became softer you know what I mean it made me it softened my heart right I hear that um are you in touch with any people from the past days yeah yeah I I am not not like every day we don't talk every day but uh so Israeli TV did a a interview on me um uh KH channel channel 11 in Israel and um and they took me back to my family it's like in 2018 now I hadn't really been around my family and you know here and there I may have talked to a few of them I haven't really been around him like prior to this was like seven seven years six years or something like that and did they not want to talk to you no not that they didn't want to talk to me but you know what I always say that when I went on this journey I I started running I wasn't running from but I was running to you know I was so inspired by what it was that was that was lighting me up that new found relationship with God and Hashem and the Jewish that I started running to towards it at the expense of whatever was going on behind me absorbed in it yeah I was absorbed in it and and and and anything that felt that it would that it would distract from that got consumed by that fire vision everything like that's why I I remember going out throwing it you know like how hard in a in a in a per in a normal day it would have been for me to throw away like my Black Album and my blueprint you know what I'm saying I was a Jay-Z's guy like I remember the day I went and dumped all my CDs everything into the trash remember selling my Xbox everything that I felt was in the way of my relationship with God went like wow what age was that like that I was 20 20 years old wow has your thoughts on that sort of thing changed of course it changed yeah because you because you start to realize that things look I rap got burnt up also on that right you know because you can find God in Jay-Z's blueprint I don't know I don't know if I can find God in over there yeah he's may have line you just feel now that it was too extreme no no I don't even think no from me then it was appropriate it was a th% appropriate so why do you I think now I think now but after you mature because I think it's important that when a person um when a person is is is beginning a new relationship let's take Let's Take God out of the picture although he's always in the picture let's take a a new relationship with a with a with a young girl right um and and and this is a potential marriage partner for the person or whatever like honestly for it to be really successful how much do you want to still keep talking to your your girlfriends your other girlfriend you know piur have pictures of them around and different things like that it's it's going to it's going to make the situation feel so to to the degree that you're willing to give up everything else even forget about just a girlfriend some of the guy friends that you have you stop hanging around also to cuz you know this guy's not such a good influence or whatever and you wrapped up in this love of infatuation and it's very good and then eventually after it's at its right place you know where to fit everybody else in line but first you the first thing is to create priority what's priority right God's priority and then after that now I know like my my relationship to music is so great now because music is a tool and it's not a means of an end I remember going I was in the studio all night till 9:00 in the morning killing myself slaying myself but all all in the sake of music like The you know and that's great but that that it's not a means to an end it's it's a tool and I could use it to inspire people to bring people you know so that's I actually resonate with that I don't know if our listeners would believe this not but like I I went through a I think close to a year I didn't listen to any secular music really and no it's it's there's there's I think that's part of people's relationship with God that people get to a stage where they're like okay I'm going to do but I do you know I'm going to do whatever it takes to but I do think that's it's part of maturing spiritually maturing is is kind of letting certain things back in and understanding that everything is a tool and obviously if you learnis you know there's Sparks and everything and like that that black and white thicking can be a little dangerous you know but you got to you got to exactly you got to know how to arrange your room you understand what I'm saying in the first place is like if you really want to clean up you know petock is coming up you clean up you take everything out everything's got to go out and then you start putting stuff back put some things back but some things are definitely going you know what I'm saying some things are out of there you know so I think those things are very important and it's it's a part of it's part of maturity but never to look on that one thing that I think is even more dangerous is to look on those times when we were passionate about something and say oh it was it was a bit extreme it's like no it wasn't it was a necessary part of the process very necessary part of the process I wouldn't be an extreme you were you were in Bully yourself like oh relax younger may like no exactly exactly exactly which is why to to even though I said I dislike the song I still play motherland bounce almost every show you know unless the rabbi tells me he doesn't want it but but us fire you could make another entire shout out to Y Brown my brother-in-law but I'm saying but like I was still play because it was an important part of the process even though I wasn't the most comfortable there but it was still a part of my process so it sounds like you have no regrets about the process you're fully at peace with how each thing played out even if you don't like this moment you were in that space I was in the space you have compassion for that part of the journey right I think I heard compion for him at that age I think I heard from rberg I didn't see it inside anything but I think I heard from one of reinberger sh on Rob cook even if he wrote something that was like cre he never threw it out whatever he wrote he like kept it you know what I mean he would never like throw it out because the it's important sometimes we're in that place especially today like you know a lot of us who who you know are aspiring to be better people and you have all these great you know I'll take books of of great people we have them by the gdan but even also to you know the The Wider world has them about whoever else everybody does the good stuff on on Instagram we only put the good stuff we're not putting that you know know you know when your car got a flat in your whatever nobody's putting that but always the good stuff but sometimes that when we when we The Human Side of us gets erased a lot and gets snuffed out sometimes and I think that is important for us to be able to still Embrace those things like you know to hear that people were normal people you know I heard one time that uh Arya Kaplan um uh you know who was a mind beyond that when he would give over T he would be in a whole different world but he but he like baseball you know what I'm saying like you know he still like baseball you know what I mean so like you know but but nobody would ever probably put that in the biography but you know I heard from Co tum and his so but but these are the things that like were we're all still we still have some humanness to us you know so no J Jud Judaism is for humans exactly it's for absolutely it was given speaking about process speaking about uh you know next stages and and different it sounds I don't know if we were able to talk about this and cut if we can but I think we can cuz youve talked about other interviews you've got some a project coming up the HBO you the HBO thing coming up and uh for like people don't know like you're you're literally in development right now with this and it's with mosha Casher who's a stand comedian who I really want to have on the Pod one time with his brother who's an orthodox Rabbi um yeah you're making a comedy show yeah I'm doing a comedy drama comedy it's a dramedy it's a dramedy dramedy this is a whole new thing for you and and and yeah like what can you tell us about that and like is this something you've always saw yourself doing or well in terms of almost anything in the Arts has been a dreams from my like I don't think it would have like just stopped with just music I've always loved acting I loved you know I've always wanted to do musicals and animations and everything so I think that you know in more in that space as I'm you know getting older and I've been touring a lot and and and and feeling like you know I I it's one of those things where I sit back and I say like you know okay God okay okay like I I gave you this but I want to give you everything like you know what about all the other gifts other things that you gave me so um you know they reached out to me it was an opportunity now for the story is like crazy CU people are at my story a lot right obviously it's and it's so funny cuz that that forgive me but I don't find it that interesting thing my cuz I lived it but you know Queen Latifa approaches about the story and then Sally and then uh there was another couple Sally Richardson who's doing this show actually yeah yeah yeah so I grew up watching her movies as a kid um and uh there was a there was a couple other Productions that reached out Sony just reached out the other day for another project so we've been having a lot of people coming for the story so it's like what do you do these people want to do a documentary these people want to do like a drama like a movie like you know these people why go with the funny and I like which is sort of like in one levels like the easiest but then it's also kind of like dangerous too cuz like what do you make fun of you know right I'm so curious how this is going to I the same you seem like a very serious guy I mean you have personality obviously you said something in an interview when I was when I was you know researching for this which I I love which you said that part of this is that you think that like one of the ways to combat anti-Semitism is to show this like positive funny personable side and you know there's been it's no it's no question there's been a explosion of Orthodox Jews and ex Orthodox Jews in media like it's I mean for a while Netflix couldn't say yes fast enough to a show about a guy going you know leaving the fold and it was like always just really I mean I'm someone with a complicated relationship to judism but like this was like it was always so negative and like right right right right I think it's time we have something kind of nice exactly positive funny are you making Ramy is it so that that was sort of the idea although I never seen Ramy to be honest I never seen uh so but but that was I guess that was somewhat of a an idea that they that we used in in the pitch with HBO that I think mosha himself used because he you guys because I've been wanting to make Jewish Ramy really Jewish Ramy so uh I'm not like I said I'm not not not as familiar with that show I'm I'm whatever it is is probably going to be a much more kosher virgin than that um um but uh how's that working by the way I'm sorry to keep interrupting but like I know mosha cast's comedy like that dude likes places me and Moshe have have built a very nice relationship of Shak ataria and it's you know and and and you know what I have to say for mosha you know we just right now at least as it say you know first script just you know went in and and bosim was accepted for the first show everything and uh and mosha did a good job mosha did it was like one or two inappropriate things you know like for me but for everybody else it would have been like totally fine but just like my respect your he definitely has been respectful I think he's leaned you're doing great I think he's leaned heavily on his brother also too I could tell like a bit like you know what I'm saying when we talked about it like it it which is mindblowing also too because in the beginning I was like mosi's going to come after me I just felt so much like he's going to like try to get in get into me did a really good job yeah yeah yeah yes I don't know if our audience knows who he is Father H comedian he's married to a huge s comedian he grew up Orthodox in L or near La it could have been no I think he was over back East I think his father satman yeah father was his brother is an orthodox Rabbi yeah it's pretty dope yeah he's where is he he's making Mo kaser no I got it I'm saying right I don't think all his jokes are Casher so you're going have the most appropriate show in HBO huh you're going to have the most I I I hope as it stands right now I'm first off first off you got to think about this I have to negotiate a deal right like who can do it like how am I going to negotiate a deal with a Hollywood company so I have to find first off a f lawyer or a f agent I have an excellent agent I don't think I I'm serious by the way I'm serious no no I found it from Fric oh I stop it I haven't going back and forth I knew you're going to say he's like the only guy so so right am I L I think I sorry for sorry if there's like one other guy aspiring to be entertainment but from what I know prachi's the only guy who who by the way is not juster he's like the sweetest you he's great he's like oh he's so sweet literally just spoke to him for an hour and a half last week oh really great I'm the only person on this Cas spoke with I'll get that yeah yeah so for many reasons he's he's G so anyway so I finally we find Fred and we going talk to him and Fred's not just like it's not like oh he's the F guy like he happens to be like killing the game also got of shows a moner in the in the business so um and I like his way he does things but he negotiated M great cuz I needed to have somebody that's not just dealing with anybody you could tell them what's black and white but what about hashkafa like how do we go into Hasa somebody's got to be able to negotiate into a contra like things that areic are contract contractually toite how many like yeshivish words got into the contract with like like you're like right in the contract with h St this is okay but yeah no nible pth yeah yeah zero nible pth you got like ex around like oh no that's a nible pad claw he can't are you going to be acting in this I'm not talking about that yet because there certain things I can't speak about but uh right now we are I mean I'm I'm excited for I'm only more excited after mosha finished the script because now I can like be comfortable about the about it you know when is this starting and when's it being put out um I don't know hopefully very soon so everything's been first off we survived you know a crazy amount of layoffs at HBO there was like a crazy amount of HBO nice and usually if you if your person gets laid off you like your projects finished um that didn't happen to us uh one of the main people on our projects end up moving over the Netflix but uh but but we still going why the do it's music business I mean TV business you know entertainment you know everybody's laying off everybody right now unfortunately so hopefully you know things continue to go but I'm hoping within the next six six months or so it's a good thing you're with HBO because the show is definitely not sexy Netflix is definitely a fan of putting out all the anti anti trust me that was in my head also too you know no doubt about it about it I got to say super excited what I'm I'm really pumped for this show yeah it's going to be really really cool does sound unbelievable um I got to say by the way like I don't know having this conversation is just awesome I I like you're like really like I don't know to explain I feel like you've been doing this life like yeah yeah too but I know been doing me Judaism wise like you've been an Entertainer since you were yeah yeah yeah since I could talk right nine yeah right right right right and yeah it's true you do feel like like like labels you feel like a lived in Jew right right right so interesting about it though is is that I talk to a lot of like G who shared very similar experiences you you know we we have an idea that the that the spark the Jewish spark is inside and some specifically would say Jewish the sh was born in a non-jewish body and certain this certain feeling your whole life of feeling like you never really belonged B TR have it also too with this feeling and then getting in I remember when I the first time I had doed um there was this portable in Seattle was over there and every time I Domin there I had like Dej I felt like I was there before I felt like I knew everybody there it was like something and and this started happening to me more and more as I went into the community so what's something that felt extra spiritual about me coming into Judaism coming you know back home I would say so to speak so I don't maybe it could have always have been you know but yeah definitely knowing what I know now could only go back you know 10 12 years ago you know what I mean but um I I as as as much as it may feel to other people like man you feel like you always I also feel the opposite way R said this also to one time about you know r r of course he said if if if you didn't look at me seem like really like you know what I'm saying like if it was just he said Z the he said you would think he was room from birth you know said had said in himself oh yeah I'll take it as a compliment I think it's a huge compliment well let me ask you this got a lot to do does does niss black feel like he belongs I definitely feel like I belong in Israel too in Israel oh a th% thousand does your family feel like they belong absolutely my kids are it's not tough them like I brought them I took my family twice with me on trips this past and that's not easy schlepping wife and yeah six six kids and now I have a seven thank God and um and and we came here to uh to America my kids like honeymoon was over very quick they were ready to get back there just like nothing was like nothing can keep the American dream allall I took them whatever I was like they don't even go to the mall in Israel so they you know how old was the oldest one when you guys moved when we moved she was seven she just she was still young she was still young and then after that I had a three-year-old and 2y old so my kids are really it's not hard for them because not only are they black in a sea of white they're also their dad's famous right right like like they're just going to have eyes on them for the rest of their lives right right right that's true um but you know I think they they become very you know acclimated there they have friends they have was good for us to move out of yine we're in bit Shish where schools that just like accept us well actually I will say the kids the schools that the kids are are in in the English where there's a high population of English speakers even though the schools are in Hebrew yeah but um no we live actually in the moreish area uh uh in giml in giml not base which is a little bit more uh see I don't think I could ever make move to Israel just the the milk and bags thing I'm done right right there I think that's thing is that going on I N are they still selling milk B we have carts we have carts you have a carton you have a cart milk in the bags I mean you know listen the truth is I would say over the years I've really developed you know much more so before I it's like everybody's got to move everybody you know and I realized that the people that do actually move is really the really most neish I mean to leave I mean even this like you can't like just go get this in Israel so it really has to be a big big sacrifice that you're willing to read but you know why people don't this is why this is my theory my theory is goes back to why people are not as passionate about to raise kids honestly ra I'm not saying true I'm don't read enough t this is it it goes back to T it builds something inside you end up wanting to be in the place where everything happened then you start to realize because it's it' be hard for a person to keep hearing God talk about how important a place is and to not want to be a place you know what I'm saying but outside if we if we if we stay away from it then we're not we're not going to hear it as much do you feel when you're there it's like you feel you feel that atmosphere yeah I feel the atmosphere and it's it's different you know and it made it worse this time cuz right before I left you and I'm here now I'm going to be here 2 weeks um so I took my family up north we just went up and to REO we went SP Ari we went to um El Reby Taron we went to uh where else did we go up there we went everywhere to the water we went up to by the canari and everything but just driving up North so beautiful I just talking to my kids I was like you know that Eli anavi was up here you know alavi was up here these were the places in and and and and yeah so I'm just so much that much more conect connected to ER Israel and because I live in be shemish they're not done like turning the whole entire Place into a city yet so I go outside I'm a breast l one of the reasons why I moved to Bay shim is cuz I needed to for I need to go out to go talk to shim it's hard to do this and you know sh and everybody screaming and yelling and you know being out and just to be in the land you know it's a different feeling all together so yeah I had my my honeymoon after 7 years is not over yet so I'm still feeling still basking in it I'm still basking in a life you you you live inspired because you live somewhere that inspires you yeah yeah you really like it probably to say growing up lfish like we don't really have that like there's I can't walk around Israel and be like oh this is where buba Bas like I have I I have someone that I a re he's a pretty well-known Rob I'm not going to say what is cuz I don't know maybe I'm not going to quote him but he said if if we could get everyone to go off the dark for about a year or two and then come back like everyone will have a lot more love for you yeah yeah don't recommend it said it I'm sure okay let's be that cuz then you choose it I was going to say it probably helps that I was able to calculate I was gone for 83 days also too last year so it never gets old to me anyway it's like I'm always making ala every few weeks uh Soo can we do some rapid fire go knock it out of the park can we do some rapid fire question this probably has already been like one of my favorite conversations my favorite thing not to do let's do it oh you don't like rap oh it's okay but I'll take it anyway okay um favorite Jewish artist oh yeah no yeah is there yeah especially including Israeli artists is there a Jewish artist that you haven't worked yet that you want to work with um yes but I'm in the process of working hey yeah so Sho Sho okay I wonder that was going to happen like he just like didn't he just like steal everybody's heart like something about just like stole everybody's heart like in a second everybody just like we just all love he's also very he's also a very humble person you could see that when he's on stage see you heard it first here I'm quinting it now he's Mia I'm joking I'm joking joking joking don't don't I actually told my friend don't quote me don't like you put it out there but just let it be a joke guys no but for real there was what's the one of the songs uh that he has I'm blanking on which one it is um it's the one we said R daving and G daving um oh you're talking about the yeah BL I'm blank yes whatever the song is I literally don't remember I'm like this is D singing the pureness in one of his songs um um the song he says um Mar the the song he says I think I know whatever yeah I just thought it was like so beautiful like fang over his song but I'm going left turn here okay um it's such a question but I've had to ask it cuz you you came up in the Seattle Underground and um I'm going to be a little bit of hipop never second but like that you put out a you had a song on Jack one who I never heard Jak one Jake one who so you on yeah I know I know I just well I didn't I didn't know him but I do know I do know MF Doom who's on two so you're on album with MF Doom which I'm onum who else is on there Buster rymes is on there I mean Young Buck was on there little brother was on there fmch was on there totally with you record so that record was the record that actually blew me up that album was the record that blew me so Jake Jake was from Seattle um Garfield High School he he was you got him early seatt like wasn't even crazy like that like Jake was by the time that record came out he had already did I think what four or five songs on the gunit album he had a song on a few of 50s records Dr a nice white boy he's a Jewish boy oh he's Jew of course first of all of course he's Jewish Jewish love of course he's Jewish he's got you know he's got a couple albums with mayor hot Thor they have the the thing together that him and he's the guy who does he's the guy with me that's I know his music I didn't know you didn't know him so so that's that's Jake and he was like one of my big brothers also well I got to ask because there is another rapper from the Seattle scene and you guys are around the same age I think who Mac yeah would you you see that Mac Mac opened up for me man get out think at least twice we were talking about mmore for the people who that's crazy If I Only Could open up for him uh I feel like M More's audience would appreciate you there he's a pretty God pretty inspiring guy yeah I would say inspiring I don't know how much God there is there but he's defin his whole thing is f God L the dog he said that in right right but want but in terms of like person though he's a really good guy good gu his heart his heart good dude his heart is is a is a heart of gold I would say about Mac like and he was a guy that I was so happy to see win because just the grind man like really he really put himself out there demos on Soundcloud like yeah yeah yeah exactly like like like he Mac was like in the house it wasn't like so everybody else was like this overnight success or whatever but like when you seen a guy grind like that like that's so funny I threw that out as a Hail Mary and then he opened for you it's just hilarious like it's still on YouTube I think one of the one shows that he that he is a you know that would be coolage respect big respect to Ma I we were I we were trying to H yeah we were trying to hook up when he he was supposed to do a show in Israel I think the BDS whatever got involved shut it down whatever whatever but he uh we were going to hook up so hopefully we see each other beautiful you got any raing um no I was going to ask something um I'm blanking on my question so apparently at this particular someone get label another coffee no no I'm fine I'm good Cofe um by the way I want to say big shout out to you guys also too because everybody like always ask me if I want coffee and then they going to give me instant coffee by the I just want to say for the record listen we got to stop this and it's a FR thing also too this is not called coffee if Elite God bless your heart but if you're doing instant it's not called coffee you did it right you did it appropriate this is real drip coffee I'm from Seattle so there's certain things I just can't do like instant coffee like out of I'm Cafe vaita man come on you know Starbucks something I made you exactly what you wanted I'm I'm the same thing I haven't touched instant coffee in probably 10 years I love also the Seattle like Seattle is like the coffee yeah that's true yeah if we don't do nothing right we do coffee I hear that 100% oh one last question okay I noticed in a lot of singles recently you've been singing you have a lovely voice is this something I I want to hear more like let's get an album let's get like is this something you want to do more I think you know I've been working on a new album and and as of right now it's probably the ratio is much more singing to rapping but that was one of those things also to was just like why do I got to like be stuck into rapping because like I thought that was the only way you know like before the Drakes came and OB was even before another person was like fonte from uh uh fonte from little brother or whatever who also were rapping sing or whatever uh Missy Elliot during her time but still was still like for her she was a girl so it was a little bit different right most guys wouldn't do both you know even if they had a really nice voice you know what I'm saying you can sing so but I but I enjoy singing and sometimes I preferred you know more than ra when I hear music like this this is calling me to sing and I and I felt a little bit and today I'm just feeling much less restricted you know when I go so beautiful can I can I get you early like I'm not even dating but like I want you singing my I haven't got that comfortable yet I haven't got that comfortable let me ask you one other thing do you still honest honest answer here do you still listen to any like carrent hip-hop rappers no man how do you now think you're not involved in the game I was like not like Lupe like some of like the uplifters cuz I was going to ask you who you think is like uber talented right now Lup is not rocking with us is he I don't think you got to ask him he knows the stuff RO with like the Jews yeah I think he's I think it was a little I mean I'm I'm I'm a bit of a apologizer for him but like I I looked into that cuz he had this one questionable line I think that he it was overblown okay he's got a lot of jewi friends know it happens by everybody happens I don't even know what you're talking about who hasn't been a little anti-semitic once in a while I was saying I wasn't saying that um but uh okay no no idea honest with you listen the thing is like this it's like you know I'm a very I'm very like one of the things that I'm very strong on is music just CU not probably because I'm a musician but because of that thing I told you of how conscious artists are when they're making music and to what it's doing to how much power they have and how much it is so with music I'm I'm a lot more strict but there are guys who I've been very impress I can't say I'm a consumer of but I've heard a decent amount of stuff for them to be like wow right that's what I'm asking n n like so I mean but he he's a guy where bothers me because of what's going on socially and how what's been going on socially is politically that he'll never get the credit that he probably deserves right now because because because he's white rappers seem to do fine in America no he's still doing all right I'm not saying he doesn't have a career but like compared to the other rap that's out there like he's killing him I'm not allowed to say that because he's white you know what I'm saying well he he sounds he SP mean saying you think he spits better I think he spits better are like guys like lrae like k k you know lrae lrae is probably the biggest Christian rapper but there's so many I used to listen to a ton of Christian hip-hop and I would say more Talent concentrated there there's so much talent so much talent real yeah just saying not him I mean he is a whole Lab of guys that are crazy but him do you have anything to do with him have you guys ever been in touch we have been in touch we have been in touch we do have a a little bit of a Rel religious it's important yeah because we we you know somebody called me one time the Jewish l so the the the the truth is is that uh he they do like a spiritual trip like uh a lot of these uh you know black Jewish rappers I mean black Christian rappers and they go to Israel so they make like a pilgrimage and uh there's a good friend of his who's actually another dope guy named Derek Miner who um who he has a he has a um he he has a label and an imprint I actually did a deal with him so my my deal is actually with a Christian uh label actually um and uh and we work together but so he told lrae about me and then lrae reached out after that and and whatever so we hope to at least be in touch it could be something that we do something but so you believe in that in like an Orthodox Jewish artist putting out with Christian artist I think especially like right now that's like it's like team God versus everybody else it does seem you understand what I'm saying it's like not it's not like one of all the things that are different is as long as we're not saying things that are offensive to each other on a on a song and and different things com from love that though from a ashic place that I'm saying you're comfortable with that yeah I'm totally comfortable with that because the main thing is is that like we could get together to build a good like let's let's say some guy who who would tell me he's got a problem with it right would he not do business somehow with some with a with a non-jew if it's going to make him more money or something like that so I'm trying to bring more good into the world even I don't get paid for I do a song with somebody that's going to bring more light into the world then it's it's a bad thing though so that's such a great way of putting it because you would I could hear a lot of people saying like oh how could you do a song with a non-jew and I love the way you just put it that beautiful beautifully said um okay wow I think that was an amazing conversation thank you 100 more things I could ask Z can roll on this Zach is like very very about hipop for the Z very very cultur Judaism really Tru I got to say for someone that says that you didn't grow up in a very Academia based place you clearly are very very smart I really like really felt that way in this conversation thank you um and you going to learn tanak after this I know I I kind of want to learn Kish me and you happens be tanak is a lot of fun it's like the it's like bous or like in the beginning of shos when it's just story time it's just like one good story after the next dude I'm saying said about himself he said the stories are higher than the toras you understand right the stories are big story selling is a big concept I'm not even K sleep on the stories yeah don't sleep on the stories don't sleep on the stories it's 100% true um okay niss thank you so so much guys really you're came to us which I I really really appreciate um I know it's hard to to get you you don't always do this at all so uh thanks so much guys we hope you appreciate it watching again give a big thumbs up if you did um and Peace On To The Next Episode don't sleep on the stores don't sleep on the stores don't sleep on the [Music] stores