From the Streets to Hasidic Fame: Nissim Black’s Incredible Journey | Nachi Uncensored Podcast

Were you afraid on your life? Of course, I was afraid for my life. I was very afraid for my life. And so now, if I don't kill them, then they're going to come and kill me. So, I remember going back to my apartment and I I I don't know if I've ever became more religious in my life. I started praying. I started praying and I started crying. You felt empty. I felt distant and close at the same time. It's very hard to explain. You probably couldn't have convinced me that I was not Michael Jackson. You're praying five times a day at 9 years old until my grandfather went back to prison. Who was the first Jewish person you met? I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood, so I saw Jews all the time. I used to call the police on this. My house was loud. And I recorded my first two professional songs at 13 years old already. He understood something very, very fast that most people who convert to Judaism don't. [Music] Listen, when you told your old crew that you're converting to Judaism, what was their reaction? It's a very good question. I don't think I told them. We understood something very very fast that most people who convert to Judaism don't don't understand and that is is that uh just like God told Abraham you have to go from the place go from the go from what you know so before we ever thought of you know making any type of announcements we started running on our journey literally that's what it was it wasn't until really after the fact that I started to realize that people you know felt some type of way about it. It wasn't that I was running from something, but I was running to something. Right. You were looking for something. I was looking for something. I was looking for Hashem. By that time, I was at least aware I was looking for God. I didn't know it was going to land in Judaism. But we because everything was was going, it felt slow, but it was going probably pretty fast when I look at it retrospectively and our growth and our spiritual growth and us getting to this place of understanding that by the time I was still around all my friends, I wouldn't have known where to tell them where I was going. I had no idea where I was going. So by the time it was clear for us that Judaism was where we were going, I was already not hanging out with anybody anymore. Wow. Let's dive back where you were born. You were born in Seattle and Washington State. Yeah, I was born in Seattle, Washington. I was born and and raised there. Both my mother and my father were both hip-hop artists. They both also sold drugs. I always say like any good Jewish boy joined the family business very early, you know. At what age? At at age nine already, I was already smoking pot. Wow. So we talk about that already. So I had already started smoking weed then. By the time I was 12, I was already selling weed. I was already, you know, expelled from the school district. I was running with GD, Gangster Disciple Nation. I was uh getting myself in a lot of trouble already at that age. But I was conscious. I was always a very spiritual and deep kid. But it was just a natural part of my environment to to be around those type of things. Like when I would come home from elementary school, I would come in and see like dope all over the table. You know what I mean? That's that's how it was. My house was a trafficking house. We were batted around by the FBI when I was uh when I was 8 years old. I read about it. I wanted to get there. So I don't need questions. You're good. No. So I I just I seen a lot growing up very early on. I used like that's Seattle. You know what I mean? I I just talked to a guy who grew up in Gaza. So you know what I mean? Different, you know, from different hoods. You experience different things. But that was just sort of life for us, you know, growing up. And I don't really think there was ever a moment until, you know, a few years after that where I started really thinking like maybe this isn't this isn't this isn't me. Yeah. What happened that one day you decided I want to become Jewish. First of all, also I I read about a little bit on Wikipedia, whatever it was that you were born Muslim. I'm not sure. Give me the story. First, I wasn't born anything, you know. I I was my parents were not religious at all. Uh my mother and my father, like I said, both were, you know, in the drug game. My my father was pretty smart though and and thank God today he's changed his life. He's major turnaround. But my parents split when I was two. Then my mother uh basically she remarried when I was two and my stepfather, which really isn't the right term because he's a father. He grew up I grew up with him in my house. Not to It's always been that that in itself has always been a struggle for me because [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you know, two men in your life. I know it's 2025 that has different connotations now but you know I had two men in my life as my father's you know my who I have a tremendous amount of respect for my quote unquote stepfather who I call my dad and then my biological father who wasn't in my house but the love was never lost between he and I I never had like a home relationship and thank God my mother never even though she had her differences with him never pushed anything on me to make me feel you know any type of way towards him that wasn't unpleasant. So I just had to say that because I never get to say that actually when I do podcasts. So people are always left wondering about that dynamic. I say my dad, I say my father. So anyway, so after my parents split, I grew up, you know, say my dad was in the same business as as my father and uh and so whatever. So I grew up like I said in that type of environment. Now there was no religion, no talk of religion. Every once in a while I had like a aunt who would come and pick me up to take me to Sunday school or something like that. Uh but apart from that there was no no religion in the in the house. And then my grandfather who had spent most of his life in prison. He's from Southside Chicago. And my grandfather, you know, God bless his soul. He was a gangster. He was a very serious gangster. What is he unfortunate what was he in prison for? He was in prison for a lot of things. Almost anything. I mean any type extortion, gang violence, murder. He grew up in the war. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He he I remember when I was eight. So he came to live with us and it was the most interesting thing ever because it's like two different people very religious. So he introduced me to Islam. So that was one part of it. I prayed five times a day in Arabic as a kid. What age? At I was eight nine years old. Nine years right early around that time. Eight and a half nine. Uh shortly after we had the you know FBI battle ram incident. Um and then he comes and he's there like I don't know if my house was the best environment for a person who's coming home from prison to come you know stay at my house but he didn't really have anywhere to go. So he was with us for about a year and a half or so and off and on. In addition to that, I remember when I was young, he sat me on his lap and he told me said when I was young, you know, I like to kill people, you know, like I like this, you know, grandfather, you know, grandson, uh, bonding time. Uh, apart from that, the guy was brilliant. His mind was like insane, you know, he, you know, smart man. He was very, very smart person. I find that with a lot of guys in the streets also too. Um, you can have guys that are very, very brilliant. Not all the time, but I'm saying you find guys that, especially in that Chicago area, as crazy as it is. I mean, the younger generation is definitely lacking in education right now, but there's a certain that street smarts, there's something to it because my grandfather was a very, very wise individual. Anyway, he ends up back in prison. And then after that, the there's no So, one second. Let's go back to the You're praying five times a day at 9 years old. Yeah. You're continuing with this life for how long? until my grandfather went back to prison, which is about about a year year and a half later. Yeah. Okay. And then and then after he goes to prison, I went on back to the regular life that I was growing up. That's when I was getting in trouble. Started running with gangs and smoking weed and running with all the wrong guys. Um and then at 13, simultaneous while all this is happening, my father already, you know, my my biological father already had went to prison. in prison. He went to seminary school, became a Christian, you know, got his masters, got out, changed his life completely. And so by the time I'm 13, he was already a minister in and in and you know, teaching and Bible colleges and different things. And so I had a conversation with him because at 13 also, I started to have this revival of like wanting to like wanting to become more religious. So um what was pushing you? I have no idea where it came from. I I I absolutely have no idea. There was nothing around me. I felt distant and close at the same time. It's very hard to explain. I always I've been thinking about this lately. My grandfather sent me when he was in prison, he sent me a a disc uh like a DVD, you know, back before streaming, you know, back in, right? Sometimes when I'm out speaking, I you know, have to translate, you know, what a CD is what this is. Um but anyway, he sent me this DVD because he was in prison. He couldn't send me anything inherently like Muslim is it was a Christian organization that was handling a lot of the uh the you know helping the the prisoners be able to send you know gifts and different things like that to family. So the DVD he sent me was called was the prayer of yabates. There was a whole documentary on the prayer of yabates which is actually in Tanakh and from Dra Hayyamin beautiful prayer of this person who was constricted and and you know very very powerful prayer but I remember seeing that back then I'd already started praying back then before my grandfather came home I started trying to pray because I saw this so for whatever reason from that time on I was really really I I guess to some degree reconnected with a certain consciousness I was spiritual I I prayed um off and on I hadn't become a prayer yet 13 comes and I'm like I don't know why something everything was in the air that was I was I turned 13 year 2000 so everybody's talking about the end of the world right you know that was a spiritual time like most people don't really realize at that time of that year it's like what's going to happen all the electricity is going to shut off we don't know what's going to happen to the power bug out everybody was bugging out so I think it was probably something in the air when I think about it but on a deeper level that's when a person becomes a man also that's a bar mitzvah Right. And one of the ideas we have and we understand from Judaism is that you know a geisha a person was always always a Jew. When I think of a lab teaching that person was always had a Jewish nishama. So trying to find its way back to its place. So could be I was 13 when this happened. That's when I started really having this yearning. So the first thing I did was I went to an uncle of mine. My uncle was a was a Muslim. Uh he's also no longer alive but uh I went to him. But what? One second. I'm sorry for just I'm getting used to Judaism, but I'm trying to understand who's the first Jewish person you met. So I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood, so I saw Jews all the time. A lot. Oh, you were been around the block over there. I've been around the block. I didn't talk too much in the neighborhood. They used to call the police on us. My house was loud. You know what I mean? It's called police centers. We knew where it was coming from. I mean, cuz it I'm from I'm from Seattle. the zip code I grew I don't know what it is like today but when I grew up in most of the years that I was there 98118 was the most diverse zip code in all the United States it actually was so everybody was there you had the Jews all the Hispanics you had the blacks you had everybody was in this Rainer Valley area so specifically in Sewer Park where the largest uh uh population of Orthodox Jews are you have like literally right down the street two blocks down the street like where the black neighborhood is black area of the neighborhood. So I I technically grew up in the air roof with inside. Yeah. So I used to walk through a shul every day to get to elementary school. I used to ride my back the the synagogue. I was I was maggy and I became Jewish and I used to ride my bike behind there all the time as a little kid, you know. Wow. So it's very interesting how everything how everything works. So I from Jews like from No, there was no kidum in Seattle. Not by the time I came back to convert I met my rebi and he was but he was the only one there and he wasn't from Seattle. Okay. But apart from that no apart from you know yeah kabad outside but not particularly in this neighborhood. No. Okay. It was a large safari community and a large uh Ashkanazi shul that was had been there. The community was over there for more than 100 years already. So um but it was there was a collo there was you know is what it was. You know I always make the joke I always seen Jews in black but I never seen black ones. So, but I used to see him all the time going up to Shul and we really I never had so much interaction with those who were so religious. I did have a couple of friends who were not religious at all. They're also Jewish who lived in the neighborhood. Huh. Problematic ones. I guess so. I guess so. Now I can see now as a Jew I was saying they were problematic back then. They were just my friends, you know. So I didn't have so much of a relationship. So anyway, let me get you there. 13 past that. Fast forward. I end up going to a Christian organization for a hip-hop program. I was only going for the hip-hop program. Wasn't going for God. I was going for a hip-hop program. They just for music. And they introduced me to Christianity. Uh being there like I had known about Christianity. It's a part of the culture, black culture for sure, but I I hadn't been on that level. So once I went to camp with him, that became like, wow, my life dramatically changed at least in terms of religiosity because it wasn't like my grandfather, you know, introducing me to something. and I I'm just using it as an excuse to hang out with my grandfather and get out of doing whatever my parents asked me to do. So, this became like the beginning of me trying to like find something new. Uh I became very very good friends with those people and they they saved my life at the point that I was cuz I was headed towards destruction utter destruction and being there was the stepping stone that was the beginning for me to start searching for spirituality even more. And the way that it worked was I went through high school. I was on the football team and I was by this time I was fairly good kid. That encounter lasted probably all the way up until around the end of my senior year of of being pretty much a very devout Christian. I met my wife when I was 16. So we've been together since we were 16 years old till today. Till today I'm I'm with my high school sweetheart. Thank God. Okay. And so special. It's very very special. So we by the time we were finishing high school, what happened was is already I had an offer from a major record label. My demos had made it already to the desk desk of an ANR. And so I'm having these conversations now at this point. You know, I'm a Christian. So I'm very uncomfortable because they want 50 Cent style music. You know, 50 was huge at the time, right? He was huge. And so the whole ind industry had sort of shifted to that. But one second, I'm sorry for knocking in. When did you start generally like uh thinking that I want to be a musician? Because you were doing a lot of other stuff. You were doing drugs, you were doing selling stuff and doing everything. So when is the age you felt that you want to be a star? You want to be a rapper? You want to be a I don't think there was ever a time in my life where I didn't think so. Even though when you did every all the [ __ ] you did? Yeah. Yep. Everything I was doing before from the time of 5 years old, everybody was like, "He's going to be a star." You had Yeah. Any camera, anything that was on, I was dancing. I had a mean moonwalk. I, you know, I had I had I'm talking about I was in love with music. I was in love with music. I'm telling you, until I was eight, you probably couldn't have convinced me that I was not Michael Jackson. I always tell people, thank God I was not hanging around Michael Jackson when I was 8 years old. But at least you couldn't have convinced me I wasn't. I used to sleep with a dirty white glove. I had my microphone. I had the moonwalk shoes. Okay. I had a cousin. She would put on the camera. I would go for hours. I any song that came on, I was singing it. So from that point on, by the time I was eight, they bought me my first beat machine. So that's when I started making beats at 8 years old. So I had my own and I met makeshift studio. I set up a karaoke machine. I hung the mic down from the vent so it could feel like I was in the studio. You know, I had my whole set. You had your vision. I had my vision already at that at that age. And then by the time I was 13, my parents hooked me up with Vitamin D, who was a who was a big producer at that time. He had already worked with Dr. Dre, with Buster Rhymes, and a lot of other people. He really took me in. And I recorded my first two professional songs at 13 years old already. So by the time I was 15, one of the by the time they actually started releasing the the songs, I got national press. There was a big hip-hop magazine called the Murder Dog magazine. It was vibe. It was up there with Source and Vibe and all that. And Murder Dog was specifically very very rap, but I had already started getting press inside of that magazine already, which was a national magazine. So at 15 years old. So I started very very early. My career started I say professionally at 13. And people started to get to know you at that age. Re Yeah, for sure. So we had a setup where looking back on it, it is crazy to me. I at 15 years old already. So I was I was with a you know record label, local record label. I ended up actually taking part ownership of it at that time. By the time I was 18, my my dad had stepped in and held a piece for me. Okay. Um but we had a we had our own night at a nightclub. And so already then like every I don't know if it was every Tuesday, every Wednesday night or something like that, we had our own nights to put on our own acts. So I used to already I was already rocking nightclubs that I could not go into at 15 years old. 15 16 because I was going in to perform, but I couldn't lose a liquor license. So they have to I have to go in with security and then after I was done, they walked me walked me back out or whatever. And I used to you started making money already. I started making money already from music. Yeah. Off of music. I was already making money already. I think maybe around 17, 18 is when I started getting paid for shows. They were like scrappy. But when I was 19, that's when that's when it really started happening. That's when I really started hustling. I released my first actual like studio album and we did it gorilla style like in terms of marketing. We're selling everything out of the trunk and whatever. That's when I really saw, okay, I can make some money with music. So, I got paid a little bit more for shows. started putting on our own shows, actually taking venues, uh, and and and putting on shows. So, that was really when we started making some money, you know. I I don't think it's compared to what I make today doing. So, now I'm trying to understand, you're 19 years old, you're starting to perform, making money, everything. Life is good. Basically, what is still missing that you at some point soon, you're going to want to start a new life? What prompted that record and what really actually spread up that album was I lost my mother. So, my mother died of overdose uh that same year. I was 19. So my mother I was very close to and and at that time like I you know I've been with my wife since I was 16. So she sort of like I think a shim to today that I had my wife because she like really stepped in and into whatever I could say filled that void of me of me losing my mother. But losing my mother that gave me such motivation cuz I just wanted to win for her. I wanted to win for my mother. She she believed in me. She was the one that gave me all of the encouragement, you know, her and my dad together with all of the mess and the crap and the dysfunction and everything else that I grew up seeing and the street life and the whatever. My parents believed in me. They they believed in me. I never grew up not feeling like I couldn't believe in you're going to become something, right? I always felt like I was going to become something. My my distant family, cousins, and different things like that, everybody always felt by me that something the boy's going to take off somehow someway. So, I never felt this thing like I shouldn't believe in myself. I wasn't a ball guy to the degree where I was overly confident, but I just, you know, I just never felt like I wasn't going to do something. But after losing my mother, I was like, for her, I want to win. So, I went all in on this album. I was dealing with the record labels at that point, but they had all pulled out on me. That was Dame Dash Music Group. This is right after Jay-Z and Dame Dash had split. And, uh, I spent a lot of time with um, uh, rest in peace, uh, Clark Kent. Clark Kent discovered both Jay-Z and Biggie Smalls. So, he was the one that was after me uh big time at that time. And and uh he was it was it was like surreal to be in all these places with all these people, right? And and you feel on top of the world. I felt on top of the world to some degree. It's like something's about to happen, you know? I know he's not popular now. Puff had just reached out to us, him and Fox. They wanted me to play the biggie role. I was I was supposed to play the biggie role. I auditioned for it. that I didn't go after, but Fox and Bad Boy, they reached out to me to play the part. Um, they ended up going to somebody else. But I knew that with all these different things clicking at this at at this right now, all these something's going to happen. I lost my mother. I'm super motivated. I put out this album and still I got this major fire in me to like just serve God. I just wanted to be I wanted to be close to him. and addition to music. Meaning you can do music, you can rap, you can I didn't to be honest with you, I didn't know how it was going to go. Like I I I guess at whatever encounter I had at that camp when I was 13, 14 years old and and coming in and I know now today whatever it's it's a different religion. I always tell people like that. I may have converted religions but I I never converted gods. You understand what I'm saying? It's the same Hashim who from the beginning I I always knew, but ultimately what I've been able to do with Hashim's help was to take off garments to reveal him even more as I've been going. And so I never felt as if I've changed gods. I've only changed religion, my expression towards how I'm coming closer to him. Right? So at 19 I was I maybe I think it was very much so after my mother died I I really started getting this very spiritual urge like we'd be in the studio and it' be me and all my guys and I'm talking about I'm with I'm with I'm with some guys the goons you know what I'm saying and I'll just break out and start talking something and lead to something and then we just start having some crazy spiritual discussion and they'll be looking like studio in the studio and they be like n like black I own by black and it's like man Black, you're messing up my high, man. You messing up my high. We're trying to focus here. What are you doing? You know, right? So, shortly after I get into, as I'm having some success, uh there's another rapper who uh makes a song about me and a he made a diss track. He made a diss track. And so, I remember sitting in the studio, somebody brought it in. I was listening to it. So immediately, you know, my pride was touched. I get the pen and pad. I'm ready to, you know, write something back. and my my boy comes in and he's just like, if we go and beat him up, you know, he won't make any more songs. So, right, we end up going with his plan. And so, we end up finding this guy at this nightclub and we get into this brawl outside the nightclub. Long story short, my friend goes up there after me. I'd already I had already left and he tried to kill him. So, he's chasing this guy. He's shooting shooting up the car. You know, it's like they're on the on the road. this guy when they is she shooting up everything and and he didn't he didn't get the guy but at the top of the hill by the time he runs out the police is already they already making their way there that turns into a high-speed chase so by the time I hear of everything that's going on I'm walking out of the door and they already have and the police have him you know at least at the time when I was walking out I thought they were coming for me because somebody had told me that so by the time I come out they already had him he was in custody it was a ma major commotion by the time he was coming to meet me and Uh, and afterwards I'm in a major dilemma because now these guys think that I just sent somebody to kill them. And if they don't come and get me, then I'm going to, you know, not they're not going to call the police. You know, that's not the way the streets work. And so now if I don't kill them, then they're going to come and kill me. So I remember going back to my apartment and I I I don't know if I ever became more religious in my life. I started praying. I started praying and I started crying. Some Wow. and I fell to my knees. And that was the beginning of really what started the the Jewish journey because we talked afterwards, me and the guy. That was a miracle in itself cuz nobody ever calls you to check and see if you're trying to kill them or not. That's not where we come from. So, we talked it out. And after that, I said to myself, I'm never going back. I'm not going back to that. There's just no way I'm going back to that. All of this was from really trying to repret to be like I was before. You know, by that time, I'd already been a Christian, devout Christian, leading Bible study groups. I was already involved in building orphanages in and you know, in Mexico, and I was I was in ministry work, honestly, as a as a youth, but I was I was a ministry worker. So, in a blink of an eye, I'm like more deep into the streets than what I ever been before. And I wasn't even It wasn't planned. It wasn't intention. I was just pretending to get the record deal, really. Were you afraid on your life? Of course, I was afraid for my life. I was very afraid for my life. I remember walking back and forth during that time period of just checking the window. Everybody knew where I lived. I lived still in the hood. I wasn't at home anymore, but I was still in a very hood apartment complex where people, you know, knew what people knew what was what. You know what I mean? They had already been that that was a year where everything was heating up, too. It was heating up. That was 2007 or so. So, it was heating up. By 2008, the the whole whole city went crazy. The streets, everything went crazy. The economy busted. Yeah. Okay. So now I'm I'm walking back and forth. I'm pacing. We finally this guy talks to me. We we talk on the phone. We put everything behind us. And so now there's nobody there. It's me and this God. So now I'm grateful. I'm thankful that I have my life and that I know that I've squashed this situation. Now at this point I'm giving my life to God. What that looks like, I have no idea. I had no idea at that point. You knew something is changing right now. I knew something is changing right now. I felt it was a very spiritual time and moment and so I devoted myself to praying literally I was walking back and forth that's what I did all day long and so after some time I decide to pick up my Bible again start reading the Bible and in addition to that I start to think like you know when I was in the Bible study group I had a lot of questions you know so I'm going to start asking some of my questions so I ended up on Google like we all do when we have questions right and uh which led me to YouTube which led me to a movie called Zeitgeist Refuted and Zeitgeist Refuted was making supposedly was supposed to be refuting a lot of the uh claims that a movie Zeitgeist was making towards uh primarily Christianity. I will say that even as even as a religious Jew and as much as I love Hashem and as much as we've been hated around the world when it comes to like Kofraim and atheist that Christianity gets it the worst there always there's always some new it's because maybe because it's the biggest religion so they always people taking stabs at them. So they were it was a this movie Zeitgeist refuted was was trying to defend all these claims but it was agreeing with all of them. So I couldn't believe it. Like what are you agreeing with the movie that you're supposed to be refuting? At the end they said that yes of course Christmas, Easter, all these things Jesus never celebrated because he was Jewish. He kept Passover. He kept you know he kept uh sukkot and and then after that that made me start going like hold on. I read the Bible how many times? I never paid attention to any of these things. And there's a difference with taking the Bible and interpreting it the way people are telling you to interpret it and how to read things and actually looking for what God actually said. So that prompted me to reread the Bible like literally from cover to cover. I remember after it was you know I'm I'm I'm making this short just to you know so we could go for four we could go for four or five interesting life story so far. What happens is I start ordering books and and more books and I got I don't know how confused. Yeah, I was oh very confused. You you got to be very confused. By the time I went to sleep every night, my head was a chillman. I was sitting eight hours a day busy with this eight hours a day. I was going through all these different texts, Quran, few different versions of the Christian Bible. I had a a Tanakh JPS Tanakh and a like going between all these different texts. Rabbi Google in front of me and I'm really, you know, I was really going at it. But at some point, I remember taking Tanakh, the the Hebrew Bible, whatever, and putting it on the table as if God was on the other side. I was so at this point confused, but I at least had made up in my mind that it starts here because every all the other religions started here. So, I know that at least it starts here with this book, with the Hebrew Bible. So, at least this is where I'm going to start. So, I remember putting it on the table and pushing it as if God was on the other side. And I said, "I'm going to read this book again from cover to cover, but I'm only looking for your character. I want to know what you love. I want to know what you hate. I want to know what you reward, what you put. I just want to know you. That's all I wanted." And I would do that. In addition to that, I started fasting. I would go three days in a row, no food. Like three days in a row because as I'm reading, this is how everybody else got close to God inside of the book. King David was fasting is that Ezra was fasting. I tried following what I'm seeing inside the book. This is this is the way that the people of piety did and they were trying to get closer to God. So I thought by fasting I would come to more clarity and I was praying. So for hours at a time I take two three hours in a I was crying out to God till my eyes were bloodshot red only wanting to find the truth. Now the what this did for me was it made me spiritually sensitive. I was completely like like I was in I I was getting hugs from Hashem all day long with this. I I I felt him. I knew he was there. It was so clear and conversations between people were no longer regular conversations. I was able to hear out what Hashem was trying to tell me from it was it's a very spooky experience to have. But once a person is negating himself away from the world so much in order to increase the spirituality, you you get heightened spiritual antennas. So what was interesting was about Judaism in particular, you know, I started to notice I started to notice something very interesting. I was very um I guess obsessed with the prophets, right? Because that's what most people do. The overwhelming majority I would say of converts to at least to Orthodox Judaism were evangelical Christians before, right? Okay. What usually gets them and also gets them is prophecy. because this is the the proof is in the pudding, right? And what I started to notice was that the whole entire uh uh prophecies, all the prophecies and all the books of prophecy and what's going to be in the end, all revolved around the Jewish people, right? So, you'll hear a lot of, you know, um, you know, theologians and Christian theologians and people that are esquetologists, people that study the end times will always tell you the prophetic clock is Israel. Keep watching Israel. And it's it's very interesting how as Jews we don't even pay attention to this. So yeah, I think this is the biggest problem why we suffer with pashes today. Not without without learning Tanakh. It's nearly impossible to understand how to really have a relationship with Hashem. If you're not watching how David Melik was with Hashem or how Eli Yahu Anavi was with Hashem, how Shulavi was with Hashem, and you don't know and understand the dynamic relationship, you're not learning it for Lumbus and looking for everything. watch read the pashhat and see how they were beloved in the eyes of Hashem and what how they yearned for Hashem and how they I think you know I'm going off on a tangent but quite honestly because I had that and I was able to look and see that Hashem is saying everything revolves around the Jewish people and everybody everybody's mim to it the Muslims are mas to it and the hadith the Christians are so I'm guessing Jewish is my place that I want to wow right so For me, it became clear and I came to a very simple conclusion. Either the God of the Torah, the God of the Jews is true or there is no God. There's only one. Wow. That's the only way it could be. And the reason why is because the the proof was in the pudding. When I started to see Jewish suffering, that's what what woke me up in terms of of of seeing, and this is what I mean by that, because some people think I'm crazy, is that the same Hashem told you that if you fail token on to me and to listen to my command, I will drive you out from the land. I'm going to make you small in number. I'll cause the land to become barren, right? And without inhabitant. I will I will uh cause the host nations of where you go to to to hate you in those nations. Right? I mean we could keep going and it doesn't take a person much work or effort to be able to see that these things actually happen to the Jewish people. Right. Very you don't you don't need a religious know where everybody knows all these things happen. Right. Right. They happen. But that's not the ticker. Hashem says that the Jewish people are also going to return to this land. And the sign the siman of it is there's plenty of them is that not only the the streets of Jerusalem will be inhabited again and people will be walking and and going about to and fro but the planters once you start to see vegetation in there into Israel as the proof and the pudding it's this is exactly what it says then the land will give forth its fruit there'll be a person to teal the ground says you know in the book of Ezekiel. seeing this, how could God not be true? This is happening. It's it's like one of those things where you say like, "Okay, a lot of things you can make up." But I mean, that's a 2000 something year promise to make it happen and it's uh it's to the script. You understand? It's to the Look, listen. Now, let's start with some juicy questions. Okay. So, now you converted to to being Jewish. That's fine. I understand every your story. Okay. Now why did you decide from you know from converting toidic Jewish that you could have become a modern it's easier not so closed up why did you go from kiti how do you say that so this is this is a very good question why did I I'm always wondering it's not easy it's not everybody not everybody says this but I'm going to tell you this why I want and you'll understand probably why if I tell you this I just explained to you and I I don't know how many minutes of how and why I came to Judaism. It was very Hashim focused the whole entire way through. There was nothing about like, you know, if I go over there, I'll get a education for my kids or I'll, you know, be good food. Oh my goodness, Jews eat chol. I want to go there. Like, there was nothing. Different questions. The filter fish questions are coming. Howidish are you? Right. Right. Okay. So, so, so none of those things actually drove me to Judaism. Right. It was only Hashem. So I tell people this all the time when I'm asked by a reformed person or or conservative or whatever reconstru people that ask me religious not religious whatever the case is why would you become why would you become bre why would you I wasidic so I know it's not easy for me at least it was let me tell you let me tell you this I went wherever Hashim was most popular that's where I stood wherever they talked about Hashim the most that's where I went so that's how that's how I became it wasn't just I became a breast lover Have a closer. [Applause] We're going to talk about breast about everything because I I specifically became a breast of but don't wear beckages and hats and talking about all of breast love people go with beckages. That's how I know you're really now from the mccor because you cuz he has so much tiny on breast love. You don't know that. No, I don't. I actually love not talking about you. I was an oman 10 times but but maybe to say you you dress like uh I can't say satn because satn don't wear ho like this kind of hat but but I mean breast of community my community most people go like cats like this. Yeah, for sure. And p for sure and pis. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Like normal. Yeah. I mean the robe of the wrestler that around my Yiddishes are there. I got a Yiddish. It's not good. You know some words. I know some words. Yeah. And I understand like if I'm if I'm listening to a Especially if the guy's especially if it's an American person speaking Yiddish because he use enough English words in between or whatever, you know. So I can't so I could pick it up. Is your house a jah meaning to say on a shabas meal you eat your filter fish? Uh so listen let me tell you this first I'm going to show you I'm I'mma tell you I'm going to tell you this. So first off what a lot of people don't know because I get this question and maybe by this spell it some people share it. So first you should know before I got into this I'm safari first I'm safari makur I still keep safari minagim the way that we were I was by ravish shashiva. So um I remember the post of the I had this question. I said what do we do? We're safarin but we're also so we hold really unfortunately because I hold like but we hold the opposite of he said the yeshiva he says kakami says that if you have a steer between a safhari minhag and and and one of the menhagim that we have of breast he says he says you have to take your your your safari minhag over your shin minhag. said we why does it's not not for here but but he said we hold the opposite so wherever there's a conflict we go with the minhag over the over the safari min so not in everything but you know there's nuances there's a lot of questions I had to ask along the way but so because of that and on top of that I have another big elephant in the room I'm I'm black too so we're not going to start acting like food certain foods uh things we're just going to put on the table and everybody's going to be okay with it doesn't work it doesn't work that way I will eat gapilta fish at somebody else's house. I'm a fan. Any type of fish. I'm a fish guy. I'll eat fish first. However, I just this it just doesn't make it to my table. Not when I not when I could have salmon, first off. I'm from Seattle. I got a lot of issues. I'm from Seattle. I want fish. I want real fish. I also like that. You know, so I'm a salmon guy. I would never I will never opt out for Gila fish when I can have salmon. Wow. I'm just not going to do it. Okay. So, you're breastive. Yes. Um give me a little bit how you got closer and closer to breast that you started going to Oman, right? You go every year, right? Right. Right. I go to Oman every year. And in the last few years with the war, I'm still there. You're still there? I'm still there. Listen, either I'm going to get sirens. I'm going to get sirens here and pitch him or get him over there. We also want to get to this topic later. We're going to go how you got to Israel, but let's continue first on your journey. So, you're getting closer to breast. You're becoming and you're moving states. You're going somewhere or what's your deal? You're staying there. Seattle. I was in Seattle the whole time. Okay. So the aggressive only really became because not only but really became uh my my path because I was going at one speed my wife was going at a different speed. This is right when we were already on the brink of conversion. Interesting. I want to hear about that. Yeah. So she wasn't moving as fast as I was. She was with it you know spiritually her heart and everything like that. But it's a lot you know when you you know I was the one on with the Google Rabbi Google more than her. Um, so I had to sort of figure out a way for us to start learning and and slow down and for us to come together, which is very hard when you're eager about something and you don't have the proper education uh to understand uh that God would want you to to slow down for the sake of your spouse or for your wife. Like you know a person's very on fire about something and they think it's a God thing. I mean look at it. We got you know the I say the unruly cousins across the way over here. They blow up stuff in the name of God. So you imagine a guy who gets passionate about something that God thinks they do that you sometimes will trample other people in front of you. So thank God I met a rabbi who gave me the book behal the garden of peace by shalom. So that's this is how he became a rebi. I got this book changed my yeah I'm a student. Yeah. So very nice guy. I personally know him too. Yeah. He's amazing. He's amazing. So I got that book changed my marriage and and still to today this day because of that book my wife is from me now. Really? Yeah for sure. Thousand%. She's listen you're very you're not you're not modern. Listen first of all I spoke to a lot of people that know you and they and nothing bad. You know I I respect everybody on how they are and whatever but you're not you're not like okayish. You're you're you're super religious. I don't know. You have smartphones or only certain hours. I'm not sure exactly where you're up to, but I know that you're not like I don't I I'm trying to understand how you're getting from from zero to 100 and to the extreme. It wasn't it was never zero, right? No, no, you had the connection. We spoke about the connection. I had a connection and it's different. Like I I'll tell you when I lived in Man, I lived in Man for two years, right? So you're telling me you're not extreme? What's up? I'm not extreme. I'm not extreme. I'll tell you why. That's why I hated the hunot. I hated the hako. I was always uh Listen, I'm I'm my own person. And the problem was this is that I always told people I said listen I moved over there. I never like moved because I wanted to be a part of like the community like where you know what I'm saying. I just wanted to be in a place where I can raise my kids without all theum that you know what I'm saying that I grew up and yes the extreme idea is to move in such a way and it's and part of it's my issue part of it's somewhat of an American issue also too but where you can where you can move as far away from what it was that you knew. You understand what I mean? To sort of re-educate the children and give them something brand new. And ultimately, I'm very happy for those years. They were challenging because it was very tough for my kids to get along over there. That was very, very tough for us. But apart from that, we grew a lot. We learned a lot. Me and my wife learned a lot from the neighbors. And there was the that was going on there. Even behind the scenes, like most people highlight just the racism and everything else that my kids mostly went through. To be honest, like I didn't get a lot of it. So, some of it is the celebrity work. Like, can you imagine walking into shops at Man Shim and I'm hearing like my songs on the, you know what I'm saying? And these guys got Zebra. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So, being in that, you think you got a courtesy of being a celebrity, so they gave you less. So, I got I think I got less cuz I've talked to other people who also the same and they don't get the exact same. It's not because people are It's like this inherent racism. We got some of that also, but it wasn't like from that place. It was I think they don't know much to be honest. They just don't understand how it works. How does a black person Jewish, they don't know. And and it wasn't just like the fame in itself. It's the fact that once a person's already wellknown, people already feel like they know you, right? So whatever barrier of interest I know you by the way. I never met you in my life. And I by the way guys, I want to I want to thank Niss for coming down because it was a headache. It was very hard. I'm trying I'm I'm already in Israel now. I'm five weeks. I'm trying to reach him since day one that I'm here because I know a lot of people of you asked me to bring him up, but it was a hard one. But thank you for coming down. We appreciate it. I really appreciate it. Of course. So, how is music continuing in your life while you're doing the transition and you're becoming Jewish? What's up with your music? The cursing words are getting out of the dictionary. What's going on? No. So, honestly, I haven't said a curse word since 2008. So from the moment that I after I got out of that beef with the guy and I I was doing the praying and every day I was praying and talking to Hashem and everything um that encounter all that fasting the praying whatever that changed me. That's why I always talk about like when a person has that real Hashem encounter God it it changes you. So I wasn't able to say a curse word after 2008 anymore because my life had been dramatically changed. How do you able to think you're going to continue being a pop star? That's a very good question though actually though. I like the question because you should know I retired after Okay. So what happened was I I actually did leave music. Um by the time I started my care was 2009. So that was supposedly technically my last album. I finished up one album that they ended up releasing with my brother-in-law the black is brown. We finished that. That came out 2010. And technically by 2009 that was my last official album. And and I had already told my business partner I said I'm done. I don't want to record or make music anymore. Um, I was just on fire for Hashem and everything that I was learning at that point about uh humility and Anava and Kas Hashem, coming close to him. There was no way for me to like combine it. Yeah. Combine those things that the rap is arrogant. It's flamboyant. It's this, you know, I always tell people at minimum a guy who's even a clean rapper usually will still at least tell you how he's the best on the mic and like that's that's called clean rap, right? Right? So I couldn't figure out a way to make those two worlds work. And I felt very pulled and compelled by God. And and I said this even at the time I said that if this is real like I I needed to do it for myself. I needed to give up rap. People understand when you I love music. Like rap was my that was my life. I woke up thinking about a dream. I used to spend I used to pull allnighters in the studio and like I was so devoted to it. Like it it took over my life. So, I needed to be able to slay it. I needed to be able to sacrifice it. And I said, "Either it'll be a corban, a real corban, a real sacrifice, or it'll be a yitzah. Hashimma give it back to me when it's the time." And and I and I understood that. And that's really what happened. I I left thinking, I'm done. I need to, you know, I got into property management. That's when everybody tells me, "No, I was in I was in Seattle." Still in Seattle. Yeah. Yeah. I got in property management. And then I always say this when people usually say, "N, you always been Jewish." you know, so I I got in property management and that sort of was like my my way out and you know, people were still pulling me, but I I I was done. I was done. Fast forwarding some years, I've already like been through now I'm at my conversion process. I'm nearly at the end of the conversion process also. So up right around that time, Modis comes out. If it wasn't public, I wouldn't talk about it. And that's not to throw shade on on Modest. I met him around that time also, too. And uh and and looked up to him a lot. Yeah. Matusahu. Um so he was having his differences you know with Yiddish at that time. same year Shine had also had his differences with Yiddish at that time and sort of left and went to Bise like this is all 2013 201 you know 14 area and then also I think it was so just a year like a year and a half or so before that you know why love who was also like a black rapper from the hoodie comes out as like you know homosexual like like so I'm watching this and I'm just like there's no way to make that work it'll never work you know what I'm you'll never stay on the same religious level and still be able to be in that life. Even when I I was backstage one time talking with Modis and and he scared me. He don't know to this day. I mean, I've talked to him since then, man. He don't know. He scared the living daylights out of me cuz I by that time I was already starting to make my way back to music a little bit or feeling whatever. And and and I was like I was like, "Man, how you make it work? Everything, you know, with Shabas or whatever." And I didn't know where he was holding on yet. He was like, "Ah, you want to make it work with Shabas?" He was just like, you know, I was like, I said, man, he like, you know, destroyed me, you know, for a second. Uh, made me even more scared. But what happened was I was uh I was I was late when me and my wife had noticed over some time that my son was not feeling well. He was sick with menitis. We didn't know. He just had a fever. He was a baby. It was only like four months or something like that. But we kept going back and forth to the hospitals. Finally, my wife through her own research, and you should always always listen to the mothers, right? Okay. Um she ended up finding that he the problem was he actually had menitis. She made them do this the spinal tap. They found it and as elated we was that was very serious thing especially with a baby that young it can have permanent damage. If not it could be you know um it could take someone's life. So she was in the hospital with him for about two weeks. But I remember that first night that she went in. I had to take because I had uh my daughter. Um I remember going back home and I started praying like and and that was, you know, like I said, I was really into Rab Rabbi Arouch's uh books. So he had always talked about if you want to see a big Yeshua, you should pray to Hashem for six hours straight. And I and I needed it at that point. So I prayed to Hashem for six hours straight. And in that moment, I don't know, near the end somewhere, I hit this place of a very deep meditation. And it made me remember a dream when I was younger. I was about 17 years old when I had that dream. And and I was a musician at that time. I remember I was a musician. I was either doing some interviews, some podcast or something. I don't know if it was this podcast, whatever the case was. I remember people watching in Time Square, but I was talking about a shim. I used my power of influence to talk about Hashim in this and the presence of Hashem, whatever that was, was so uh heavy on me in that in that dream. I remember waking up, I'm 17, I was crying at the edge of my bed because I felt like like I just had like a you know major encounter. You know, I'm spiritually sensitive at least sometimes. Okay. And so what happened is that dream came back to me along with all the conversations I was having that time. My wife was trying to force me to go back to music. Uh my brother-in-law who was my my best friend who also my producer was trying to get me to go back and I'm like there's no way I'm going back. There's no way that these two things are going to work. Didn't it bother you at that time that your fame is going down? Probably because you're not doing music. No, I didn't care about the fame anymore. Didn't care. Connected to Hashem period. I'm going to tell you, listen, my last album that I released the f the video this is before YouTube started really like blowing up. So the main single off that album ended up hitting a rotation. And I think BET premiered it and then it hit up it hit MTV and it got in regular rotation on college radio already. I was beating out Jay-Z most deaf. They had closed the festival in New York. They used to do the college music journal. They closed it. They had to open it back up because I was charting so high they had to give me stage right. So when I get there and I'm with you know at that time I was really into uh I was into little brother you know you know big poo big poo fonte everybody and ninth wonder and I was into you know feral munch a lot of these guys that were up and coming like a lot of my favorite rappers really from that time I was there with all of them met them they were introducing themselves to me I was introducing myself to them you know whatever the case is I didn't have to introduce myself that was the thing the moment I didn't realize I I realized that I'm here with people that I loved I listened to I grew up listening to these guys and they're introducing themselves to me they know who I was. That's crazy, right? And in that in that moment of realizing that at that point I was so much more on fire for a shame. It didn't matter to me. I realized that I got somewhere like I realized that for me, okay, I really am over this. So fast forwarding back to this moment, I'm standing there. I had all these things in my head and I remember at that time I said I closed my eyes. I said, "Hashem, if this is what you want me to do," I was talking about music. Going back to music, I said, "Then I need a clear sign. I need something that I'm, you know, like, make it clear to me that this is what I need to do." I had a road, we have a road in front of us. I had a road NT2, I think, microphone. Looked just like a U87. Uh, you know, I think they got sued for looking, but it it looked like a U87. Microphone was dead. It didn't work already for some time now. And I remember going to my closet after this. I I that was my tonight. I said to God, I said, "If you make the microphone work, then I'll know that this is this is this is you." It was down collecting dust in my closet. I plugged it up and it worked. Wow. Worked. I'm talking about this microphone. You ask my brother-in-law, you plug it, it didn't work or whatever. I just whatever. I didn't want to throw it away. You know, I'm I'm still today. I don't like the way I throw away my my MacBook uh cover. They It was so nice. They made the bag so nice and I like marketing. So, whatever. if it's it's really nice, I hold on to things. So, I plug this thing up and it ends up working. So, now I go back to my Rebi, Rabbi Schmubro, and I went to Laser Brody also to I talked to him both of them separately and got encouragement like heavily heavy encouragement to do it and to do it to go back and the whole time I tiptoed. I was so scared. I was so scared of like losing myself. I didn't even want to promote myself because I was afraid. You became right. Yeah. Yeah. But you're continuing with the big chains and stuff which I love personally. Niss I love your music and I listen to your music and and it's it's amazing. But how does it work together doing the chains and everything that That's a good question. The truth is first off that came years later. So the first I need the editor to put for do me a favor 15 seconds put up this I don't know I I forgot. Motherland bounce. Motherland bounce. Yeah that's what you know. Motherland bounce rerun. Yeah. Good stuff. Put it up just for the viewers to have a good time for a minute. Okay. Uh, okay. So, how does it work together? The the truth is they don't go together, right? So, if you if you if you follow my career, my first real Jewish song was uh was Hashim with God Albbas, right? So, that was the one that like broke the mold like that blew up. It went number three on the world charts and and you know, there were non-Jews listening to it. the song went viral and so I I didn't even know Jews was listening to music. Like I wasn't even you know I wasn't even aware that there was a Jewish market. I didn't know what God Elbas was really like I knew him but I didn't know I listened to his music for years but you know in my in my head he's he's just Jew I didn't know there was some type of stardom to that or whatever. His Elbas family generally are talented. I know Benyaman his son also a good writer. He does he's also singing also but very talented people. Yeah I've known Benyama since he was a little squirt you know. He's a good guy. Uh, um, back to this. So, you're saying it it doesn't work together, but it didn't it didn't and it and I still don't think I'll tell you what happened. Are you still doing it? So, fast forward to my career. Of course, I'm still making music. I'm not doing the chains. Not the chains. The chains. I'm not doing Oh, the chains is done. I'm not No, I had to explain to you what happened. And this is good for your viewership. Everybody should know what happened when Mother Land bounced because I got slaughtered for this, right? You loved it. There were plenty of people who loved it. I love it, including myself. I tell you what happened. So, so fast forward. If you follow my career from Hashim, everything's very panmi. Million years, fly away. All the music is very panmi. So, I'm building up an audience. Even in the yeshiva world where people are listening to the music and and there was some barriers being broken that I trust me all this time. I never all afterwards I'm learning all of this. I had no idea. I was saying to myself the whole entire time, I'm being obedient. Hashem wants me to make music. I'm I'm going with it and I'm I'm going to and as time went I I saw more and more of an opportunity to spread Hashim's name. Spread his light. Spread his light. All the while this is happening over the years. It's happening after I'm having success with my album Lala, right? There was no chains, no nothing like that on that album. Everybody's telling me like, "Listen, man. You could go even bigger. You could reach and speak to the older audience. What about where you came from? What about what anything else?" I I had zero interest. Zero interest. Even rabbis were telling me this, you know, big big rabbis that you, you know, you have a co-op, you can for the for the world. So, and and it could have been my interpretation of what that is. Maybe that could have just been going leveling up on the marketing, saying less Hebrew words or whatever the case was. But I interpret that the whole way was is like digging back into my old self so much more even to where it became very uncomfortable. So, I I released the Lamala album. I think my second album um was my Gibbor album which I was a little bit more um trying to tiptoe. Everything by me was a tiptoe because I'm always like, you know, it's like King David. If you if you look at David Melik, the way that he went out to fight wars, he always had to go first and check. Hashim, are you with me? There go. Yeah, get a confirmation. Hashimma, are you still with me? And so, you know, at some point I stopped feeling that confirmation. So, in between that album and the next, uh, I signed with a record label that was supposed to, at that time, they were coming with the Sony distribution. Sony had uh uh had collapsed its uh red record label in uh to Orchard and Orchard now had this distribution marketing slashman that all came from the Sony uh Red Company. And so I remember I I signed a deal with them with that intention, but it's somehow, you know, from what I understand that Sony wasn't so interested in everybody that was on the roster, not myself, but other people. And so there was this contention of whether or not Sony was going to take on the projects that they were sending, whatever the case was. So now I'm in the deal, but I need to release music. I had that Gore album. I I released that and now I'm starting to work on this newer music and now I've had all these different confirmations. Everybody told me I'm supposed to, you know, go out, be Makazak, and get the world. Don't speak to the You're bigger than that. You can go and get everybody. That's how people do. And this is why I say it's always very important because you have to listen to the inner voice. You have to listen to Hashim's voice. And the reason why is not because the song Motherland Balance wasn't a success. It just I wasn't comfortable. You understand what I'm saying? Like I wasn't comfortable. It took me to a place back to where I just wasn't comfortable. Which part you going? I tell you what what wasn't. So first off, making the record anyway. I have it in my I'm dancing. And I know me. I'm saying this just so people should know the story. Hashim, help me. I'm not throwing shade on anybody. I'm not trying to talk at this time. My manager at this time was a guy by the name of Limoji, right? Zakaria. Um, he's also Jewish rapper now. Um, so he was really managing me at that time. And I, you know, already I was already, you know, going in trying to make more, I guess I would say at that time, modern music and get myself comfortable with it, right? And and I'm doing that all the while. I'm not really listening to the music because I still won't listen to the music. So the closest I could get to was like I have to listen to like contemporary Christian artists who are making the same things or my brother-in-law was listening to the producers cuz he wouldn't listen to the music. So he listened to producers and tried to mimic, you know, the sound and we're really trying to like, you know, understand what's culturally going on in music at the same time. Z at that time, he was a little bit more connected to that. So at one point we were riding coming up from LA or something like that and the motherland bounce beat came on my brother-in-law's his beat tape. So my brother-in-law made it. It was a very holy Jew. He made the he made the track and Bubba and then so we start freestyling start freestyling in the car black and the shopping with his Sammy Davis cousin, you know, and that that was like and it got stuck in his head, you know, and and so every once in a while Zim hit me and be like, "Bro, we got to finish that song." the Blackie Yiddish, you know, he never forgot that line. So, I was in the studio one day recording a different song and then he and he comes in, he like stopped like, "No, bro. We got to do the, you know, so we ended up doing that. I He put on the beat. I I wrote the song. I had him speed it up. It was a little bit slower. Had him speed it up and then so I start I started writing to it. I finished the song like in no time. I like just I wrote the song really quickly and and whatever. I didn't put a whole lot of thought into it. And I had some builtup stuff at that time because I was going through the fact where whenever I went into like New York or somewhere like that. I not only the Hebrew Israelites but black people sort of like start giving me shade like at the airports and like oh you became European like people were just saying like calling me out you know like checking through whatever. And then when how you handling it it was crazy to me because when I was coming back at that time I was trying to get my kids into school. Now, my kids weren't Jewish enough to get into the school and I'm not black enough, you know what I'm saying, to to go through the so I had this I went to Rafim Kenyki and when I went to Rafim to talk to him about the situation I was going through. You're talking about schools here in Israel. Yeah, schools here in Israel. Of course, we're going to have to get shortly how you got to Israel generally, what made you move. Okay. So, I end up going to Rafim. Long story short, uh he he said to me very beautiful words. He said to me, "Your color is your mileer. It's your virtue, not your not your lacking. And that's all I really put out. Afterwards, this thing goes viral on social media that I was even there by Rev Kim and he said these words to me. Manakamo calls me from the radio and it was completely like, you know, this was 2018. This is 2018. And he calls me and I'm thinking I just released a song King of the World. It's a beautiful song. Um, one of my favorites low key. And and Manakim's like, you know, Nissim like, you know, why did Rev say that? I thought he was calling to talk about the song. I didn't know whatever. They didn't give me like warning what he wanted to talk about. So, we start talking about the situation. I'm unconscious. I'm on the radio, but I'm not conscious yet that I'm really on the radio. And I start telling them what I'm going through with the kids, whatever. And he's flaming up on this call that you were you were talking about what you accepting your kids. They're not accepting my kids and different things like that. So you'll hear if if anybody ever heard the interview that like at the end I start pulling back. I start saying, "Oh, you got to be you want to you want to judge everybody favorably." You really felt like that or you just said it because No. No. You had I was in pain, but I never I never wanted nothing bad to happen to anybody or I never felt like uh let me go to the news. Let me I'm going to put this out there. Like I just didn't have that. Like I like I came to Yiddish because I was following Hashim here. So I'm not going to leave because the school wouldn't let my kid in. You understand what I'm saying? People are asking me like how could you be? I would be so upset. I would I would also be upset to be honest. But you you believe in your thing and you're not going to stop for some stupidity which is not cool at all. We we all thousand% wasn't cool. Thousand% wasn't right. It hurts. It's not fair and and it and it wasn't right at the at the you know retrospect understanding where people are coming from. people want to maintain the shmeir, right? So, I had to start thinking about like why was I going to those schools? Because I didn't want to send my kids to other schools. There were plenty of schools I could have got my kids into, right? But because there was a certain there was a certain shir that I wanted for my kids is that's why I went to those schools, right? And because they were trying to keep that shmeir that that protection, they didn't accept me either. You know what I'm saying? Even if it was like I went to one school I remember one time and and and the and the honal the person that was in charge or whatever the case is you know said ah you can't come there then his kids start teaching our kids all this other things or whatever first off mind you at this point I was still living in Ms never even seen my videos you understand what I'm talking about they never even seen any of my videos right they don't know who you are like me they know there people stopping me they knew music but there'll be other you know famous Jewish musicians that came over and they didn't know who they were because they never seen the clips. They didn't watch clips. So I remember going to one of these basakos. They grow upish now. Who? My kids. Yeah, they grow up. They grew up. Whatever the case is. Yeah. My boys I'm making my first bar mitzvah. We just got him a nice hatem. But uh so what's funny about it is is that I remember going to this. We forgot how you got here. I'm going to tell you about school. You're going to you're going to love this story. I'm going to tell you. So I end up going to this base Yakov where they told me they worried that my kids are going to influence all the other kids over there. I go there and all these girls coming out. It's Niss Black. Is it Niss Black? They're all coming out of there. They want my kids. My kids don't know who's Niss Black, but they know they know, right? Because And it wasn't because I was at the Shabas table. Okay. Right. So some of it you have this the shield. So um so so let's go back on when did you move? So I moved to Israel. Um almost almost 10 years ago nine nine years ago I'm almost and for what like what happened that made you move or you felt your heart Israel is calling you what happened for sure for sure listen I like I you know I told you already I was studying Tanakh I think a lot of reason why people don't have love for Israel especially in the room world I think one of the biggest things is like I said it goes back to this lack of learning Tanakh and learning you know the Naven because yeah but is important is important but you also know when you're moving to Israel financially it's harder we all know Israel nicknim. Yeah. It's a it's not an easy place to make money and you definitely you took it in consideration and you're still doing it. Yeah. So actually I had the opposite experience. Right. You had Yeah. I had the opposite experience. I was much more in I was much worse off financially before I moved. Yes. So by you it wasn't a part of my it wasn't a part of my thoughts. I I didn't think about it at all. First off, my love and my and my desire to be in Eritus real was much stronger than worrying about what my finances are. Right? Most people lose here financially because they always calculate the finances first. You understand? This land is not about your the whole thing is laalame this whole entire that's what it is. I live like back and forth and I also I'm also ready to give out. I'm giving up every day that I'm here. I'm giving up a lot. But I still I feel you. That's why I love Israel, but I want to hear it from you. So, I tell you, I tell most people this. When people are passionate about uh being a part of the arts, being an actor, being in in film or whatever, and they and they realize this is my thing. What do they do? They drop their whole entire world. They pick up and they leave and they move to LA and they try to start their career. You know, that's why a lot of homeless people in LA, you go and see, they're talented. They can juggle. They can act. They could do all type of stuff like the homeless because they gave up everything and they tried to make it work, right? You see the same thing Paris, France, what these people that gave up everything to go make it in the fashion industry because it meant that much to them. Eritis is the place of amuna religion coming close to shim. So why why would you give up everything? Only if you want to do those things. That's it's also very easy to go the other direction. You know that. Yeah, for sure. So Israel's Israel has both mileas both like I say that you can't go that direction but what I'm telling you is is that it's diff was the opposite but it depends what I'm telling you though this what I'm telling you is that most people I'm not talking about you I want you but you don't know me well too but I'm telling you yeah most people I come because I'll tell you I come into encounters with your boys and different things like this some of the guys are very off very far away atheists whatever the case is I can talk to them maybe five 10 minutes already before I tell them Hashem has no tightness on them. Why? They never knew Hashem. They never had Hashem. They had Judaism. They had some form of their form of Judaism. But with Hashem, a lot of people don't realize we're living in a world today where a lot of people have a relationship with Judaism and they don't have a relationship with Hashem. Don't know him, never knew him, never had anything to do with him. Thought about him maybe once or twice. Think about it. The average Orthodox person wakes up every day. They'll go through the motions chakras of everything learn and everything whatever and sleep and didn't think about Hashem one time the whole entire day that I'm telling you that's the average person. So can you imagine and what happens is I tell you this it's it's an amazing phenomenon. There are those people who go to the left and to the right but they came to the same crossing point. On the right you have all the big sadikim. Everybody goes after them. They kiss their hand. They follow after them. They they're going to them. And even people bigim they're giving to them they're running after these people right if you if you notice start paying attention over the years become close to a lot of different sadikim they're all different none of them check the box why because they came to this place where they despised it they couldn't they couldn't come with the rote living and and just waking up and sleeping existing in the Judaism they came to a place and they despised it so they went to the right what happened to most of the people that went off. They came to it, they despised it. They went to the left, but they came to the same place. And I believe that the overwhelming majority of the people that went to the left, it had they gone right, they'd be big sadikim right now also too. Big Sadikim, but they came to the same place. I see um one of my questions over here is about a whiskey company. Yeah. Is it something that you have? What is it? Talk to me. So in 2021, I you know, right after Corona, um I hooked up with a guy named 2009. No, it was 2021. That's when I 2021. Okay. 2021. Um, I released a whiskey, Hava whiskey. It was basically off Hava Naggil. I had this record Havana I was releasing and and I didn't have a name for the whiskey. I met a guy named I wasn't even trying to get into whiskey. I was trying to make a mosscato and I got so exhausted from all the runaround and bureaucracy or whatever I kind of had given up on that. I was sitting in the parking lot one day at uh near Mak Yehuda over there on Grippus in Jerusalem and I run across this guy named David Zyel and and he runs to his car comes back and he's got these two bottles of whiskey. So I'm like oh wow I said I just looked up and he said to me you know I make this whiskey and whatever and it looked I looked at it looked very nice very like I said what do we think about Niss black whiskey? He said come on let's talk. So, I went out to go see him in the Golan. Uh, long story short, picked out some barrels that he hadn't released to market yet. I bought some of those barrels, repackaged them, rebranded it, and released it as Hava. I made the Hava Naggila, and it's still working. So, what happened was it actually worked very well. It worked a little bit too well, was so so well that I couldn't even like really like focus on it because I had to tour at the same time. And I had two issues. There was one issue was that there was a falling out between Facebook and Apple. That heard a lot of people that were in involved in marketing products spec specifically online. We were doing DTC. We weren't in in in stores. I only did I did a few stores. I was only doing DTC. So people were ordering and we would ship it to them. So we did that. But the problem was after that started to to to fizzle out at the same time like a week later shipping prices especially in Israel went up by 65%. Wow. So I said for me to really make this work and I was already charging like $120 per bottle already and barely making anything. It was just sort of like now I had a product so people were were buying it. So I sheld it. I just was like guys okay I'm going shove it. I'm going to get back to it. I always said I'll get back to it. And then it wasn't until years later I had all these bottles sitting around and one of my friends in Ra Shimish Boyishi at the Ner's like do you have any of those whisies? I said yeah I have some and I still have like you know a few bottles or whatever the case put them in here. So that same shabas right before before I I gave it to him, I walked past down the street and I walked past like three shoes and out out of the three shoes everybody came out. I just were drinking your whiskey. Like I hadn't released it in like three years ago. How was the coincidence that walking down the street three different shoes people come out telling me I'm drinking your whiskey right? I said I said okay let me put this in the store and see what happens. So I go I put in the store. The next day he called me said the they're the gone the bottles are gone. So I said, "Okay, I said, 'Okay, second, you want to?" I said, "Okay, you could buy some more." Whatever the case is, I put in another 13. Next day, they're gone. Right? So every time I put them in there, they're gone. So I said, "Okay, this is Sean and Shim. I should probably uh be putting on the whiskey." So I had been working with somebody over time and we were dreaming it up. But after that, I kicked it up full speed and I've been, you know, putting together a team right now and actually documented it. So I'm going to release this as a series. I'm going to release the whole entire me process of me deciding to build it and and what really came is that I want to be home with my family. I tour 100 days out of the year I'm on the road away from my family. Did we get ready to the question or not about Israel? How you got here? No, no, no. We have to get here. What happened? Okay, that's a major major story I guess. So, we were going there. So, Israel, I wanted to move here because it's the land of spirituality and and I and I my wife at first was not on board. Ideally, she was on board, but I don't know anybody know the language or whatever. Now, today I have seven. Seven. But I moved here. I moved here. I have four kids. Okay. When I moved here, she wasn't on board. She wasn't on board. She It's a foreign country. She never been there. She don't know. She doesn't know what's up. You know, doesn't know what's up. And and you know you and if you live in a room community already, you hear all of the lush and har everything else comes back with and the people there is so cruel. You hear the beautiful things but you for sure hear you know a lot of tough experiences. So it's very tough but every day since I'm I'm a breast lover so I'm at least spending an hour with Hashem every day in he talking to Hashem you know and so I mention it 10 15 minutes whatever I'm going to spend some time on moving to Israel. So at some point I remember going to um for Roshashana and I was there and a lot of the guys from the yeshiva and everybody I was around a lot of the the people that came from maritus and it was such fire and I said I need this I can't I if I want something I have to go after it. So second day Roshashana I woke up I went I went to the Nate's minion and after that it was going to be some time before Shiner opened up the the uh the tents for for the for the meals. So I had some time in between then. So I went down to the bottom of Pushkin. There's this river. It's dirty now, but back then it was a little bit cleaner. And I remember crying to Hashem. Four hours only. I'm moving to Israel. That was it. Four hours of me begging Hashem that she moved to. My wife should be comfortable. She should feel that everything I I ded for four hours straight on this. At Mos Shashana, I called my my wife just to check in on her and she said, "You're never going to believe what happened. I had this dream." I said, "What happened?" She said, "I was walking in there as well. I was in the old city and all of a sudden I kept on hearing something say everything's okay. It's going to be okay." And she's telling me this. She has no idea. I didn't tell her. I didn't tell her to like a year after this or whatever. So, she's telling me and then this song from Lady Robin came on, don't be afraid of the lines. And she's like telling me this crazy story and I'm like, whoa. Like, I had chills because I'm like, you know, I prayed. I've seen my defeas, but that was fast, right? So I said to her I said, "You know, maybe hun, maybe Hashem's trying to tell us something." She says, "Nope, never been there. Don't know the language. Not it was just a dream. It was just a dream." So So after this uh Rashem I I had a a couple weeks later, but I was so encouraged by that. So a few weeks later, I was I kept on praying more and more about it. Few weeks later, I was in London. I had a whole week there. And that whole week that I was there through London and Manchester, there wasn't a night that I didn't go to sleep that I didn't spend a few hours on crying about moving to Israel. Really, I came back from that trip. I was in the living room and my wife looked up to me and she says, "We should move to Israel." And I'm like, "Oh, she then she had all these reasons for why we had to move and we must move and whatever." And because I had already like forged a signature on all the nefes paperwork from a whole year ago, we were ready to go. I was ready to go. You had everything ready. I was already ready to go. So, uh, but that was really the story. And then we moved. She moved sight unseen. My wife moved there. Never been to Israel before. She landed. Her and my sister-in-law cuz me and my So, story is me and my best friend uh married sisters and we all converted together. Same day. There was a guy Yseph, right? Yseph. Yseph, my brother-in-law. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yseph Brown. Yseph Brown. Yeah. black and brown. Okay. Joseph and I have been best friends since we're in kindergarten. Okay. We split up for, you know, several years after third grade or so. And um and then we ended up reuniting at 17. And by the time we reunite, Shim has his ways. Like when I think about I'm a rapper and he's a producer. Wow. You understand what I mean? That's how we united. We united in my studio. There was he Where does he live now? He he lives we could throw, you know, ketchup from the mayor pes. No way. Yeah, we all moved everything together. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. So, he's uh he's uh I think it's five girls and one boy. I have also four. Yeah, big family. And the families are very close. So, we all have each other. So, that's a beautiful thing also. And most of my big songs, he produced those records. Niss which artist would you like to do a how do you call it a collaboration with? Yes. If I could choose one artist, let's first start with a Okay. singers. Then we'll go on to the and then we're going to see. Let's see. First singer that you want to do a collab with. Singer. Do you ever thought it I got to do a collab with this guy? I mean, I kind of already did one, but I don't think it was I don't think it was the right way to do it because he and I didn't have it. We both got placed on songs. It happened twice with Casita Singer. Um, but one person that for sure I've always loved loved his voice. But just because I love him, I love his vibe. I guess these are, you know, two guys really, but um was uh Barry Weber. That's I love Barry. Okay. I just love I adore Barry. Um other guys I I adore even though they're not kidish style or whatever. There's also Zusha. I love Zusha also too. Zusha who? Zush Zusha is a band. There's two guys. If if you don't know them, you sleep. I sleep. I'm out of music for a while. But there's people they're not so that's why I said I don't know if that they make music. It's like me. If you call Niss Black, I see this your music. I'm really not. But whatever the case is. Okay. And from not a religious guy, an Israeli singer. Israeli singer who's not religious. I have a guy that I got to introduce you to both of you freestyling like crazy. So I don't maybe Omar Adam. I love his stuff. I love his MRI. I guess if I could choose a guy who wasn't religious. Yeah. Omar Adam because of his like different voice and he's got a different voice. He's got very unique voice. It could it could be interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's also Yeah. I would love to put you with Static in the studio. You know Static? Yeah. So Static and Static. Oh, really? So me and Static were actually supposed to work on music low key. Static reached out to me a while ago. So first off, I was on this show Kokavaba. Oh, you went to Ah, yes. I tell that. That was a hostia. Wow. And first off, I didn't want to do it. I was really forced honestly. But I love Rav Irish is all Rav Arish is all about scaling up. Like if you can bring more people close to their shim at all cost, go for it. You know what I mean? He told you to go and he told me to go on it. I was getting them the X Factor that all the all these these shows have beenounding me since I got here to Israel. And in the interm, I had a friend start taking over my my management. All my managers that I was working with or people who were involved always told them, "No, we're not even think about it. No, no, no, no." And then I had one friend who was sort of like interning. He was he was taking care of things for me and he like kept on pushing me like he wasn't booking anything. And he was like, "Come on, man. You got to do it. Let's come on. Just ask the RAV and whatever." So I asked the RAV, thinking he'll be like, "No." And he was like, "Yeah, you have to. You must do it." Like, "You got to go do it. Like you can reach more people." So I go on already. Not really for it. And it part of it was fake. It led to something else honestly, which is crazy because AGT also happened after this. So what is AGT? Americans Got Talent. Okay. You went there. I went on that also too. Yes. what's crack what's happened with Kokavado is so static and bananel were were some of the the judges judges and then it was some other guy and whatever so I end up passing but I quit immediately and I said I I can't part of it is you know more than half of the contestants already knew my music they already knew my videos and all that so I was like a they had me like in a separate room it was already a celebrity already like yeah it's kind of already a celebrity so for me it was kind of like it didn't feel beneath me, but it felt unfair, right? You know what I'm saying? Some of the other people probably much more talented than me. I'm not always saying people who are celebrities are talented. Much more or less. You are talented. I just I already kind of I had a career. I was already touring. That's what I'm saying. You just wanted to get people close to Hashem. Yeah. Exactly. And that was the whole thing. The producer even like, "Oh, you can make a big Yeah, you can make a big kushm and whatever the other case, whatever." And so that they sold me on that and I went in and then afterwards the way that the other the guy in front of me insulted me was so bad that I didn't quit because I was insulted. I quit because I didn't want if they if they would have put aired everything that this guy said to me on the you know I guess he's supposed to be the Simon cow whatever the if they would have aired then the world to see a Jew say that to me and I'm black you understand what I'm saying it would have made Jews I don't know what the guy's name I don't know whatever it is I don't know the guy that's hosting it yeah the guy one of the guy yeah I see maybe that's I don't watch the show I'm not a I don't binge the show so okay there's a girl and a guy okay so it was the guy he's a little twingy Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, this guy So, this guy, he called me a creature and some other things and I already seen like I see him all the time giving love as No, he did not give me love. He didn't give me love. No, he didn't. He said he called me an interesting creature and he gave me some funny looks. That's very interesting. Okay. So, whatever. He said whatever he said. I think if they would have aired what he said, whatever, people would have been like, "This is it would have made Jews look bad." You understand what I'm saying? I was more upset about that. Not my pride. I didn't care. You're a special guy. I I just I didn't care. So, it's this is the acting, you know, whatever. Maybe he failed it. Maybe he didn't feel that way. Whatever. He wants ratings. So, he said something stupid. So, afterwards, I get out. I said, "I'm not going to do this." I I I quit immediately. They tell me whatever. I talked to him. I said, "Listen, they're going to throw it out. We're not going to do it." I'm in Umaan with my family. I just took my family for the first time. We're way nobody's there or whatever. And my phone's blowing up. And I look at it. And they're like, "Listen, a commercial just came out with you on Cocoa and it is embarrassing." Yeah. Cocoa. And they're like, "It's embarrassing." Like I'm like, "What happened?" So they made it look like like the way they cut it up. It was like to get people to watch it, right? They had me go up and it just made it look really funny. And then they start playing country music. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] And so the country music comes on and the guests are all like, you know, and and whatever, you know, watch, you know, right? Gets a jump like Saturday 9:00 p.m. And so now my manager like he taxis it to Tel Aviv like that moment. I said, "Okay, go there now. They told me they were not going to play it." Whatever the case is. So this ends up going out. So he goes, he watches the episode. He says, "Listen, it's actually not bad. They didn't cut it that way." Whatever the case is. I said, I said, "But what are they gonna do?" I didn't continue. They passed me and I didn't continue or whatever. So, they said, "They're just not going to show you in the next episode." So, I said, "Okay, we we finished." And they said, "Contractually, you know, whatever you sign, you could do whatever." So, it ended up coming out on that. And then AGT hit me up like a week later and and I already I was starting to go to Ravage. I said, "Okay, I already know what he's going to say." So, whatever. He told me go on it. Same thing exact happens, right? Simon grills meat, right? Because some some guy already got grilling. Yeah. Whatever the case is, they you know, I'm an interesting guy, you know. It doesn't matter. I'm not I'm also I don't I don't know if he bought it. I think he thought I was like doing stick. I don't know if they told him, but even AGT also too. I didn't I didn't like I didn't I didn't audition. They reached out to me, right? So, it brought me on to the show and so they also passed. I quit also too. The same exact thing I quit. It just wasn't my So, you're saying is you're doing a small you're trying to do a kid is a sham. You see it's getting Yeah. the moment I trying to do my best. Same thing with HBO. I got on my HBO deal last year and and and and shout out to, you know, Sally and the people that uh you know really put that deal together. I I should just say that publicly. But there's that one point where I started to feel like they weren't going to do Israel justice. They weren't going to do Jews justice. And I don't want to tell my story that way in a way where it looks like, you know, I got to step on Claudia's world to get to my like or show more, you know, racism than what there really actually is because that's not what I really have experienced that much. I'm just being honest. I haven't really experienced it like that. So, it just, you know, it is what it is. Motherland Bounce TV show. What's that? That was that was my HBO show. Um, and so the HBO series which we were doing, it was it was actually interesting. was a drama comedy. Sally Richardson was producing it. Uh Moshe uh Moshe Kasha was was the writer. Um it was actually, you know, it was it was a beautiful and awesome privilege. However, there were there was a point where I started to feel like, you know, I was going to have to fight every time a new script, a new episode came out. And so I remember being on the phone with Sally at one point and Moshe and they told me that like I'm already me and Mosha is going back and forth, right? We don't see the world eye to eye, but he was a sweet guy. I I liked Moshe as a person. Um but you know, we're going to have different type of funnies, right? I'm a religious Jew. He's he's not a from Jew even though he's got from family like but some jokes we're not going to see eye to eye on. So the shakatari of me and him going back and forth, you know what I'm saying? every episode for me the first time was like cool but I know for myself personally I got I would have got exhausted from that fighting you know feeling like I'm fighting for you to scratch all every time I release an episode and so I was on the phone with them and they told me that by episode three it goes into a writer room and when it goes into the writer's room then you know it's 10 people collaborating writing it together so you mean to tell me I'm not I'm not going at it with one person I'm going at it with 10 people and I got to deal with 10 10 different opinions and each really holds by whatever they put in there and they and and the likelihood of them understanding my world and my sensitivities even though I have some form of creative control, right? Um there's a pressure in that world of the way things work and I started to see it and I and I and I I didn't want to be a part of it anymore but I was already into it and Shim gave me a matana. The matana was the writers went on strike, right? So during the time they went on strike, I I had time to dab and I was dabbing. Shim, get me out of the situation. It just wasn't the way that it should have been for me. The first time that my story hits the world and I guess in that magnitude, I didn't want it to be like that. And so after the writers give strikes, they're already starting to lose budget. They already already don't know what they're going to do with the project project. So I cranked up the teilas even more. I prayed more and more harder and harder and unfortunately unfortunately October 7th happens. There's no way now they can do a show like that in Israel, right? And that and as and as painful right before you know right before October 7 they called me right I don't what part of sukot it was holo sukakota I got the call already that they were struggling out with the budget and they're thinking about having you know want to do it they're not going to really probably already once that happened I was jumping around inside my suka everybody my wife thought we won the lottery she had no idea was like going on I was like this show's not going to happen like you know we were already excited so October 7th happens you know I guess it A few weeks after that they call him like we can't do the show and I'm like it's bittersweet like I'm I'm I'm horrified by what just happened and scared because there's a war going on and there's now we got you know shim knows what's next and everything was very fresh at that time at the same time so glad that was out of this deal and because I had a no re rec uh relocation clause there um they couldn't they could only ask me if I would refil do the show in New York and I opted not to. I wasn't going to do it in New York. Um, still, you know, kept a professional relationship and will work with some of those people in those capacity. But these things have to be 100% on my terms before I before I ever do anything that's going to have my brand out there. Nam, I still have 45 questions, but we're not going to get there. We're going to have to do a part two one day, maybe in 6 months or whatever. But I'm going to ask you my last question. One thing I want you to tell our viewers something they don't know about Nissan Black. You're a very interesting person. and you have a very interesting life story and I apologize to everybody. I want to continue but I can't. He needs to go and he's even he even stayed already 30 minutes more than expected. But you know your life story is very interesting and we're going to have to do a part two. So Niss, please give me the okay now on camera. Give me the part two. Not now. 6 months to a year done. Okay. What is one thing people don't know about you that you want people to know about you? Um okay. There's probably two things. One thing is a little bit shorter. So there's like this thing I hear all the time from people like they say Disim you're not like other artists like you're so sweet you're easy to like talk to I can ask you for a picture most not easy to get to but you're you're very nice. I think you're nice but you're very hard person to get to through. Okay. Okay. Okay. But uh in terms of not that I'm easy to get to, but like you know I I I'm generally taking a picture with almost anybody that asks me unless I'm very pressed and I can't but I'm never like I'm I don't have no ego where I'm like oh you can't talk to me like and I don't give off that type of thing. And until I started seeing it by a few other artists and different things like that I didn't even know what they were talking about. I was like okay well I don't have those but crushed me enough over the years to let me know I'm not such a big something. So but there is one pet peeve I have. I have one pet peeve and that pet peeve is is that right before I go on stage there's always people who are either late to the show somehow they got either backstage or something like that and they start asking me for selfies and I'm about to go on stage that's the time where I pray that's the time and I'm really praying that I remember my lyrics because I don't you know I don't I'm not listening to myself so much I remember my lyrics my everything like all my cues and everything like that and people like coming up to me for selfies biggest pet peeve in the world I'm about to go on the stage that's my time for prayer like, you know, like this is my This is a request. You're asking people just not to come ask. So, this is my request. See me before I go on stage, please. I I try at every show if I can. I try to take a picture with every person who came in depending on how big, you know, sometimes the crowds are way too big and I can't even think about that. However, I try. So, I'm usually generally you could catch me not before the show. That's one thing. And I I I with a passion. But now I want something that people don't know about you. So now that was a request, ladies and gentlemen. So another thing people probably don't know about. I know how juicy or how crazy it is. I I don't know if I have anything like that, but I'm I'm probably especially at this stage in my life for sure. It's always kind of been neck and neck. I'm much more passionate about visuals than I am about music. Like I don't I don't I don't love music like that anymore really. And I haven't for years. I have not loved music like that for years now. And what I mean by that, I love I love what it can do for me. Like I like what I listen to most of the time. Like I almost don't listen to music with any words. I love scores. I love listening to cinematic scores. That's my favorite type of music they listen to. My kids hate it cuz I will play scores all day long. Aba, can we listen to real music? I said, "No, listen. I'm listening to real music. What you listening to is not real music." Okay? So, I love listening to like movie scores or cinemat composers that create music, but like euphoric music and dramatic like I'm I'm a drama king basically. Okay. So, along with that is I love visual. So, a lot of times even when I'm writing songs I am I'm already thinking about the I'm already thinking about the um the video before I even you know get to the song part. Like I I'm already thinking about the video. I'm not even thinking about the song. I'm thinking about the video before I even finish the song. Visualiz visual. So I I'm a major gear junkie. Love tech in terms of like video and and audio stuff. Like I'm you already know what I've been talking. Oh that Yeah. Right away you walked in here. Walked in. Yeah. Maybe if you th those lights up like you know I'm into that type of stuff. Uh what most people don't know. So I'm I'm really into that. So most people don't know that. Another thing is I guess I would say going back to this Motherland Bounce is probably my least favorite song. Everybody else is like I hear every everybody goes like oh but it's God this or whatever. It took me so out of my element like you know I love making music that's very openly about about Hashem and about that relationship because that's that was that's what I'm most passionate about right so whenever I made a song where I still talked about it and like I I I didn't like leave it but I kind of like you know I went back into some place where it wasn't really where I like to come from. So, you know, most I want to tell you something. I was sitting with you over an hour and a half. I see 135. Uh, first of all, I'm very impressed. Um, you're a very nice guy, very real guy. Thank you. And also, I got to I'm impressed of myself and I think it's in your that I didn't say the f word for an hour and 35 minutes. There's no podcast that I use the f because that's why I I'm my podcast is uncensored. I say whatever the hell I feel and I didn't curse one time, guys, and I know you're going to be happy for it. So, it's the first time I didn't curse on a podcast in my life. Thank you very much for coming up, N Black. We love you and I appreciate your time. Thank you very much for coming down and we'll be in touch. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Pleasure.