By Dikla Tuchman, JTNews Correspondent
While most Seattle hip-hop fans have jumped on the Macklemore bandwagon, another local rapper has been creating music that’s just as powerful. Nissim, an African-American, Orthodox Jewish hip- hop artist is joining his familial roots with the roots of his adopted religion. Joined by Rabbi Simon Benzaquen, Nissim produced a song called “Sores” that tells the story of the African American experience of slavery in comparison to the Jewish horror of the Holocaust.
Nissim recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund $18,000 so he can create a music video for “Sores.” Since he wrote the song, which was released on his latest album in September, he has envisioned a video that fully captures its story.
“It’s been a plan of ours since we made the song,” says Nissim. “It’s a lot of money and work to be able to pull it off. The video has to be at least as good or better than the song.”
“What Nissim and I are singing about is a message,” says Benzaquen. “There are not two people that have more in common than the African American and the Jew.”
Benzaquen met Nissim years ago when Nissim showed up at Sephardic Bikur Holim, where Benzaquen was rabbi at the time, in search of connection with Judaism. Nissim had decided to put his music career on hold to concentrate on conversion and to become more acquainted with his new community.
“I wanted to step away from my music for a while,” says Nissim. “I wasn’t sure if it was what I wanted to do or not. I wanted to study and learn.”
After hearing the rabbi sing in synagogue, Benzaquen recalls Nissim saying, “You have to come sing on my next album.”
By 2012, Nissim was ready to return to music.
“I did a lot of praying and soul searching,” he says. “The answer became so clear. I was getting a lot of calls and encouragement to return to music. Spiritually, everything was pointing toward going back to music.”
While Nissim had a legitimate concern for losing his religiosity by going back, as music can be a “tough industry,” he felt confident in his ability to incorporate his newfound religious spirituality into his art.
Nissim’s wife planted the spark of the idea behind “Sores” back in 2009.
“It wasn’t the right time,” he recalls. “I had to sit with the idea.”
Once he was ready to move forward, Nissim contacted composer Eli Cohen, who he felt was truly able to communicate the message of the song.
“I needed something to be powerful,” says Nissim. “I felt especially with Rabbi Benzaquen, he was going to be able to capture the emotion of the song, and he was not camera shy. I love his voice. He really gets into it.”
The song has moved beyond the Jewish community. After recording the track, the two performed “Sores” at Sasquatch in 2013, as well as at the Capitol Hill Block Party and the Crocodile Café. This winter, Nissim and Benzaquen were invited to perform in Beit Shemesh, Israel. Nissim also attended the White House’s Hanukkah party.
With the popularity of the song and its powerful message, Nissim decided to invest in making a short film to fully capture the meaning of the story “Sores” tells.
“The screenplay written by Zach Grashin transforms the words and music of “˜Sores’ into a short film that captures the emotions, struggle, pain, and finally hope, of both historical periods,” according to the Kickstarter campaign, which launched in late January.
Nissim needs to meet his goal of $18,000 to complete the project, but hopes to raise as much as $50,000 to capture both time periods.
Benzaquen feels strongly that “Sores” sends a message that isn’t often communicated through rap music, which he feels has lost its original intent.
“Nissim brings rap music back to its roots,” says Benzaquen. “Much of today’s rap music is very negative. What Nissim sings is positive.”
The two believe they now have a mission.
“It’s very important to bring back the friendship and camaraderie between the Jew and the African American,” says Benzaquen.
To learn about Nissim and Rabbi Benzaquen’s Kickstarter, visit kck.st/1jcNyZ3.