“‘Groove’ is an international language,” according to Sha’anan Streett, leader of Israeli hip-hop group Hadag Nahash. That is why he says it doesn’t matter in which country the seven-member group performs, “they love us.”
Streett, in a telephone interview from Jerusalem, described Hadag Nahash as a “big groove machine with a very funky sound. Sometimes we’re more jazzy, sometimes Middle Eastern.” It uses drums, bass, guitar, saxophone and trombone in addition to a DJ.
“Most of the songs are rapped,” Streett said, though Hadag Nahash differs greatly from mainstream American hip-hop, which mostly consists of “two turntables, a microphone — and women,” he joked.
Hadag Nahash instead focuses its music on political issues. “We like to talk about things that bother us,” Streett said. “We’re not afraid to.”
Hadag Nahash will perform at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Student Union Ballroom on Monday, Jan. 30, 7:30 p.m., during a short U.S. tour that will also include a performance in Chicago.
The show is being presented by the Israel Center of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and Hillel Foundation-Milwaukee.
The name “Hadag Nahash” literally means “snake fish” in Hebrew, but it is a play on the words for “new driver.” In Israel, during their first year, new drivers are required to place stickers indicating such on their car — and Hadag Nahash thought it would be clever and confusing if their stickers appeared on cars throughout Israel as well.
According to Streett, the group’s music is inspired in part by how “Israeli news stays away from tough issues. Israel is a tough country to live in” and “someone should say that.”
The group’s coming, yet-to-be-named fourth CD features “a lot less politics” than their previous recordings. (The others are “Local Stuff” [2004], “To Move” [2003] and “Groove Machine” [2000].) Even so, Streett said, the music is always “about what we’re feeling and what we’re going through at the time.”
U.S- inspired
And so far, Streett says, the reactions have all been positive, though at first some audiences “don’t really know what to expect from us.”
During the first and second songs of each show, he said he often senses “some sort of suspicion” about the group, which performs all in Hebrew, except for one song they performed on their last tour and for speaking in between songs.
But “after 20 minutes or so,” Streett said, “they are into getting down with us.”
As immersed as the group is in Israel’s situation, its creation ultimately was inspired in the United States. After finishing his army service in Israel, Streett, now 34, decided to travel and came to the U.S. to see the World Cup soccer tournament held here in 1994.
Afterwards, he lived in California for several months. That was when he started listening to hip-hop on the radio and MTV. “It was everywhere,” he said, “more than before.”
But it wasn’t until he returned to Israel in early 1995 that he wrote his first serious song, called “Shalom Salaam Peace.”
He first recorded the song with only himself and a friend. At that time, Streett said he “had a bar in Jerusalem, and David (Klemes, keyboardist for the group) used to hang out there.”
He told Klemes, who had his own band, about the song. Klemes invited Streett to “come jam with them. It was fun for everyone so we kept it up,” Streett said. And so Hadag Nahash began performing together in 1996.
The other band members are bassist Yaya Cohen Harounoff, DJ Guy Mar, drummer Moshe Asaraf, guitarist Amir Ben Ami, trombonist Yair Slutzki, and saxophonist Shlomi Alon. Alon is from Tiberias, part of the Israel Sovev Kinneret region that is linked to Milwaukee through the Partnership 2000 program.
Tickets for the show are free for UWM students with valid I.D.; $8 in advance, $10 at the door for other students; $18 in advance, $20 at the door for non-students; and $100 (2 tickets) for patrons.
To purchase tickets or for more information, contact Alon Galron at the Israel Center, 414-390-5705 or along@milwaukeejewish.org. Tickets can be purchased online at www.milwaukeejewish.org.
Sponsors for the show include the Helen Bader Foundation, Jane Gellman, Deb and Moshe Katz, Limor and Dr. Ken Nalaboff, Stroli Motors and the UWM Student Association.
Co-sponsors are B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, Campus Organization for Israel, the Kibbutz Langdon Foundation and the Daniel M. Soref Charitable Trust.
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