What are you going to put on the stereo to make cleaning for Passover joyous? Something with a beat to keep you moving, something to inspire you in this ancient ritual of destroying chometz, something to get you in the Seder mood. The Rabbi’s pick for Passover Album of 5766 is… the re-mastered The So Called Seder: A Hip Hop Haggadah.
Hip-Hop Hagadah is a stereophonic journey, a creative and wonderful tribute to the festival of Freedom. Using an endless array of samples from older Passover recordings, original lyrics in English and Yiddish, unstoppable beats and rhythms, Hip Hop Hagaddah is an essential part of the contemporary musical celebration of being Jewish. One note of caution: parental discretion is advised on some tracks. This is not an Uncle Moishe and the Hip Hop Seder.
From the JDUB, producers:
THE SO CALLED SEDER: A HIP HOP HAGGADAH, it’s newly produced, recorded and mastered in NYC. Features cameos by Wu Tang Clan’s Killah Priest, Matisyahu, Mr. Bungle’s Trevor Dunn, Montreal’s queen of country Katie Moore, David Krakauer, Susan and Elaine Hoffman Watts, and more.
Eliyahu Hanavi has not been sung with this much soul since Yossel Rosenblatt crooned in Warsaw.
I cannot claim to have done a survey of all the Passover albums out there. I browsed through some of the titles at the JCC Passover Store and was shocked by the sticker price. So I went over to iTunes and did a search for Passover and found a surprising paucity of new Passover music.
So honorable mention goes out to two albums: Reeboot Stereophonic has issued an EP titled Passover Re-mix, where Gershon Kingsley mixes it up with a Irving Fields Trio album. Debbie Friedman has another album Mayan Hagadah in Music, very much sticking to her unique sound. But nothing got my toes taping like So Called.
Come to think of it, if some companies had given us some advanced copies, well I am sure that we could have reviewed all the albums in their entirety. And that goes for new Jewish books too. And of course, new Jewish travel destinations and cruises. I mean, I am sure that we would find the time from amongst our esteemed blogging conglomerate to test out Jewish destinations. One of our crew has already done one of these adventures and lets hope more is on the way.
And did I mentioned cookbooks? There were definitely as many new cookbooks on the shelves as there were new Hagadahs. Hagadah choice of the year? Hold your matzahs…
So Called Seder is awesome. I’ve been listening to it since… well… almost last Pesach. Its really really great, go buy it!
I picked one up at JTB2, and had it signed by the SoCalled Yid-hopster himself! “Best fishes!”, he wrote. Eh? 🙂
We used to have the Reggae Passover CD, but I think we burned it with the chametz last year. Just thinking about it makes me itch…