Jonathan Gutstadt remembers it as the defining moment. It was the first night of Chanukah in the early 1990s. The Oakland 12-year-old, who had already developed more than a passing interest in hip-hop, saw something that would forever alter his destiny: There, on television, was a white man rapping.
It’s only after a bit of coaxing that Gutstadt admits it was the one-hit wonder Vanilla Ice, who later became the subject of ridicule for too many reasons to mention here. But at the time, the young Gutstadt realized that the genre was not necessarily off-limits to a Jewish boy like him.
“I started dancing in front of the door,” Gutstadt recalled. “And then, I began rapping the prayers. The first rap I ever did was the prayer over lighting the Chanukah candles.”
A sample of his lyrics:
From the center of the lava, hava nagila
I’m a believer from Oakland to Tel Aviva
In a diva unified like an ameoba
Shma to your imas,
Shma to the abbas
Shma to the Doctor J, love the Shabbos
The 7th day, I pray to be jobless
All you Jewish kids better listen to your mamas
He's no Too $hort... but then again, who is, these days?
Anyway, his website, along with two songs, can be found here.
