tifying with the oppressed, of being on
the side that is fighting for freedom, is
really Jewish roots.
That's the Passover seder, that's what
we all grew up saying. The Jews were
the original "niggers" in that way, so I
think that in our culture, there is a his-
tory of identifying with the oppressed
and fighting [against oppression]. We
[blacks and Jews] both share the same
overriding myth, which is of Exodus.
There are deep reasons for solidarity.
As for what Danny said, I think he
meant [that] this way of expressing
yourself is something that gave his life
meaning.
JN: How do you go beyond the way
hip-hop has meshed with capitalism
— the acquiring of very specific
brand-name items as identifiers — to
tell people there's more to it than a
way to sell things to young people?
ML: I would say that is the regressive,
reactionary side of hip hop. It's not just
the violence, the chauvinism and the
language, it's ultimately the material-
ism. That you define respect and you
define success in the most shallow of
materialistic terms.
But I would say this about that side:
it is really the boldest reflection of what
we are as a society. These kids who grow
up bombarded by this stuff, just from
their own intuition have created a cul-
ture which on one hand has the power
to subvert — they want to be outlaws
— yet on the other is just mimicking
every TV commercial you ever saw.
That is the dialectic at work, and
that is what our movie is all about. I
don't have an answer to that, I don't
think anyone does. That's the world
we're in.
But I think it's unfair for us adults
to criticize it for that. It reflects both
the hope [inherent in hip hop] and the
state of the status quo.
JN: How does this schism factor into
you making a movie like Whiteboys?
ML: It's not just the hip-hop commu-
nity. I'm talking about Hollywood
itself, because all Hollywood cares
about is selling and getting people in
that theater to buy popcorn.
Many people in Hollywood believe
if you want to say anything real —
honest — you're already driving people
away. I don't believe that, but that is
the prevailing ethos. That is the value
of our society.
Jewish Homeboy
co,
V
0
Danny Hoch has made his mark on
performance art with a hip-hop
sensibility. Now he transfers that persona
to the silver screen in "Whiteboys."
0
0
MICHAEL ELKIN
Special to the Jewish News
D
anny Hoch feels at home
being a homeboy, which may
have initially caused a shock
at home, where his mother
knew him as a troubled Jewish kid.
Trouble is, says Hoch, there was a
performance artist waiting to hip-hop
his way out of the confines of his
Brooklyn brownstone. And hip-hop
out he did.
Hoch is an accomplished avant-
garde artist, keeping people on guard
as he takes to the stage in a variety of
guises, taking the mask off of ethnic
energies, giving voice to what he has
stage and screen characters from "dias-
called his "inner monologue — solilo-
poras from all over the world."
quies of conscience done in "Cuban,
A winner of a solo fellowship from
Spanish, Trinidian and rap."
the National Endowment for the Arts
So, what's the rap on this radically
and a Sundance Writers fellow, Hoch,
innovative white guy who's starring in
a former North Carolina School of the
director Marc Levin's take on the influ-
Arts theater major, endows his stage
ence of hip hop on current
characters with rage and rea-
American culture, Whiteboys?
son — whether in Some
Danny Hoch
He's learned from his
in a scen e from
People and or his current
Jewish heritage, Hoch answers "Whiteb oys.
piece, Jails, Hospitals and
in a sing-song voice that keeps
Hip-Hop, from which he
him in tune with the ups and downs of adopted his Whiteboys character.
the wild world. "Jews have always been
In staging his odes to social outlaws,
quick to adapt culturally and linguisti-
Hoch hearkens back to the days he
cally to their environment," he says.
spent playing outside the law, too.
That's what he does, bringing to
JEWISH HOMEBOY on page R20
From The Streets:
Jews And Hip Hop
A Jewish response to
contemporary American culture.
DANIEL BELASCO
Special to the Jewish News
N
ineteen ninety-eight might
be remembered as the "Year
of Hip Hop." After a decade
of producing chart-topping
singles, this musical form born in the
Bronx in the 1970s became the most
popular musical format in America.
While much of 20th-century
American music has been shaped by
Jewish interpretation of African-
American musical forms, from George
Gershwin to Phil Spector, in hip hop
Jewish performers have remained large-
tique, community and an understand-
ly on the periphery. Whites in general
ing of suffering and the 'human condi-
and Jews in particular are rarely pub-
tion.'" Considering Lenny Bruce, Mezz
licly associated with this genre, where
Mezzrow and Phil Spector in her essay
"Jazz-Jews, Jive and Gender," in the
essential notions of "blackness" lie at
the center of the aesthetic.
1997 anthology Jews and Other
Differences, Damon writes:
Jews have had a significant impact
on hip hop, however, and hip hop in
`A number of Jews found in
turn has provided Jewish
African-American cul-
musicians with a new styl-
ture the resources for
The Beastie Boys: A
resisting absorption into
istic vocabulary. The
national tour with fellow
a dominant culture they
Jewish response to hip
Def Jam artists Run-DMC
found stultifying, hier-
hop can perhaps tell us
converted a generation
archic, unjust, unaes-
something interesting
of white teenagers to the
thetic and un-Jewish."
about contemporary
promise of hip hop as
Jewish life in America.
Though provocative,
musical resistance on
In his 1996 book
Damon's ideas are rooted
par with rock music.
Blackface, White Noise,
in an essentialist view of
Michael Rogin asserts that
culture that assumes
Al Jolson used blackface to move away
African-American, mainstream and
from his Jewishness and assimilate into
Jewish cultures to be discrete phenome-
the American mainstream. But Maria
na, separate nations with armies of critics
Damon argues "that blackness becomes
and performers patrolling their borders.
a way to be more Jewish' by providing
JEWS AND HIP HOP on page R20
a New World context for social cri-
9/10
199 9
Detroit Jewish News
R1