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`Never Again!'

Jewish rapper Remedy writes passionate, popular
song about the Holocaust.

DON COHEN

Special to the Jewish. News

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fast and dangerous crowd, dealing
drugs and getting involved in a range
of other excesses he since has out-
grown. In a 1999 Rolling Stone feature
profiling white rappers, he said, "Rap
is the street, and you can't ger the
street sense if you're not raised in it or
been around it."
While attending a diverse Staten
Island high school wracked by racial
division, he built a close relationship
with black students who would
become members of Wu Tang.
Turning down an opportunity to
attend the University of Southern
California, he doggedly pursued his
music career, and connected with his

hen an associate of the
notorious rap group Wu
Tang Clan, headed by
an admirer of the
Nation of Islam, tells you his song
about the Holocaust brought a rabbi
to tears, you might make certain
assumptions. Certain wrong assump-
tions.
And when you find out the rapper is
a white, Jewish guy named Ross Filler,
29, a.k.a Remedy, who publicly refers
to himself by his Hebrew name,
Reuven ben Menachem, you begin to
wonder what is going on.
How did he get "Never
Again!" included on Wu
Tang's certified gold
1998 release The Swarm?
And who is this guy fans
call "Jew Tang"?
Remedy merely chuck-
les and patiently explains
that he comes from a
Jewishly MI/dived family
that conducted Passover
seders, made sure he
attended religious school
and had a bar mitzvah at
Ross Filler/a. k. a. Remedy: "I wear a big Jewi3-h star around
his Conservative syna-
my neck. I love being what I am; I embrace it."
gogue.
old schoolmates, eventually perform-
Still, he says, his Jewish identity was
.
ing at concerts with them.
primarily shaped by experiencing anti-
The
spark
that
rekindled
his
interest
Semitism.
in
his
Jewish
heritage
was
an
emotion-
"Kids would call me a Jew, kike,
al 1995 exchange with his then-90-
penny-pincher," he recalls. Rather than
year-old grandmother, Gertrude Filler.
moving him to explore his Judaism, he
For the first time, she told him how
found "everyone was in hiding," leav-
his grandfather, Harry, was shot in the
ing his or her Jewishness behind. He
back, murdered during the Holocaust.
saw no reason to do differently.
This revelation led to extended
He allowed his social and musical
research about his family and the
influences to reign supreme over his
Holocaust and to writing the song
Jewish influences.
that eloquently and powerfully
Though he came from a very differ-
expressed his anguish, his resistance
ent religious, racial and economic
and his hope.
background from many of his fellow
"I cried while writing it," recalls
rappers (his father is a New York real
Remedy unashamedly.
estate mogul), he got his beat from the
It still bothers him that he never
street and immersed himself in the
learned
about the Holocaust as a
growing rap scene. He wrote his own
youngster, either in public school or
rhymes and vas a regular at recording
through his Jewish education.
studios, mixing beats and bonding
"Soon all the survivors will be
with the rappers laying down their
gone," he says. "We need to know
own take on things.
ourselves, what we are about, where
He lived the lifestyle, running with a

