2008 Woodie Awards
Y-Love merges spirituality, hip-hop
Hayley Miller
Issue date: 1/24/08 Section: The Inside
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Beth Meltzer, the director of NU Hillel, helped bring the artist, whose real name is Yitz Jordan, to campus.
"He's really good at hip-hop, but we wanted to hear his story about being Jewish and African-American as well as his hip-hop," Meltzer said.
Saturday night, the gospel-inspired, serene sounds of Eran Houjan opened for Jordan. Houjan performed a number of spiritual songs with his guitar, with some accompanied by a keyboardist and another vocalist.
"I'm very much a beginner. This is only my second performance," said Houjan, whose first performance was at the Middle East in Cambridge.
DJ Handler laid down some beats shortly before Jordan took the stage, projecting opening words to his audience that conveyed his belief in the power of music.
"Music is a very powerful thing if you use it in the right way," he said.
Born into a Catholic family in Baltimore, Jordan discovered a desire to convert to Judaism when he was seven years old after seeing a public service announcement on television wishing people a "Happy Passover."
"I went around drawing [Stars of David] around the house and I said 'Mommy, I want to be Jewish,'" Jordan said.
Commonly compared to fellow Orthodox Jewish rapper Matisyahu, Jordan's intertwining of his spirituality and beliefs with hip-hop in multiple languages - including English, Hebrew, Aramaic and even at times Russian and Chinese - stems from his travels to Israel and his devotion to Judaism.
"I go basically every year," he said. "Had I not been interested in learning about the Torah there, I wouldn't have started doing hip-hop like this. In Israel, you are given a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in spirituality. There is no disconnect between country, culture and language there."
Jordan developed his stage name, Y-Love, performing at open mic nights when he returned to the United States.
"Y is the first letter of my name. It represents all Jews coming together," he said. "Y stands for the first letter of the name of God. 'Y?' is the question and love is the answer," Jordan said.
Jordan describes his style as "global hip-hop."
"Initially, I started rhyming in mostly English and Aramaic," he said. "Eventually, any word I know in any language is going to work into my freestyle. It's the whole hip-hop art form. The poor man's music. No instruments [are] required and it's happening all over. Hip-hop is the voice of a lot of different communities."
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