Jew Funk

Sure it’s a fucked up institution,
economic solution to socialized
absolution
Hype the hetero norms, it’s just
ancient psychic residuals
But folks are sentimental and they’ll
always need their rituals
Plus as a concept it’s dated, ketubah
outmoded and faded
Power-politicking nepotism cheapest
way to get related.

Last year, HipHopKhasene won the German Record Critics’ Award for best world music album.

Peering out from behind his nerdy glasses, Dolgin epitomizes North America’s diasporic makeup. He knows he is lucky to live in a society where he doesn’t have to be marked as a Jew unless he wants to be. The tensions that tug at cultures from both sides—nationalism and racism on one, tradition and belonging on the other—are constant preoccupations, but Dolgin never lets himself lose sight of the music. His next album, tentatively called Ghettoblaster, will deal with the idea of blasting out of all kinds of ghettos, including the one the industry places him in by pigeonholing his records as Jewish music.

In the meantime, Dolgin will continue collecting and mixing together fragments from wherever he finds them. Only now he can do it on a much larger scale: “I can go to Los Angeles and record gospel singers singing this Yiddish song that I got them to write words for. Then I go to Montreal and get my southern Indian drumming friend to play the drums, and then I get David Krakauer to play a Jewish solo, and then I go to the studio and edit it all together. They’re all playing together, and they’re making one song. You know what I mean?”