Nissim Black Defends Rap to Ben Shapiro

that motherland folks. So, you've been listening to Motherland Bounce. I know it's something different here on the Ben Shapiro show. That's because we're joined by the creator of Motherland Bounce, former gangster, rapper, gang member, and now faith seeker. Today, he's an African-American Orthodox Jew whose recent faith infused rap music videos have millions of views worldwide. His name is Nissim Black. And I thought we'd do something different here. Nissim, thanks for joining the show. Appreciate it, dude. Man, thank you for having me on, man. Long time coming, Denny. I appreciate it. So, okay. I I have been critiqued for my own genuine dislike of of the rap genre. So, I will give you the opportunity. Inform me why I am wrong uh about the rap genre of which I have been so critical for these many years. Listen, you could be very very critical of the content, right? The content is definitely a problem. Um in terms of it as a art form, for sure not. You know what I You could use anything to be able to spread light and to spread positive messages. It just matters what the person does with the actual with the genre, you know. So, you may not be wrong in in terms of the content that's going out uh uh from the rap music, but you know, definitely rap could be used for for beautiful things. It has been in the past. So, let's talk about the sort of your own personal transition in that way. So, you started off as a a gangster rapper. Obviously, you didn't start off as an Orthodox Jew. Now, you are. So, maybe you can tell that story. I think this is kind of a fun pre-roshana story for our Jewish listeners. Uh it's amazing actually, you know. So I grew up exposed to a lot of gang violence. Uh I got into everything very very early myself. I started smoking pot. I was 9 years old. By the time I was 12, I was already dealing. And it's a very interesting thing because I did have two parents in the house. My mother and my and my uh stepfather, you know, was my dad. He he raised me. Um but I was exposed to everything in the house. My house was like a trafficking house. So I got into it very early. Now moving on, the first introduction to religion was actually Islam. My grandfather was a Sunni Muslim and after after he ended up in prison, um I had friends who brought me to a missionary group that had a hip-hop program. Um and that's what got me interested in Christianity. I eventually converted Christianity from a missionary camp. Um, and then years later, you know, the rap just sort of took over my my life and consumed me and I got into a altercation with another artist and that led to a kill or be killed situation as I would call in. And after I was uh able to squash that beef and put it behind me, I really started seeking like, you know, what's what's going to be next? And, you know, I just grabbed all the Bibles. I I wanted to know about I wanted to know about the Jewish religion because I grew up very close to the Jewish neighborhood and I didn't know anything about Judaism. So, I had a JPS Tanakh. I had a few different versions of the Christian Bible, a Quran, and I sat down for eight hours a day until, you know, my soul was satisfied. And, uh, Judaism was what really stuck out to me out of them. I think it was just sort of the honesty of the story. You know, so many ups and downs, so many screw-ups. And I was like, I've been doing that my whole entire life. You know what I mean? And to see that after everything, God says, I'll never reject you. And so, that was the relationship with God I wanted to have. So let's talk about some of the messages that you promulgate versus some of the messages that you know you were talking about earlier that that rap genre tends to to promulgate. Obviously I've famously been critical not only of rap as a music form but as I mentioned before rap content you I trended on Twitter just a couple of weeks ago for having the temerity to criticize Cardi B's new music video which is uh gravely concerned with the moisture state of her genitals. Uh so what what do you make of uh number one what kind of themes are you trying to push in your music and number two what do you see as sort of the negative themes and what are the impact of those negative themes that that you see so much in in rap. So I guess you know myself I want to be able to one of the biggest things is like I don't know if you know how much you've been paying attention but I really made an effort to um broaden my message you know uh which means that sonically things have to be uh in a place where everybody can understand people that already listen to the genre um and at the same time I wanted to be able to put a message inside of that and that message is really that a person can overcome and conquer. I often times speak in a very vague way about my relationship with God that somebody else could take and and look at it and make that relationship their own and it could be about a friend or or a parent or something like that. But I think the biggest thing is is that, you know, just not only in rap, if you look overall, black entertainment, you know what I'm saying, is really gone down the tubes. And I think that that's affected society for the worst for sure. You know, those records raised us as a kid. You know what I'm saying? the Tupac and the Big E and everything else that was going. So, those raise us um as a kid and and it's very very hard as it is to have enough positive black male role models. Um so, I sort of wanted to take on the mantle of that leadership, you know what I mean? And and try to run with it. So, in your own personal life, obviously you've had a really interesting kind of up and down life as you've talked about. How have you dealt with the issue of racism? So, obviously this is a very hot issue in the United States right now. A lot of accusations of things like systemic racism. Um, but racism is a real problem for a lot of folks. How have you dealt with racism to try and raise yourself up uh over the course of your life? So, I think the biggest thing for me is like, you know, what is, you know, when we talk about racism, first off, every person is going to experience something different, right? Kids that come from the inner city, um, that were not privileged to be raised in the suburbs and and probably had more diversity or less, whatever the case is, they're going to have a different perspective, right? Um, so for me myself, I definitely would say I've experienced it on on the system side. I would say, you know, I went to high school that we didn't have books, you know, uh, we had to protest and go out for books, but somehow in some way um, every year we had brand new football uniforms, brand new basketball jerseys, and we were killer in sports, but we were last in academics, you know, and and and to say that that was a coincidence, I don't think so. Um, for me myself personally though, I I think the more and more you pay attention to it, the more and more it pays attention to you. You know what I mean? And that's that's that's sort of the way that it has always flown. Even as going into Orthodox Judaism, right, where not everybody's my color, you understand what I'm saying? But I try to tell people at the same time, you know, I myself, I'm not looking for people to be racist towards me. So I don't exper I'm going to experience that way less than a person who's looking for you know every person that has something wrong with them. So I think a lot of those things a person could conquer them you know what I'm saying in their own mind because you have such a unique personal situation nim uh one of the things that I was wondering about is you know when we talk talk about racism but but also about anti-semitism by by polls there's a lot of anti-semitism disproportionate uh in the black community of the United States. Why do you think that is and how can that be healed? I think the biggest thing is a misconception, right? So you look at it for for most African-Americans um for sure. Um they're there obviously in America. So in their mind when they think about a Jew, they think of European Ashkanazi jewelry because that's what they're faced with. They don't even have that they have no idea that there's a diversity um in Judaism. Uh and I think that that's one of the biggest things that there's there's there's different colors. No, it has not been expressed African-American community that is just not one. And I'm not even talking about black tani safari, you know, you have Jews from Misrai. Um, so when they think of Jew, they think of only this. And it's already a wool put over their eyes that anybody that is of European descent is your enemy, right? And a lot of times in in in America, the Jewish community and the black community is very close in proximity to each other, right? Um, and you have a lot of Jews that are wealthy and we already know about the staggering numbers of poverty and the African-American community. The whole thing to me feels like a setup, right? And when we put it all together and we look back and everybody's history, the Europeans kicked both our butts. So, you know what I mean? So, what's the what's the real story? The whole thing feels like a setup to me. And I think that that's what it is. Well, Niss, really appreciate your time. You can check out his music over at YouTube. He has recent hits including Motherland Bounce and Rerun. Good to talk to you. Really appreciate it, man. Good to talk to you also. Really have a wonderful Roshana. All righty. Coming up, we're going to be taking your phone calls at 8552363228. That's 8552363228. You're listening to the Ben Shapiro