Socalled
Album : Ghettoblaster
Release Date : June 12, 2007
Label : Jdub Records

Review :

Acclaimed Canadian hip-hop beat maker and musician Socalled has returned from 2005’s JDUB release The Socalled Seder with his next installment in the reinvention of Jewish music through hip-hop. Ghettoblaster, the inventive new LP from this hip-hop visionary features a vast palette of musical influences, with Dolgin himself mining rich traditional musics and fusing them with his own contemporary sound. The album spans multiple genres, from rock, Bulgarian and Latin, to funk, Roumanian, Jewish and jazz, all the while returning to and grounded by Socalled’s collage-like hip-hop beats.

Ghettoblaster features an astounding list of over 40 guests and collaborators, from renowned artists such as James Brown’s trombonist Fred Wesley, folk troubadour Theodore Bikel, hotshot producer Gonzales, rapper C-Rayz Walz, and Klezmer Clarinet god David Krakauer, as well as multi-talented players such as country chanteuse Katie Moore, Godspeed ! You Black Emperor’s Sophie Trudeau, Montreal-based and LA-bred rapper Subtitle, and gospel singer Doris Glaspie. Add to this list a Serbian band, an Indian percussion virtuoso, Matt Darriau and Frank London of the Grammy-award winning Klezmatics and 92 year old "Bagels & Bongos" legend Irving Fields, and you’ve got an idea of the party in the works. In addition to handling production and MC duties, Socalled plays piano, accordion, organ, synthesizer and Wurlitzer. The end result is a completely realized amalgamation of traditional and modern influences, a sound reminiscent of the past while standing squarely in the present.

Tracklisting  :
1. Ghettoblaster Intro
2. (These Are The) Good Old Days
3. Let’s Get Wet
4. You Are Never Alone
5. Slaughter on 10th Avenue
6. Ich Bin a Border by Mayn Vayb
7. (Rock The) Belz
8. Rece Cica
9. Slaughter Interlude
10. Heat Attack Feeling
11. Baleboste
12. Bikel Family Nign
13. Let’s Get Wet [Louder Remix]

No profanity, or inaproppriate remarks.