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Hassidic Rapper Nissim Black Explains Why Upcoming Album ‘Glory’ Is ‘Very Different’ From Past Albums
Nissim Black. Photo: Provided
American-Israeli Hassidic rapper Nissim Black spoke to The Algemeiner on Monday about his new album dropping next month and how its tone is quite different sonically from his past projects.
Glory, which will be released on July 7, is an infusion of all the different parts of Black’s musical styles in one album, he explained.
“I’m very purpose-driven on this record and nothing sounds the same,” the Love Me singer said. “Every time I thought I was going in one direction, I wanted to go another place and another place. And I wanted to beat myself up and say, ‘Listen, can you just stay grounded somewhere?’ It was a really honest conversation I had with myself and was like no, I can’t. Because I’m all of this. I’m pop, I’m rap, I’m R&B … these are the components that have shaped me musically. On this record you get almost an element of everywhere I’ve ever been, musically, ever. I’ve popped all over the place.”
Glory was originally intended to be released in November 2023, but the release date was pushed following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel. Black has not released an album since 2019. At a sneak peak listening party for Glory that took place on Monday night in New York, Black played all 18 tracks from the upcoming album.
“God got me feeling that I’m here for a reason,” Black sings in one song. On another track, he says: “You may have to face some fears/and you may have to shed some tears/and you may have to change some peers/all for you to do God’s will.” In another song, he sings to a friend who attempted to commit suicide, saying, “I heard you tried to take your own life … how can I go on? Please just look up. Life will get better.”
Black told The Algemeiner that a rabbi he became close with in recent years in Beit Shemesh, where the rapper lives, inspired him to name the album Glory. A native of Seattle, where his parents were part of the hip-hop scene, Black explained that he also recently experienced a period in his life when he thought a lot about his purpose in this world.
“I came to the conclusion alone that it was to spread the glory of God in the world. That’s what I’m here [to do],” said the He Is The King singer, who converted to Judaism in 2013. “I’m not here to hide it, to do it in a way where I’m kind of talking about it and nobody knows what I’m saying, I’m the type of person where I was put here to be open about that. [And] when I went to the rabbi, he kept screaming, ‘Glory to God. What he kept saying resonated to me, so I said, ‘The next project I’m doing, is [going to be called] Glory.’ And every time I would come into the beit midrash [study hall], the rabbi would put me on the spot and say, ‘Nissim, you need to make songs l’kavod shemayim [in honor of God].’ For him to be saying that about me, it was a good push.”
While the songs on Glory discuss sanctifying the name of God, they also address other topics, such as being bullied, pretending to be something other than one’s authentic self, mental health, having good friends, and “sticking true to who we are no matter what and allowing God to fight our battles,” Black noted.
“I was trying to capture and bottle some of the emotions and feelings that I’ve had over the years,” he added.
Black’s favorite track on the album is titled Ayeh, from the Hebrew expression “Ayeh Mekom Kevodo,” which means, “where is the glory of God?” In the song, Black sings about someone being in a very dark place in their life, crying out and asking, “God, where are you?”
“Each album is representative of me, of where I am at the time, but this is just another revealed layer,” he said. “Album after album, I’ve been more comfortable to use my singing voice — before I was always very shy about it. I had to strip away the idea growing up in the hood that you are either a rapper or a singer, that you can’t do both. And today, there’s no rules. And the more comfortable I’ve become with myself, I’m more comfortable with the gifts God gave me, so I’m able to use them shamelessly on this album.”
Black has already released two tracks from his upcoming album: Love Me featuring Oryahh, and Hu Hamelech/He Is The King featuring Gad Elbaz.
While speaking to The Algemeiner last year about Glory and other projects, he said about the upcoming album: “I’m really laying out my heart on a platter.”
The post Hassidic Rapper Nissim Black Explains Why Upcoming Album ‘Glory’ Is ‘Very Different’ From Past Albums first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the government would establish an administration to encourage the voluntary migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
“We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” he said at a Land of Israel Caucus at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “The budget will not be an obstacle.”
Referring to the plan championed by US President Donald Trump, Smotrich noted the “profound and deep hatred towards Israel” in Gaza, adding that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
The administration would be under the Defense Ministry, with the goal of facilitating Trump’s plan to build a “Riviera of the Middle East” and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans for rebuilding efforts.
“If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” Smotrich said. “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”
The post Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30
A general view shows the plenum at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – The Knesset’s (Israeli parliament’s) Special Committee for Foreign Workers held a discussion on Sunday to examine the needs of wounded and disabled IDF soldiers and the response foreign caregivers could provide.
During the discussion, data from the Defense Minister revealed that the number of registered IDF wounded and disabled veterans rose from 62,000 to 78,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023. “Most of them are reservists and 51 percent of the wounded are up to 30 years old,” the ministry’s report said. The number will increase, the ministry assesses, as post-trauma cases emerge.
The committee chairwoman, Knesset member Etty Atiya (Likud), emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for the wounded and to remove obstacles. “There is no dispute that the IDF disabled have sacrificed their bodies and souls for the people of Israel, for the state of Israel,” she said. Addressing the veterans, she continued: “And we, as public representatives and public servants alike, must do everything, but everything, to improve your lives in any way possible, to alleviate your pain and the distress of your family members who are no less affected than you.”
Currently, extensions are being given to the IDF veterans on a three-month basis, which Atiya said creates uncertainty and fear among the patients.
“The committee calls on the Interior Minister [Moshe Arbel] to approve as soon as possible the temporary order on our table, so that it will reach the approval of the Knesset,” she said, adding that she “intends to personally approach the Director General of the Population Authority [Shlomo Mor-Yosef] on the matter in order to promote a quick and stable solution.”
The post Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Sky News Arabia in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on August 8, 2023. Syrian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Over 1,300 people were killed in two days of fighting in Syria between security forces under the new Syrian Islamist leaders and fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect on the other hand, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.
Since Thursday, 1,311 people had been killed, according to the Observatory, including 830 civilians, mainly Alawites, 231 Syrian government security personnel, and 250 Assad loyalists.
The intense fighting broke out late last week as the Alawite militias launched an offensive against the new government’s fighters in the coastal region of the country, prompting a massive deployment ordered by new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and… we will be able to live together in this country,” al-Sharaa said, as quoted in the BBC.
The death toll represents the most severe escalations since Assad was ousted late last year, and is one of the most costly in terms of human lives since the civil war began in 2011.
The counter-offensive launched by al-Sharaa’s forces was marked by reported revenge killings and atrocities in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in the country.
The post Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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