B"H
CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON NOSSON'S PREMIER ON THE BIG SCREEN: SONG OF DAVID
CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON NOSSON'S PREMIER ON THE BIG SCREEN: SONG OF DAVID
Member Since: 6/7/2006
Band Website: KOSHERHIPHOP.COM
Band Members: B"H
Internationally known for his witty lyrics and powerful sound, NOSSON ZAND has successfully blended Orthodox Judaism with contemporary Rap/Hip-Hop music. Nosson has performed accress the United States, Europe, and Israel. Since his 2006-2007 performances with Matisyahu, Nosson's career as a "kosher" hip-hop artist has taken off.
"Nosson Zand aka Niz is the real thing. In the world of "Jewish Music" and Jewish rappers there is absolutely no one who if they asked me to write a recommendation quote, I would get behind, with the exception of Nosson. Religious Jew or not he can hold his own with an authentic style. The fact that he represents our people and his lyrics carry wait is unique in this age of the prostitution of Hip Hop music and the unyielding emptiness and spiritual death that is drowning American youth."
--Matisyahu, February 2008
"When we find something like Nosson Zand, we're very happy. He's got the goods."
--Dan Seliger, founder of Jewish hipster label 12 Tribe Sound, April 2007
WATCH NOSSON ON ISRAEL NATIONAL RADIO
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO FULL INTERVIEW W/NOSSON ON ISRAEL NATIONAL RADIO :
WATCH NOSSON (a.k.a. N.I.Z.) PERFORM WITH MATISYAHU
Add to My Profile
WATCH NOSSON IN HIS MUSIC VIDEO: FRESH
Add to My Profile
NOSSON IN THE PRESS :
NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE :
BOSTON.COM MEDIA PRESENTATION :
ISRAEL NATIONAL RADIO INTERVIEW :
NOSSON AND MATISYAHU
Influences:
HASHEM, TORAH, MITZVOS, CHASIDUS (l'havdil) & various artists/emcees: Boot Camp Clik, Wu, and Nas, to name a few...
Sounds Like: MOSHIACH IS COMING!!!
NOSSON IN THE PRESS :
NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE :
BOSTON.COM MEDIA PRESENTATION :
ISRAEL NATIONAL RADIO INTERVIEW :
NOSSON IN HEBRON
Add to My Profile
Nosson in Hebron pt.2
Add to My Profile
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE TRAGIC SITUATION IN HEBRON :
READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON NOSSON IN THE BOSTON HERALD:
THE EDGE
MUSIC ; Orthodox hip-hop
By ANITA DAVIS
12 April 2007
BOSTON HERALD
Take part Brookline gangsta, a pinch of Paris and a whole lot of Torah. Mix in a snare drum and lace it with a heavy bass line and you get Nosson.
Nosson Isaac Zand - who goes by the moniker Niz - is a Brookline- bred hasidic Jew who puts his faith to a beat and knows how to tear up a stage.
Zand, 25, said when he started rapping as a Jewish teenage hooligan, he never dreamt his basement hobby would attract record companies and earn accolades from his beatboxing inspiration, Matisyahu.
"No one looked at me and thought I would perform at Avalon, including me, for sure," Nosson said. "People would see me and say, "a little Jewish white boy trying to rap - that's cute, but don't quit your day job.' "
And don't call Nosson a copycat. While he and Matisyahu infuse their rhymes with spirituality, Nosson is pure hip-hop, Matisyahu a reggae icon. Nosson's first CD is slated to debut this summer, and he recently returned from Los Angeles where he was given the lead role in a short film about, what else, a Jewish rapper.
Record execs say Nosson is fresh. Yet his style recalls the early '90s New York sound, with biting, witty lyrics like those of Nas and Wu-Tang.
"Stuck between wrong and right like I'm walking the tightrope," he raps in "My Desert Song, "I cope in cold times and in the dark of the night I put a flame to the game and brought a spark of the light."
Some of Nosson's lyrics also reflect his religious beliefs. But five years ago, before he kept kosher or wore a yarmulke, he never would have guessed that he'd be rapping about Judaism.
After graduating from Clark University in 2004 with a degree in French, Nosson flew to Paris, where he made friends with a brother and sister, both orthodox Lubavitch Hasidic Jews and huge hip-hop fans. They inspired Nosson spiritually and musically.
"It's all divine providence," he said. "G-d found me. I fully admired and wanted to be part of their way of life at a time when I really didn't know what it was about."
As Nosson strengthened his faith, his music changed. His lyrics became more spiritual and he stopped swearing. And he became a regular performer at a Paris nightclub, La Villa, where he found that people really loved his music.
"Whatever I said, they gobbled it up," Nosson said.
He returned to the United States in 2005 and became involved in the Kenmore Square Chabad House. His rabbi introduced him to Matisyahu, who asked Nosson to perform with him at his Boston show last December. He raved about Nosson's mix CD to Dan Seliger, co-founder of Jewish hipster label 12 Tribe Sound.
"When we find something like Nosson Zand, we're very happy," Seliger said. "Nosson has got the goods."
Even with Matisyahu's breakout success, there are only a few Orthodox Jewish beatboxing performers. Nosson, Seliger believes, "has the best chance to explode."
Menachem Shapiro, a rapper with the duo Ta Shma who performed with Nosson in New York, said, "with his rhymes and music skills he's above the rest. He has the biggest attention right now."
And Nosson hopes to make the most of it.
"I pray to G-d this will get big," Nosson said. "I have two missions. One, to bring Jews closer to their roots. And two, I want to make good music."
..
CAPTION: CHOSEN ONE: Nosson Isaac Zand is enjoying success as rap star Nosson, who expresses his Orthodox Jewish beliefs in his songs. Here he wears tefillin, boxes containing scripture with leather ties, donned by men for morning prayer.
Type of Label: None