Keepin’ Kosha: Kosha Dillz on being labeled, Jersey vs. LA, and putting together an album
February 15, 2010
Beverly Dillz -
“the Hollywood underground via [a] G
arden State perspective” – has an
eye-twisting cover. Colors – turquoise, neon purple, and mustard yellow
- alternately evoke bright Hollywood lights and the skinny jeans I’ve
started to associate with a certain brand of pop-cum-party-rap.
Loading the album onto my iPod, I mentally steeled myself for an hour
of 808-lite handclaps and beeping pop melodies.
Turns out, even going Hollywood, Kosha keeps his Jersey wit. Beverly Dillz feels grounded, even cynical. His version of Cali life skews pointedly superficial (if a little hyperbolic): on second single LA Ish, he raps, “Brand new whip/ and I’m sleepin on the couch“, and lines like “rap is a job to stand up for but I can’t get out of my house“, turn the spotlight right back on the emcee. Kosha’s flows are melodic and sing-songy, rarely pausing for an “ohhhh shit” punchline but packing bars with references to hip-hop, pop culture, and Judaica.
While the lyrical presence is firmly Garden State, the album’s beats compromise with the Left Coast. Producer Belief‘s
drums clack away, and the synths alternate between fuzzy roars and
staccato beeps. Melodic backdrops often creep into minor keys, and it’s
all very plastic, clean, and slightly unsettling. Kosha knows the West
Coast is party-happy, but I sense he’s not quite ready to let down his
Jersey guard.
On a short break from his Heroes for Haiti
benefit tour with Flex Mathews, I give Kosha a call to discuss the
album, his identity as “that Jewish rapper”, and his current career
outlook.
Jason GL Chu: Hip-hop has a tendency to label. How do you respond when you become “that Jewish rapper”?
Kosha Dillz: Barack Obama’s that black president [laughs] you know what I’m saying? What about saying, “he’s the President”?
KD:
Label me? Why not, you know? It’s good to get labeled – you have to
fall into a category. An apple is a fruit; but, people over in the meat
section, the produce section, they need to go over and get fruit too.
The fact is, [my music] comes under hip-hop, under interesting, under
alternative, indie, it could also be somewhat pop. And it’s also
Jewish. The more labels you have, the more well-rounded you are.
KD:
We just got back from Sundance. Anyone there who’s Jewish and directing
a huge film, Boom! it catches their eye. Mind you, I might not be the
biggest thing in Saudi Arabia.
JGLC:
Speaking of identifying with a label, I know you’ve been pretty active
with Matisyahu, one of the more prominent Jewish artists on the scene –
touring and collaborating. How did your friendship, your working
relationship, start?
KD:
I met him in ’04, went over there, studied some Torah. I wasn’t even
really knowledgeable about anything in Judaism, and we read a little
bit out of this book, which I still have – it was real powerful, man.
Talking about, um, stone and fire and the elements, some next level
stuff, and he was talking to me about aspects of Judaism including
keeping Kosher.
KD: I
was out of jail for like 4 months, got nothing going for me, just my
first single recorded – and he brought me on stage at BB Kings! I went
on stage… and, to this day, people still remember that show. In 06, I
started working with C-Rayz [Walz] – I was recording with him, and he
said, I got to get Matisyahu on this track [2007's "Childhood" off The Dropping]. He
wasn’t really working with rappers at all, but he collaborated with
C-Rayz on that joint, and from there I would see him sporadically. I
wasn’t really that good at the time [laughs];
but then we met at the Jewlicious festival, this past year, and then we
linked up for the Festival of Lights and that was 2008.
KD:
I was supposed to do another show with him, but I wound up winning that
Summer Jam emcee battle instead. Still I got on stage at a couple more
of his shows, and he started saying, “yo, you want to do this? Do
that?” And before you know it, I was on tour with him.
JGLC: Would you say Matisyahu was something of a mentor figure to you at the time?
KD:
No, I just knew that he had the market that I wanted and it was….
When you’ve arrived, once you’ve been out on tour for a while – it’s
not that someone’s a mentor, it’s – they’re partners. [Imitates a fan]
“Oh, my God!” That’s for people the first time you see them. When
you’ve been out on tour with people for a while, you start to just open
up to people, there are certain phases: you see how they work, then you
talk to them some more, you have to take a drive somewhere, things
spring up.
JGLC: Hip-hop
can sometimes come off as anti-Semitic. It’s certainly difficult to
find openly Jewish pop culture figures, particularly in hip-hop. You
reference Ari Gold – from Entourage – and how do you address this
stereotype that Jews can make moves on the corporate side, but not in
front of the mic?
KD: Well, a dope song is a dope song, right? But I have fans that are black – and they’re like, yo this dude can rip the mic –
and now they’re gonna go back home and say, this Jewish kid is dope.
That perspective is gonna travel through their friends and their
families that might have had stereotypical views before. Just like me
bringing Black friends into my house. I come from a family of working
immigrants – my dad hires people out of jail all the time, Spanish,
Black, because I went through the same stuff.
KD:
I go to places where there’s not a lot of Jewish kids when I tour….
The real cool thing is when I’m winning over Indian fans, and Black
fans, and White fans, and people who aren’t Jewish. You know, there’s a
lot of self-hate – there’s a lot of people that are Jewish that hate on
me. Because they don’t like who they are, or they have issues – it’s
not like “Oh shit! You’re Jewish, let me hook you up” – sometimes you
go up to them and they think, this Jewish cat is hanging out with all
the Black guys, it’s a culture clash. But I got to stay true to myself.
JGLC: Word. Now, what’s your feelings on the local scene at home, in Jersey?
KD: Some good stuff, a lot of street cats. Jersey has a very hard, hard talent to it: a lot of hood rappers. Asbury Park, Newark, New Brunswick, which is the scene I came out of. There was Beretta-9 from Killarmy. I worked extensively with Killah Priest, with RZA
a little bit, but Beretta-9 – when I was 18, rockin the open mics – he
would come through and drop the knowledge and gems. At the time, you
know, they were sellin a lot of records, Wu Music Group. That’s the scene I came out of: New Brunswick, Newark, but for me the local scene was definitely New York.
JGLC: I
know one of the stated intents of the record was to bring a Garden
State perspective to Beverly Hillz. What’re your thoughts on the LA
life?
KD: That whole
album, Beverly Dillz, was like playing on that view of LA and all that.
“Brand new whip, and I’m sleepin on the couch” – and then the East
Coast part was like, “get your ass back, comin’ out your mouth”. I
do this chorus during my shows – “if you do not have a gun, let me buck
a shot… Everybody at the bar, everyone’s a star”. That whole thing,
it’s a play on it. It’s like, are you serious, dude? But I love it, I
love it. [laughs] You have to accept it, those stereotypes are real.
JGLC: Word. Now, how would you characterize your home state point of view?
KD: [voice slows down, thoughtful] Well, it’s fast-paced. The Garden State has a lot of rough edges, and a lot of pride. If you ever hear someone say, “where you from?” they’re like, [loud]
“Jersey!”…. There’s a lot of home-state pride, a lot of people that
never leave. But LA is like a transplant, the Hollywood sign is like a
giant lie, a persona of all these people who are pursuing this thing.
KD:
Out of my high school, everyone became cops, or teachers. I’m the only
one who became a rapper, trust me. And having that, and going out to
LA, it exposes the Jersey, the homegrown pride. When I think Jersey, I
think malls, I think diners, I think the Jersey shore, there’s
mountains, it’s really a whole place in one. In a small area.
JGLC: Beverly Dillz has
a distinct production aesthetic, thanks to Belief. What sort of thought
went into that, what were you two talking about while the album was
being produced on a musical and lyrical level? What kind of things were
in your head space?
KD:
Well, we were in Beverly Hills, I was waking up in the morning, getting
coffee, and we were like, let’s be really LA. On some LA shit. That’s
how that song, “LA Ish”, came out. I think that’s the first song I
wrote. I was infatuated with this whole LA thing… when we were making
this album, man, we wanted everything to sonically fit into that mass
appeal. It was a little play with my twist, rapping about not the local
LA, but the façade of Hollywood: the bright lights and the big sign,
how it can all can be a bunch of bullcrap…. So this album was trying
to be misleading. It was supposed to be hard, in a different way.
JGLC:
What was it like, when you were just sitting down and thought, “Let me
move to the West Coast and make this whole album out there”?
KD:
Me and Belief started when we were trying to do songs with the movies,
that was our whole thing. Some Hollywood shit. And it was completely
sample-free, so we could shop it to movies. Everything was a little
different, Belief forced me to put it out. I remember writing to beats
that I was like, “how can I make a song out of this?” If
I’d recorded Beverly Dillz 3 months later or 3 months earlier, it would
have been a totally different album. I realized that, by myself, I’m
kinda stupid. I need to be guided. Belief helped me complete that
album, and that’s why I chose him, because I knew he could bring it out
of me.
KD:
There’s something inside of me, like subliminal messaging that I really
believe, that people will sing along to these songs…. I really think
you can change the world with music. And people have told me: if you
make a fun album, that’s just as spiritual as some other stuff. I
recorded a Hebrew joint last, to let people know where I’m from and
what I’m representing. Kol Ha Kavod Lirkod, it means, “It’s all good to dance”. Like, “stop being so serious!” Beverly Dillz was
really about, you don’t got to be serious all the time, you’re allowed
to smile at the show, you don’t have to come and just have knowledge
dropped on you all day.
JGLC: Any last things you want to put out there?
KD:
I have a distinct rhyme style, and I think that will win people over. I
could learn to do that punchline style, but why not try to do something
different, that hasn’t been done a hundred times? Let me do something
different, that’s gonna change it up and make something new and fresh.
I hope people catch on.
Beverly Dillz is available in stores and on iTunes now. Catch Kosha Dillz at SXSW and on the Heroes for Haiti tour. The Cellular Phone video is online at ThisIs50.com and debuting soon on MTV On Demand.
Find more videos like this on ThisIs50.com : IF IT’S HOT IT’S HERE!
Heroes for Haiti tour with Flex Mathews:
Feb 5th Abbey Pub w/ DJ Yoda – Chicago, IL
Feb 6th Raging Buffalo Resort w/ Slick Rick – Algonquin, IL
Feb 7th Yacht Club – Iowa Ciy, IA
Feb 8th Vaudevilles Mews – Des Moines, IA
Feb 9th Vaudevilles Mews w/ Trevor all (early show) – Des Moines, IA
Feb 9th Peoples w/ Skee Lo – Des Moines, IA
Feb 10th Firebird – St Louis, MO
Feb 12th Nutty’s North w/ Mr Dibbs – Sioux Falls , SD
Feb 13th Reptile Palace – Oshkosh, WI
Feb 14th Schubas w/ Trevor hall – Chicago IL
Feb 15th Day Trotter – Rock Island, IL
Feb 19th-21st Jewlicious Festival – Long Beach, CA
Feb 25th Pipeline Cafe w/ Matisyahu – Honolulu, HI
Feb 27th Kuhio Lounge w/ Matisyahu – Kapaa, HI
Feb 28th Lahaina Civic Center w/ Matisyahu – Lahaina, HI
Mar 1st Rockstarz w/ Matisyahu – Kailua Kona, HI
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