Israeli hip hop - Definition and Overview

Hip hop music is a musical genre invented by African Americans in the United States. It had begun to enter the American mainstream by the late 1980s, but remained an underground phenomenon in Israel for years after being imported in the mid-1990s; the first recording was by Shabak Samech, a crew whose debut LP was released in 1995. Perhaps the most famous Israeli rapper is Subliminal, known for right-wing lyrics. Other Jewish rappers include the reggae-influenced Mook E. and Hadag Nahash, while Israeli Arabs like Tamer Nafer have identified the struggle of African Americans as similar to the struggles of Arab-Israelis. The lyrics of Israeli hip hop are sometimes in English, Hebrew or Arabic.