Most are quick to link hip-hop to violence.
Others are fast to link hip-hop to violins.
In the latter camp is Miri Ben-Ari, who speaks hurriedly in her heavy Israeli accent as if she is carrying out a predestined mission to give hip-hop a makeover.
“I introduced the possibility for something that’s never existed before in hip-hop music,” the violinist said from New York earlier this week. “I find it amazing. And I suppose some kids have never heard the violin or music of that level before. And they’re hearing this violin for the first time, and it’s in hip-hop.”
Armed with cover-girl looks, years of training and an amped-up violin, Ben-Ari has quietly morphed the sound of popular music by playing with the biggest names in the game – Jay-Z, Wyclef Jean and Kanye West. Her work with West earned her a Grammy in 2005 for her work on the CD “The College Dropout.”
Ben-Ari is the beautiful poster child representing the next wave of hip-hop – the first wave of strings, which includes others who are bringing an edge of classical precision to music otherwise known for its electronic, synthesized production.
Los Angeles-based Dakah Hip-Hop Orchestra numbers in the 60s with full string, brass, percussion and woodwind sections – not to mention multiple MCs, singers and a harpist. And Harlem resident Daniel Bernard Roumain approaches it all from an academic perspective, fusing classical music and hip-hop in projects that bounce underground clubs and symphony halls with equal aplomb.
“Hip-hop might be the most imaginative music out there today,” Roumain said recently from Oregon. “What I’m doing is what Beethoven would be doing if he were alive: listening to music, learning new technologies and collaborating with as many people possible.”
Orchestrating new sound
The introduction of strings and other instruments into the hip-hop fold was a natural progression, agrees Dakah Hip-Hop Orchestra conductor Geoff Gallegos, who grew up in Aurora, graduated from Gateway High School, and sowed the seeds for Dakah in Five Points warehouses while playing with his previous band, the Psychodelic Zombiez.
“What’s happening with the live instrumentation in hip-hop right now is a no-brainer, it’s like what happened in the mid-’70s with soul and R&B,” said Gallegos, who conducts
Dakah under the moniker Double G. “Motown started the whole using-a-full-orchestra thing inside pop music, and this was just the next natural step.”
The result is a fascinating instrumental juxtaposition. Ben-Ari’s violin can shred rhythmically (Kanye West’s “The New Workout Plan”) and soothe (her own “Sunshine to the Rain,” which features Scarface and Anthony Hamilton), and when set against some of hip-hop’s sickest electronic programming, the sound takes on a new fury and power.
“It’s one instrument that you can’t synthesize and still keep the impact and the sound and the feeling,” Ben-Ari said. “They say the violin is the closest thing to the human voice – the timbre and the feeling. My favorite compliment is when people say, ‘You sound like you talk. We don’t know what words you’re saying, but we really like it.”‘
Ben-Ari has spiced radio and MTV by casting her violin in a starring role in tracks such as Twista’s “Overnight Celebrity” and Kanye West’s “The New Workout Plan” and “Jesus Walks.” She worked on much of West’s “The College Dropout,” arranging, orchestrating, producing and engineering the strings throughout the album.
Perhaps equally important to her musical work: She stars in many of those videos with her sidestepping, head-tilting and hair-flipping only accentuating the fact that she’s rocking these hotly produced hip-hop and R&B tracks with a bowed instrument often associated with 18th-century Europeans in powdered wigs.
Hop on the bandwagon
Musicians across the board agree that hip-hop is ground zero for today’s most creative production. David Bowie, Courtney Taylor of the Dandy Warhols and Al Green all have told The Denver Post the past few years about their admiration for hip-hop producers and their ever-evolving beats.
“Dr. Dre is the god, the pinnacle, the greatest (expletive) sonic mastermind that our species has ever put out,” Taylor said a few years back. And Bowie praised Missy Elliott’s producer, Timbaland: “You can’t fault the work that Missy does. There are some astounding technical achievements on that record, and the beats are insane.”
Many have recognized West as the next super-producer – joining Timbaland, Dr. Dre, Jazze Pha and The Neptunes among others. Many of those accolades are also showered on Ben-Ari, who will showcase her strings-centric sound on her Universal full-length debut, “The Hip-Hop Violinist.” Due in stores Sept. 20, the album will feature production by Ben-Ari and West, plus vocals by Twista, Mya, Fabolous, Pharoahe Monch and Lil’ Mo.
Not bad for an Israeli-born girl raised in a financially poor but culturally rich household. While growing up in a musical family in a small town near Tel-Aviv, she was forced to quit violin lessons because her family could no longer afford them. But it wasn’t long before violinist Isaac Stern recommended her for an America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship, which gave Ben-Ari more opportunities and her first violin.
During mandatory Israeli military service, she played with the vaunted Israeli Army String Quartet, an experience that inspired her to come to America to study jazz at New York’s Mannes School of Music.
“Israel’s very different than the U.S.,” she said. “Here I’m pursuing what they call the American dream. But Israel is very tough and ghetto in a way because of the world we live in. It’s not easy to live in Israel, but it’s amazing. There’s something very real and very warm about Israel. What you see is what you get.”
In America she recorded three jazz albums, one of which included a Wynton Marsalis guest spot. With her move to Manhattan came a move toward hip-hop culture, and soon Ben-Ari found herself changing her image – from flowing, Mideastern-inspired clothing to tighter, midriff-rocking Ecko and Roca gear. She also changed her violin style.
She played on Britney Spears tracks and Alicia Keys songs. It was Wyclef who dubbed her the hip-hop violinist at his concert in Carnegie Hall. But it was Jay-Z who called her that on national television. She considers that the tipping point that brought her the fame she now enjoys. Still, whether she’s playing complex improvisational jazz or looping simple hip-hop breaks, she approaches her art from the same mind-set.
“My attitude’s always been the same,” she said. “I’m from Israel, and I’m a really tough person. I’m not afraid of anything, and the hip-hop community appreciates that.”
All net with endorsement
In preparation for releasing her album – and on the cusp of playing the Video Music Awards, touring the United States with Busta Rhymes and shooting a Reebok-sponsored mini-film that will double as a music video and a commercial – Ben-Ari has found a friend in the National Basketball Association. The league has tapped her for multiple preshow and halftime performances, including one in Denver at this year’s NBA All-Star Game.
“I think they’re an incredible vehicle for artists,” Ben-Ari said. “When you get to rock a stadium of 30,000 to 50,000 peopl just playing an instrument and being on TV in front of millions of people it’s an incredible opportunity.”
Ben-Ari leaves an impression. She’s appreciated from all around, Roumain said.
“Miri is really important,” he said. “She’s burning a path that will allow me and others to follow and create new paths. Her challenge will be gaining legitimacy.”
Roumain believes “hip-hop is embracing other musics, including classical music, and other instruments, other approaches to music-making. So someone playing the violin, such as Miri or myself, or someone using the orchestra or orchestral samples, they can become very popular.”
The Dakah Hip-Hop Orchestra plays about 10 shows a year with its member base, which fluctuates between 65 and 70. The overlapping genres benefit the orchestra at its live shows.
“It manifests in the kind of audience we’ve been drawing,” said conductor Gallegos, who added that other former Coloradans play with Dakah, including Kaveh Rastegar, Dave Chegwidden and Josh Lopez. “The colors really do mix together, you know, the yellow and blue make green theory. With classical and hip-hop combined, you have a unique sound.
“Any live instrument has some kind of breath and some kind of human being behind it that puts some juice in it,” he said. “You also have the real solid beat, and as a musician, to play on a solid beat is a treat because then you can just fly and not worry about where the one’s gonna be.”
Ben-Ari shares their passion.
“I think it’s great that I get to play real music and live music and help make it popular,” she said. “I’m bringing live music back to the game right now, like the way they used to do it back in the day. And I’m being accepted for that.”
Pop music critic Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-820-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
