Welcome to Times Will Tell, the weekly podcast from The Times of Israel.
We’re speaking this week to Israeli rap impresario Shaanan Streett, the founding member of hip hop/funk band Hadag Nahash, currently celebrating its 25th year.
During our conversation in Streett’s Jerusalem studio, we discuss what it’s like to reach this career pinnacle, looking back to the band’s improbable start in the city of Jerusalem in the late 1990s.
For now, said Streett, the original six band members are still working together, finding the balance between their historic songs of protest and, as Streett says, “the importance of having fun.”
We also talk about Streett’s new solo album and his first Arabic single, “Arabiyaty ElMaksura,” sung entirely by Streett in Arabic, the language he’s been working on for the last decade.
Streett also recently published his first book, a fictional work about Jerusalem skateboarders and graffiti artists.
We discuss the art of writing and interpreting dreams, something he does with friends in his “Dream a Dream” podcast, and finally, his ongoing relationship with the city of Jerusalem, where he was raised and still lives and works.
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