The space between novelty and innovation is a no-man's land that few can tread without losing a limb or, at the least, their credibility. Hip-hop in particular seems to invite an inordinate number of tourists who feel that the grafting of a beat or a rap onto their work will give them some sort of "edge", and who dive in without bothering to understand much more than 4/4. "Macho Man" Randy Savage is far too easy a target, but even as eminent a personage as Bill Laswell has occasionally fallen into a heap o' trouble in seeking to absorb music that he didn't truly understand. So one would not have been fully shocked had the duo of Solomon and Socalled produced something one-dimensional (or worse) in their quest to meld hip hop beats and attitude to the traditional music, mostly klezmer, of the Jewish khasene, or wedding ceremony. The "marriage" theme acts as both musical blueprint and as metaphor for the cross-cultural marriage of klezmer and hip-hop, and for the most part, it works. Through no small talent and a good dose of old-fashioned chutzpah, what results is a pleasant and even surprising listen, and the mix of good humor and genuine reverence that went into it is obvious from beginning to end.

Looking at it on paper, one might at first wonder exactly how the exuberant, ebullient, unrestrained spirit of klezmer could ever be melded to the by-definition restrained, hazy vernacular of hip-hop. The answer, and the secret to the album's success, is that a meld is not really the goal -- despite the "DJ" moniker, Socalled, whose debut EP was The Socalled Seder, is really as much a product of the Jewish music scene as violinist Sophie Solomon, and it is the spirit of the klezmorim that has the run of things here. Though Socalled manages to keep the hip-hop seasoning in the mix and respectably well-constructed throughout, this is not a record that is ultimately likely to appeal to hip-hop fans. HipHopKhasene is a klezmer record with beats, rather than being a hip-hop record with klezmer samples, and at the risk of sounding derogatory, its intended audience is clearly urbane, creative, and multiculti-deifying NPR adulators.

The skew of the record is obvious in the array of performers. Representing for klezmer, there is of course Solomon herself, a leading light of klezmer violin, along with clarinetist David Krakauer, and an array of gifted cantors. One of these, Michael Alpert, manages to deliver the 7 Blessings (If you live in a city of over 50,000 people, you probably know it. "Baruch atta adenoi / Allejenu . . .") over one of Socalled's tuff beats, gamely throwing in a few quick runs, and more blue notes than I imagine show up in the original, while Socalled adds jazzy piano and blues guitar licks to the mix. There are another half-dozen great klezmer performers on the release. But in the way of MCs and DJs, though, all we get is Socalled himself, cantor/rapper Josh Dolgin, and someone by the name of MC Dick Van Myke. Myke, despite his somewhat ungainly flow, does manage to cleverly cover the Jewish wedding ceremony with a healthy dash of hip-hop wit (to the bride: "Yo, what's with the white, are you tryin' to be ironic?"). Socalled, though he admits to not being a DJ "in the technical sense", didn't see fit to dig up someone who was, which means that HipHopKhasene is, tragically, mostly free of scratching.

The klezmorim do seem to be remarkably invigorated by performing with a new kind of accompaniment (even if Socalled's beats are sometimes too accommodating in their mimicry of klezmer's high-speed oompah), and that in itself will make this a worthwhile release for any klezmer fan. Socalled's solo productions, along with his occasional attempts to meld samples to live performances, tend to fall short of the melodic focus that the musicians produce; things go better when he sticks to dropping in clever vocal samples and leaves them to embellish his rhythms. The one track where the experiment really goes not just right but fantastically is "Hiphopkele", a showcase for the vocals of the aforementioned Josh Dolgin. Over a high-energy beat that cycles through about a half-dozen head-nodding klezmer themes, Dolgin kicks a Yiddish verse that travels scales like a blessing but swings like the Pharcyde. The real selling point on the track, though, is the use of those good old meaningless hip hop interjections -- the intermittent "yo, yo"s add a surprising jolt of energy, and you haven't truly lived until you've heard someone tell a klezmer violinist to "kick it".

— 12 November 2003