"Artists tend to keep their political opinions to themselves. I feel differently" - voila! culture

Michael Cohen (Photo: Jordan Rokah)

The respected rapper and music producer Michael Cohen actually reached the musical mainstream only in 2021, in his mid-thirties.

"You can call me a light bloomer," he laughs, "I feel like I'm part of a scene that's a bit of a light bloomer here in Israel. I talked about it once with Eko (rapper - Saturday), that we should call ourselves 'on the buzzer.'

That is, arriving at the last second.

Just kidding, it's never really the last second.

I feel like I was a part of something cool that happened, and my story has led me to some kind of point now where I feel like I'm really flourishing.

But I needed this story first."

Michael Cohen, identified only by his last name - Cohen, was born in Tel Aviv 36 years ago, the son of the film and television director Avi Cohen ("The Brazen", "Back of the Nation") and the actress Merav Geri, the granddaughter of the theater woman Pnina Geri and the half-brother of the television personality Molly Segev ("Great Country").

He studied in the film major of Eroni A and at that time started making music.

In his youth he met the actor and singer Michael Moshonov, son of Muni Moshonov, and in the middle of the first decade of the 2000s they founded together the hip hop group Cohen et Moshon (קוןן@מושון) in which DJ Mesh (Misher Cohen) was also a member.

The composition operated until 2017.

In the first half of the 2000s, Cohen tried his luck for a period in the United States - first in New York and then in Los Angeles, where he worked as a producer and DJ under the stage name CohenBeats, and worked there, among other things, with the American Jewish rapper Alchemist.

He released an album on the American label Stones Throw.

After releasing several mini-albums and mixtapes, in 2021 he released his first full solo album in Hebrew, "What is possible with what is left", and managed to break through the mainstream boundaries and enter the Galglatz playlist with two songs from it - "Shiminot" and "Why not".

Over the years, Cohen has also produced albums, songs and beats for other artists, among them the album "Meshloh Special" by Peled and Ortega and the excellent song "Ashri Hamemin" by Ravid Plotnik.

He also musically produced the Kibod channel (under his alter ego nickname "DJ Mentos") and even wrote a song for Zahava Ben ("The Same Dream" in collaboration with Yishai Suisa).

"This is a question that really concerns me in my work. It's a matter of periods. Sometimes I want to be more in the mode of producing beats, and sometimes I want to be more in the mode of a rapper. When I sing over my own beat, it's already a complete picture. It was also the part of The previous album, a whole album in which I produce 90 percent of the things and also sing. I call myself a hip-hop artist, for me this is the most accurate definition of what I am. I make hip-hop music in all kinds of forms and ways."

Today (Monday) Cohen is releasing a new single on Helicon Aroma Music, "On the way to the North", which he wrote and composed with Ofir Kotiel, and the one signed as music producer is the successful and respected creator and producer Kotiman, and this is the first collaboration between them.

The two talents say that they connected over their love for old vintage sound, Israeli music and a lot of soul.

Here, too, Cohen moves away from rap for a moment with a successful melodic and groovy song describing a trip by Cohen from Tel Aviv to his family in the north.

"First of all, I really like the city, I'm from Tel Aviv. I have family in the north, and this song was written from the point of view of traveling there and of that moment when you lift your head from all the hectic activity in the city. I'm the kind of person who does too much and worries too much with All the conflicts and all kinds of things keep me terribly busy. And suddenly there's this moment when you're in a slightly different reality. The song is actually about that moment when you don't want to think about what awaits you. Don't talk to me about it now. I'm in a different place. What concerns? Any All sorts of things, especially this race. Both the practical things that need to be done, and also the extra things that we're anxious about, you know, the neuroses, the insecurities, am I doing enough, am I doing it right, am I doing it on time. These are things that every Various fields, in cultural activities or in anything you work on feverishly, you are a little pushed by fear. Fear is also some kind of driving force. Dr. Dre once sang that you have to take fear and turn it from a wall - into fuel.We all do it a little bit, but you have to take a break from it sometimes."

"As a producer, I look at the song. What is most important to me is what is good for the song. In this sense, it is not a matter of ego and what I do or someone else does, the point is to produce something that is whole and greater than the sum of its parts. It is an old dream of mine to work with Kuti , we've known each other for years, he was the drummer at Cohen's first Moshon launch show, believe it or not. We've been in touch for years. I wanted to work with him, but he lives in a far and isolated place, in Tzalim. And suddenly he came to the center, I meet him by chance and come on, let's sit down , and it happened in the most natural way in the world and the most fun in the world. The experience was simply amazing. I gave myself completely to him. We thought about some things together, of course, but I really allowed myself to enter his world, and that's one of the advantages of being a rapper, entering other people's worlds. It's also The fun in hip-hop, that you can play these games, you can explore and you can find all kinds of new and different worlds and combinations. We both really like groove, funk and soul. And Israeli music."

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Michael Cohen (Photo: Jordan Rokah)

How does it feel to suddenly stand alone on stage?

Are you sometimes afraid that you will run out of air in the middle of a song, and there will be no one to strengthen you by your side on stage while singing?

"It's funny, because really it was one of my first challenges when I stood on stage without motion, this matter of the air, because suddenly there is no one to complete me. But I also have DJ Mesh, who is good at completing. Listen, in general I always I felt like I was a part of things. Even with Mushon, even when I produced Peled, both with Uri Shohat and in projects like the Food Channel. I've always been a part of something. I won't lie: I really enjoy this place where I have such a private space, where I take all the things that I learned from other places and applies them and mixes them. To me it feels like it has a good power, I really enjoy it."

"Nothing special happened. The answer is quite boring. In the end it's a matter of everyone wanting to do things a little different and wanting to pull in all kinds of directions and in the end simply deciding that it's better separately. I still really, really like Moshon, we're friends and I also really support the project His new one that's about to come out. I think we've had our time, we've made revolutions and history, and now we're moving on to a new chapter. It's very natural and logical, and done with love."

"Listen, it's true that dealing with other artists is really taking some kind of risk. You have to get out of your own bubble a bit. Artists are very sensitive creatures. I'm an artist myself. The label, which is managed by me and by Mash, is obviously an artists' label. It's a label managed by by artists, the essence of which is a continuation of our work, whether it's projects that we produce, artistically direct or are somehow involved in. That's where it comes from, from that passion. Listen, you look at the United States, and there almost every rapper has his own little label because It's another form of expression in the end. Another way to make music with people, to create a vision, to create stories, and I really enjoy it. As a slightly more experienced artist, I want to pass on the knowledge and the infrastructure that we have. And there is now a new and refreshing generation of Artists. You can do something with it. And name the invoice."

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Former musician Michael Moshunov (Photo: GettyImages)

And by the way, Subliminal, what do you think about the path hip-hop took from the fringes to the mainstream?

Do you, as someone deeply rooted in hip-hop, think it has become too commercial?

"Of course there is room for criticism that hip-hop has become commercial. Look, hip-hop revolutionized rock and roll. This is the rock and roll of now. It's a musical and cultural revolution that is sweeping and manifests itself in almost all genres, in all aesthetics and performance. It's a real cultural revolution that happened in The last 30 years. In Israel, it's happening a little late. And as for Subliminal, although you had Shbak S and Hadeg Nahash, Subliminal was the first rapper really, like in America Style."

the

Proud of all these people."

"Look, they don't help me write songs, but I learned from them the value of hard work, the love of creation, the great passion for art. And I think that's what we communicate about, from the desire to do beautiful things, and to be more specific - to do beautiful things in Hebrew. These are things that we have in our family and there are in other families. We don't talk about this matter, that many times in such families what actually helps is the great love for this work. I learned from them to love the work very much, I learned from them that it is possible and maybe also the matter of breaking some kind of path. Both my brother and father My parents did quite innovative things, and I took this inspiration from them, and I said come on, I'm going somewhere completely different, I don't want to be in the areas of cinema and television, I'll do it in music. And I've always received lots and lots of support and encouragement and great understanding from them. But my father didn't come To all my shows, yes?".

Brother Molly Segev (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Next Tuesday will be the 40th anniversary of the release of the mythological series "Close Relatives", in which your brother Molly starred as a child, and your father acted as a consultant in its third season.

What does this series mean to you?

"Like all Israelis, I see something nostalgic and comforting in this show, but for me it's a little more on a personal level. My father was really a bit involved in the action there, he is a good friend of Yitzchak, who may be the director of the series, who was like an uncle of mine at family dinners and such. And Ilan Der It's really nice to see some kind of family photo sometimes, but it's also a bit of a vibe of 'They say there was a happy place before I was born.' But it's fun, exciting and amazing. It's a type of Israeli exit that I love both on a cultural and artistic level and connected to it on a personal level."

"I won't create an expectation of some big song, but I've definitely been busy lately with how to integrate these topics into a song. There is a tendency for artists to create a separation and say: I will save my political opinions only for writing in the status, but in the songs I will write about love and all kinds of other things. I Basically, I feel different. When I read someone's status, I tell them, 'Brother, write it in a song.' It's worth saying. I didn't want to do it just to get out of the way. I had a song called 'The Truth' that I released on YouTube some time ago. Now there's something in the air that scares everyone much more, and even Shlomo Artzi signed the musicians' letter. I'm trying to understand how to put it in a song, in a way that is not clichéd, superficial or narrow. I have always seen my music as something that first of all speaks of humanity. I go through a process with age and experience. It seems,Maybe the next album will touch on that."

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Michael Cohen (Photo: Jordan Rokah)

In recent months we have witnessed a large wave of band and ensemble mergers in Israeli music.

When will you reunite with Moshunov?

Will it happen before the age of 70, when the father of your former partner, Muni Moshunov, reunited with the "This Is It" gang?

"Everything is possible in life. I am now very much concentrating on my thing and he is concentrating on his thing. But again, we love each other very much and we love the band very much. Everything is still open, God is great and everything is possible. But don't expect it in the next year or two."

"I can only hope that at the age of 70 they remain so relevant, funny and vital as friends, that's it, that I look at them with admiration. Sometimes I walk down the street in Tel Aviv and I can see some Gidi Gov or Alon Olarchik. I see these people and I get excited, and say How beautiful that they walk here in the same streets as me. Sometimes I look at them and I hope that I will be like that too. That I will continue to make music and be some kind of symbol for something for people."

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• Avi Cohen

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