The idea for a band had existed in Josh Norek’s head for many years before it was realized. The now-32-year-old, who is both Jewish and has family from Colombia on his father’s side, later met Abraham Velez, who is also 32, of Puerto-Rican and Jewish descent, and worked in the Latin alternative music industry. The pair, according to Norek, began making music together just for fun with no serious commercial expectations. They even named themselves Hip Hop Hoodíos. That was in 2001.
Now, eight years later, the Latino-Jewish urban collective just released their new album, titled Carne Masada: Quite Possibly the Very Best of Hip Hop Hoodíos. The album, a sort of “Best Hits” compilation with a few new songs, features collaborations with members of The Pinker Tones, Ozomatli, and The Klezmatics. Carne Masada’s digital edition was released this past spring and the CD was released on May 12th.
Recently, nocheLatina had the chance to talk to Josh Norek of Hip Hop Hoodíos. He talks with us about the meaning behind the group’s name, NYC’s current gentrification, and what he hopes the group accomplishes through its music.
nocheLatina: I’d like to talk about your group’s name. How did you guys come up with the name Hip Hop Hoodíos?
Josh Norek: It’s a play on words. Normally, the word for Jewish in Spanish is 'Judío.' We spell it ‘Hoodío,' like from the hood. We’ve always had a pretty strong sense of humor. We approach everything from a bilingual perspective. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. The name is how we are.
nocheLatina: I understand the album is a ‘Best of’ collection with five new tracks. Are there any particular messages or themes within the album that you’d like to share?
Josh Norek: Yea, there are particular messages. The song ‘Times Square (1989)’ sort of deals with the gentrification in New York City. Times Square in the 80's was a lot grittier, a lot more dangerous, but now I think that Times Square has also become a lot more Disneyland. There are pros and cons of the changes in New York.
nocheLatina: What spurred you to want to write about this subject?
Josh Norek: It’s something kind of personal. My great-grandfather owned a storefront on the corner of 43rd St between 8th and 9th avenues. That building sat vacant for years and then in the early 90's, this Mafioso porn shop and this gay store called ‘Male Box’ opened up there. My running joke is that Mafia money, in true NY fashion, financed my education. When Giuliani became mayor, the city purchased a lot of property around there. We were forced into selling the property to the city.
nocheLatina: What is your opinion of New York City and its current gentrification? Do you wish it was 20 years earlier?
Josh Norek: That’s a hard question. No, I don’t miss the danger that was there, it was definitely a very dangerous place. It did have much more soul, however; there were a lot more places to see more live music. I think a lot of us would like to see an in-between.
nocheLatina: Do you have a favorite song on the album?
Josh Norek: This album is sort of a ‘greatest hits,’ collection. As far as new songs, I think ‘Times Square (1989).’ There’s also a traditional Jewish song called ‘Hava Nagila.’ We, of course, made a merengue mix- it was something fun that we did. It just seemed like a funny concept.
nocheLatina: How do you determine which genres to mix together for a song?
Josh Norek: I wish there was a scientific approach to that. We are a little different from other hip-hop groups in that we also play our own instruments. For ‘Kike on the Mike,’ Abe came up with a guitar melody. There really isn’t a fixed plan when we start writing, but it’s whatever comes natural. The bottom line is that there is no formula but we have a lot of fun collaborating with other artists, like The Klezmatics, a Grammy-winning klezmer band and members of Santana. Each collaborator also brings something to the table.
nocheLatina: How does being a bicoastal group work in terms of making music together?
Josh Norek: Sure, people always ask us that. If we lived in the same city, we probably would have broken up years ago. The nice thing is you have your space, though you have to take sort of longer to create an album. In a way, it makes you more focused and with technology, you can e-mail the ideas to one another. We don’t always have to be in the same place anymore.
nocheLatina: Your band’s music has been featured in a number of films and television shows including MTV’s ‘Life of Ryan’ and the Warner Bros Pictures release Pride & Glory. What, in your opinion, do you think attracts film and TV show producers to your music?
Josh Norek: I think they’re looking for music that fits a certain vibe. They put our song ‘Masa Judía’ for a drug dealing scene in Washington Heights, but the song, its beats, convey what they thought would be playing in the radio. They liked the song for the scene. We also had a song in a Volkswagen commercial. It’s a crazy sort of cumbia meets other genres and it fit with the vibe that they wanted in the ad.
nocheLatina: After listening to your group’s music, what do you hope your listeners get out of it?
Josh Norek: We always hope that our music helps bring people together from different backgrounds. I think that when we do shows, we always have a different audience. When we perform in NY and the east coast, our audience is about 70 percent Jewish and 30 percent Puerto-Rican and Hispanic. In the west coast, we have a more Chicano, Latin alternative audience. It’s always cool when you can bring people together and it’s really nice just to have multiple genres.
nocheLatina: Do you guys have any upcoming projects that we should know about?
Josh Norek: We are working on a remix right now for ‘Times Square (1989)’ with Monareta, an electronic DJ crew. We expect the release for that for early 2010.
nocheLatina: What is your ultimate goal in life?
Josh Norek: I think we’ve met a lot of our goals. It’d be great to just continue putting out albums. There are very few albums I like from people over 30. I’d like to think that hopefully people would listen to us later on. We make music for ourselves, first and foremost. If not, then what’s the point? It’s for fun.
For more information on Hip Hop Hoodíos, click here.
