Socalled

Welcome to the eclectic world of master mixer, cratedigger, musical continent-spanner Socalled, AKA Josh Dolgin. Looking beyond the usual pantheon of samples for hip hop artists, Socalled explores the shtetls of Eastern Europe and the Yiddish vaudeville stages of 2nd Avenue for inspiration.

Socalled is a musician, photographer, magician and writer, born Josh Dolgin in Ottawa, Ontario and raised just north, in Chelsea, Quebec. He wrote for the local newspaper, drew cartoons, did magic shows, sang in musicals and played keys in any kind of band - salsa, gospel, rock, funk - then discovered MIDI and hip hop. He worked with rappers, he made madd beats, he snuck into studios. He graduated from McGill and made films, wrote for a magazine and produced for local hip-hop acts, while getting into singing and performing Yiddish music. When the right folks heard his sound, he was immediately engaged in production projects for films, concerts and records. SoCalled performs and records widely with a crew of mixed-up freaks and geniuses from around the world, including C Rayz Walz, Killah Priest, Matisyahu, Fred Wesley, Susan Hoffman-Watts, Frank London, and Irving Fields. His Hiphopkhasene (Piranha) won the German Critics Prize for World Music Album of the Year in 2003; his Socalled Seder (2005, JDUB) and production work with David Krakauer's Klezmer Madness! on Bubbemeises (2005, Label Bleu) also garnered critical acclaim.

"Hip hop is all about representing who you are, your crew. I'm this little white Jewish dude living in the country. It doesn’t make sense for me to rap about guns, cars, and hos. I’m not going to rap about hos," comments SoCalled. "What should I make music about? I should try to represent who I am. When I began digging for samples, I found these old Jewish records, and they were a clue about this funky, old tradition that had been forgotten. Yiddish theater, Cantorial music...all kinds of weird sounds…and the records had the most amazing breaks! And I realized that I could make my hip hop - my music from them."