Hello Daily Briefing listeners, here's a look back at a favorite Times Will Tell episode from the last year, an interview with Israeli rap impresario Shaanan Streett, the founding member of hip hop/funk band Hadag Nahash.

It's been 25 years since hip hop rappers Hadag Nahash appeared on the Israeli music scene, introducing their brand of feel-good Middle Eastern groove with a hefty dose of Israeli left-wing politics.

They're still writing, singing and performing. Frontman Shaanan Streett has continued to celebrate his six-way partnership, alongside solo ventures including his first novel, "A Moment of Eternity," about Jerusalem skateboarders and graffiti artists.

Streett spoke with The Times of Israel for a Times Will Tell episode earlier this year, discussing his book, his decision to continue living and working in his hometown of Jerusalem, and his decade-long effort to learn Arabic.

Streett, 50, was born in Israel to American parents and is fluent in Hebrew and English, but didn't begin learning Arabic until he was 40.

He said that while Israelis are learning Arabic in greater numbers than ever before, there's something unique about studying it in Jerusalem, whose Arab neighborhoods, in East Jerusalem, are a world apart from the Jewish areas of the capital.

"When you study in Jerusalem, you take your car and you cross an unseen line into another world and you park your car in the other world where everybody is now speaking Arabic, where you are now a minority," said Streett. "And if you want to go and buy a beigele, which I do and I do it in Arabic, everybody knows that this here is now the Jew coming to speak in Arabic."

It is the diversity found in Jerusalem that has kept Streett in the city, he said, despite his Hadag Nahash bandmates and many friends having migrated to Tel Aviv.

"[Jerusalem] reminds you every day that numerous people lead a very different everyday life than you do," said Streett. "And you can dip your toe in that for as deep as you want. So the old, the new, the religious, the secular, the different religions, the different languages, the different cultures. It looks very nice on a postcard. It's sometimes very difficult to live through, but it's always interesting."

There's a natural connection between all of it, said Streett, from his initial decision to make hip-hop music in Hebrew to writing about skateboarding, graffiti and even dream interpretation.

"It's like you need less of a necktie," said Streett, using a popular Israeli saying that means "come as you are." "You take off the tie and you were a painter, but now you're a graffiti artist. So hip-hop has the same element."

IMAGE: Rapper, philosopher, writer and Jerusalemite Shaanan Streett, lead singer and founding member of Hadag Nachash (Courtesy Ohad Romano)

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