Y-LOVE / SHEMSPEED EURO TOUR

a.k.a. What we did over winter break.

1. Went to Paris to check out L’As Du Falafel, the famous falafel spot that the celebs all eat in.

2. Went to the Jewish quarter and found a shop with rare Jewish records. I asked them where they got the records and how often they sold them. They told me that they were left over from 30 years ago when they bought them! They said I was their first sale this year of the records. The year ended 2 weeks after this happened!! Was hoping for more records, but heard later at our show, that SoCalled beat us to it!

3. Played in Paris. Was insanely amazing. Words don’t do justice, so…check out this clip (Y-Love speaks in French!):

4. Get to East London to kick it with Anomaly MC from Emunah and his Psycho Semitic party. PS is a fusion of cultures, faiths and races which fits well with our Hip Hop Sulha aesthetic and mission, so we were excited to headline. Twas mostly non Jews, but the Chabad Rabbi of Bristol was there and I spotted some kippa’d folks… The show had an amazing vibe, almost like a house party!

5. Heard our driver say the word Educationalist, which i could have sworn was a made up conjugation of a word by Ali G, but the driver schooled me that it was actually a British conjugation. That ruined a perfectly brilliant Ali G moment for me.

6. LimmudUK – We loved it! Although Paris is a bit hard to beat. There were over 2000 Jews as part of this years Limmud and we had nearly taken over the University. The program guide looked more like a text book just because there was such a wide variety of diverse programming throughout the week. The food sucked, but the accommodations and presentations were top notch. In fact I stayed in my own room which was a loft and not a loft like the ones in Williamsburg that you have to walk up makeshift stairs and pray to not fall all while getting ready to duck your head down and hope to not scare away your date because you cant fully stand in your own “bedroom”. I’m always suprised at bumping into people at these sorts of things because for some reason I am still convinced that I am not “that Jew”. You know, like “that guy”. The guy who always knows everyone and says the wrong things but still has the most fun at the parties. Well, switch “Guy” for “Jew” and parties for conferences and you got that feeling that I kept feeling!

Oh..before I sign out, one other really funny thing happened. This one guy here was dressing up like a chabadnik and had a whole shpiel. He came up to us with it, but when it came to his questions where are you from and we said Crown Heights, he kinda freaked out. So then he told us it was an act and asked us for tips and such, that way he could be more believable. Right after this, I saw him go up to Neshama Carlebach and Noah Solomon, without knowing who they were, and tried the same shpiel. They asked him who his Rabbi was and he said Shlomo! So, they asked who Shlomo was and he said Carlebach! So they kept pretending they didn’t know who that Rabbi was and so he kept trying to answer until Neshama was like, “oh really?” … “HE IS MY DAD!!!!!” oh, p.s. this “Rabbi from Crown Heights” also led the “Yeshiva of the Absurd” today which was totally awesome and at times very scary.

7. Wrote about it all for Jewlicious. See you at Jewlicious Fest!!!!

TO VIEW ALL PHOTOS FROM THE TOUR CLICK, Shemspeed’s Flickr

Y-Love, Jake Break and dj handler Live in London

Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman spotting in Paris!