On Mar. 23, numerous Furman University organizations worked together to bring Nissim Black to campus to perform. He held an hour-long concert and performed 16 of his songs with a brief intermission.
Nissim Black is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. He grew up in a musical household and began rapping at a young age. His relationship with religion was not always clear and as his career progressed, he began questioning his beliefs. In 2009, Nissim Black and his family converted to Judaism, and he left his former career behind. Several years later, he reentered a career in music and remains heavily influenced by his faith. Since his return to music, Black has had a very successful career and is developing an HBO series.
His song list during the concert included several of his hits such as “Mothaland Bounce,” “Best Friend”, “Victory”, and “Win”. All his songs during the concert were infectious and had everyone dancing along. This concert reassembled more of a worship service at times, but his songs have an easy-to-enjoy rhyme and sound. His songs, such as “Victory” and “Best Friend,” are very clearly worship songs. In the song “Win,” Black sings “I only go when I know that he’s there, cuz he in my heart so I never get scared. The ‘he’ Black is referencing is God. If one walks with God, they should not be scared of where they are going. Similarly, in “Best Friend,” Black says “treat you like my best friend,” again referring to God. In this song, he also apologizes for separating from religion in the line “I left you for a few years and I really regret those.” Those lines could also be about his departure from music, which he also came back to. Regardless of the subject, it perfectly sums up his current career and material as he combines his love for God and music. Finally, his song “Mothaland Bounce” details his journey to where he is now. Black says “From Seattle, the rainy city, where my mom lives. In Jerusalem the golden city that was conquered.” This line details his childhood to where he is now.
Regardless of where you lay on the religious spectrum, music is common ground. While religion can divide people, music brings people together. This event proved that fact. While not everyone in that concert follow the same religion as Nissim Black, we all gathered as a Furman community to enjoy music and experience a type of music many of us are probably not familiar with.
