Joshua Dolgin (born December 28, 1976), better known by his stage name Socalled, is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

rapper and record producer, known for his eclectic mix of hip hop,

klezmer Klezmer ( yi, קלעזמער or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for l ...

, and other styles such as

drum & bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

and

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

. A

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

and

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

player, he has taught the latter at Klezfest London, where he has also run workshops in "hiphopkele". He has played with clarinetist David Krakauer's Klezmer Madness!, and has also worked with artists such as rappers C-Rayz Walz, Chilly Gonzales,

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

trombonist

Fred Wesley Fred Wesley (born July 4, 1943) is an American trombonist who worked with James Brown in the 1960s and 1970s and Parliament-Funkadelic in the second half of the 1970s. Biography Wesley was born the son of a high school teacher and big band lead ...

, and

Sophie Solomon Sophie Solomon (born 6 June 1978) is a British violinist, songwriter and composer who fuses many different musical influences into her music. She was Artistic Director of the Jewish Music Institute, SOAS (University of London) from 2012 to 201 ...

. Dolgin has

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

and Russian roots.

Life and career

Dolgin's Socalled collective and guests celebrated the Jewish Festival of Lights with the seasonal concert "Hip Hop

Hanukkah or English translation: 'Establishing' or 'Dedication' (of the Temple in Jerusalem) , nickname = , observedby = Jews , begins = 25 Kislev , ends = 2 Tevet or 3 Tevet , celebrations = Lighting candles each night. ...

" in 2007. He is the subject of ''The "Socalled" Movie'', a documentary released in 2010 by Garry Beitel for the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

, which also features Krakauer and Wesley. The documentary includes footage of the first "Klezmer Cruise", in which a boatload of klezmer fans sailed down the

Dnieper River } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and B ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. In 2013, his remix of Moe Koffman's "Curried Soul" became the new theme music for CBC Radio One's '' As It Happens''. His 2011 recording "Work With What You Got" was co-written by and features vocals by calypso legend

The Mighty Sparrow Slinger Francisco ORTT CM OBE (born July 9, 1935), better known as Mighty Sparrow, is a Trinidadian calypso vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist. Known as the "Calypso King of the World", he is one of the best-known and most successful calyp ...

."Work With What You Got" (official video)
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Discography

Albums

* ''HiphopKhasene'' (with

Solomon Solomon (; , ),, ; ar, سُلَيْمَان, ', , ; el, Σολομών, ; la, Salomon also called Jedidiah (Hebrew language, Hebrew: , Modern Hebrew, Modern: , Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yăḏīḏăyāh'', "beloved of Yahweh, Yah"), ...

) (2003) * ''Consensus: Live in Concert'' (with Beyond the Pale) (2005) * ''The So Called Seder: A Hip Hop Haggadah'' (2005) * ''Ghettoblaster'' (2007) * ''SleepOver'' (2011) * ''The Season'' (A musical presented during the Pop Montreal festival with Yves Lambert, Katie Moore, Rich Ly, Josh Goldman, Yassin "The Narcicyst" and Josh Dolgin) (2013) * ''Peoplewatching'' (2015) * ''Isaac Babel's Tales From Odessa: A Socalled Yiddish Musical'' (2017) * ''Di Frosh'' (with Kaiser Quartett) (2018) * ''The 2nd Season'' (2019)

Singles

*"(These Are The) Good Old Days" (2007) *"You Are Never Alone" (2007) *"(Rock The) Belz" (2007)

Self

*''The Socalled Movie'' (2010)

References

External links

Socalled
official site
''The "Socalled" Movie''
at NFB.ca
Exclaim.ca September 2007 Interview with Socalled
{{DEFAULTSORT:Socalled 1976 births Living people Anglophone Quebec people Canadian hip hop record producers 21st-century Canadian rappers Canadian people of Romanian-Jewish descent Canadian people of Russian-Jewish descent Canadian people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Canadian gay musicians Jewish Canadian musicians Jewish rappers Klezmer musicians LGBT Jews LGBT rappers Musicians from Montreal Musicians from Ottawa Jewish hip hop record producers Canadian male rappers Label Bleu artists