What’s the story behind NECRO’s Mayhem?
By Joshua Andrews & Dustin Herlich
Concert photos by Josh Meles – www.Meles.ca
Video Footage by Hebe-X
Audio of Necro interview done by Elayne Laken – www.nyceone.com
Special thanks to RIVIERA REGIME
www.NECROHIPHOP.COM
www.psychologicalrecords.com
www.myspace.com/necrohiphop
First, you take 100% pure, uncut, dope beats that will get you hooked like a junkie, coupled with witty lyrical rhymes about the most violent, gruesome, sick and twisted shit that life has to offer. Add in orgy-istic and sadistic sexual carnage and produce this into a symphonic and rhythmic hip-hop adventure and what you get is the music of Brooklyn, NY based death-rap juggernaut NECRO.
His lyrics have been described as “obscene”, “twisted”, “vulgar”, “pornographic” and “violent”, his beats and sound productions have been described as “100% pure, uncut dope” and he’s received godlike praises from his tens upon tens of thousands of fans for his rhythmic delivery and his unique voice. Many fans have even gone as far as to tattoo NECRO’s messages and imagery on their bodies.
His style of music, which he helped define, can be categorized as either death-rap or rap-metal. The mix of metal and hip-hop that he has formulated makes him a musical pioneer; settling new, uncharted territories in the music world. If you have never heard of the 30 year old rap music artist before then take a strong hint from us that anyone with a moniker like NECRO (as in necrophiliac – one who engages in sexual acts with the deceased) and true to life photos like the ones in this article, along with lyrics like: “Stab you in your face with a butcher knife that’s really long, I’ll make you feel this song, when I beat you down to it, I don’t care if I appear wrong kid, I’ll do it” - from his song Murder Your Life, is someone that you should take very seriously indeed; love him or hate him.
If we had to give you examples of, or to make comparisons of other musicians and bands to NECRO, well, we are not going to. Instead we’re just going to piss you off and say that NECRO’s music sounds like NECRO’s music and you can make your own judgment and form your own opinions after watching his videos here, courtesy of NECRO and Youtube.com. Were you to read about this extreme dude who calls himself NECRO in any other media other than Jewish Mayhem it would probably never occur to you that the self-made, up and coming music producer, death-rap artist and independent record label owner, is a Jew, a Heeb, a Yid, one of the tribe of Judah, that is of course until you learn that his real name is Ron Braunstein and that his parents are Israeli.
NECRO is not a new phenomena or seasonal novelty that has just been discovered; he has been doing his thing in the underground hip-hop world for over 15 years now, building his career and fan-base systematically and methodically. A recent KOCH Entertainment Distribution press release stated concisely: “NECRO started his own record label called Psycho+Logical-Records in 1999 when he was only 23. His first disc, “I Need Drugs”, sold a few thousand units. In 2001, NECRO struck a deal for his second album, “Gory Days”. This album sold over 30,000 copies with pretty much no no touring and very little promotion. From 2002 through 2003, Necro released a CD/DVD special edition of “Gory Days”, the porno “Sexy Sluts”, a compilation album and his first mixed CD. His third solo album, “The Pre-Fix For Death”, released in 2004, featured the first hybrid between real hip-hop and real metal. 2005 saw the release his sex-themed album “The Sexorcist”.
Expanding Psycho+Logical-Records catalog, he produced solo albums for all three MC’s of the critically acclaimed underground hip-hop group NON PHIXION. These releases included his brother Ill Bill, Sabac, and Goretex. He also produced an album with hip-hop artist and hype man Mr. Hyde, and put together the “Circle of Tyrants” album, a super-group featuring Necro, Ill Bill, Mr. Hyde, and Goretex. In the following year, Psycho+Logical-Records released instrumental albums for nearly every one of the past albums Necro produced. Necro’s forthcoming CD “Death Rap” will be released via KOCH this fall.”
NECRO has also directed and self-produced four of his own videos; “187 Reasonz Y”, shot on super 8mm in black and white (1997); “The Devil Made Me Do It”, shot on 16mm film in color; “I Need Drugs” music video shot on High 8 in color (2000); and even the adult film “Sexy Sluts: Been There, Done That” (2003). One thing in particular that NECRO has done in order to make a name for himself and to set himself apart is that he directed and produced (and appeared in) his own XXX film. As mentioned above, the 2003 film “Sexy Sluts: Been There, Done That” comes complete with a hardcore fuck scene featuring the super hot and super slutty, former Penthouse Pet, Lanny Barbie.
NECRO told Jewish Mayhem, “On my Circle of tyrants album…I did a song with the drummer from Sepultura and I have a guy from the group metal band Testamental on lead solos on the metal tracks. I did a track with drummer Vinny Appice who was the drummer of Black Sabbath in the Eighties and in the group DIO. So I mean I work with metal dudes, plus I play rythym and bass myself. I was always very metal influenced, since I was twelve years old I was playing death metal.”
Up until 2005 NECRO worked like a logical psycho, non-stop, recording new material and pushing his own artistic limits further and further until mid-year when he launched a 16 city North American concert tour with Toronto based gangster rap duo Riviera Regime opening up for him; both Klee and Benny from RR are ex-IDF soldiers. Necro told Jewish Mayhem before his tour, “I dropped like 10 albums in 17 months. I did a lot of work. Now I gotta spend some time on the business. I did a lot of music, and now I need to take care of some other things. I do a lot, but you really can’t do everything at once. I’m chilling with the recording, but it’s all in my mind. I’m getting things ready. I’m listening to shit so I can get inspired.”
So what does NECRO listen to in order to get inspired by or to chill out to, according to NECRO, he doesn’t’t listen to a lot of hip-hop. “I’m really more into listening to Metallica, Pantera, death metal, stuff like that. I listen to metal for my inspiration.” This influence definitely shows up in his music, which blends metal and rap. His unique blend is what keeps the reviews glowing and the larger and larger crowds coming to his shows, but certainly having droves of nubile, sexy, barely legal women choosing to come up on stage to dance during songs and in many cases, to voluntarily strip on stage makes NECRO’s shows an over the top, fun festival of debauchery.
As he put it “I always move forward, I always move up. Regardless of whether or not you like me or not, I’m here, and I’m going places.” Unlike many Jews in entertainment who have historically tried to gentilize their names and identities in order to earn the goyim’s love, as we call it, NECRO in contrast makes no apologies for what he does, or his opinions. “I’ve never been ashamed (about being a Jew) of who I am, even when I was young.” He adds “It’s how I am. I’m not really religious, but it’s my culture. You say something bad about it and you’ll get slapped in your face.” Unlike many Jews who boast such bravado and boast about standing up for the honor of our nation, NECRO has smacked his fair share of big mouths in actuality.
[flv width="640" height="576"]http://www.jewishmayhem.com/video/whosyourdaddy.flv[/flv]
Who’s Your Daddy – Toronto
Ron Braunstein aka NECRO is definitely not your typical Jew in many regards as you can see. Think about it, besides Matisyahu and the Beastie Boys, just how many other Jews are successful rappers on an international scale, and then ask yourself just how many of those rappers are anything even remotely as threatening and menacing as NECRO is? Now to play devil’s advocate, by whose and what standard do we measure NECRO’s success with? Well for starters, unlike 98% of the musicians out there, NECRO has not sold any rights for a single product of his to anyone, and he now has many CDs and merchandise to sell. Therefore when he says he sold 100,000 CDs and 10,000 shirts, because he owns and controls everything from the production to the business end of distribution, promotion and marketing, he makes far, far more dough per unit than any artist signed onto any label. We consider that pretty damn successful generally speaking and in our opinion that makes him a successful artist and a pretty savvy businessman.
It may be of no suprise for you to learn that before NECRO was dealing CDs of his music he was dealing drugs to the level that as he says on his myspace page, “he even made up business cards for friends to page him. While he was successful with dealing, the day he got paid $3,000 for 1 beat was the moment that he realized there was a less risky way to make a living.” No doubt, the lessons that he learned from hustling on the street propelled him.
NECRO is certainly not your typical Jew in the entertainment industry for that matter as well. What we mean by that is that too many Jews in the entertainment business know more about Jesus than about Judah and they identify more with Buddah than they do with Torah. In contrast, while NECRO does not wear his wear his ethnicity on his sleeve or include it into his art as a gimmick, NECRO is proud of his heritage and is very pro-Israel and very much into the concept of being a smart, savvy and tough Jew.The late Jewish leader Rabbi Meir kahane would have phrased NECRO’s style as, ” a Jewish head behind a Jewish fist”. NECRO is very aware of who he is and what his roots are and where he wants to go in life.
[pro-player width='640' height='576' type='video']http://www.jewishmayhem.com/video/murderyalife.flv[/pro-player]
Murder Ya Life – Toronto
We asked him in 2005 how he felt about Jews in the music business who are either on stage or behind the scenes and if he receives any preferential treatment because he is a Jew, to which he replied, “I don’t get no fucking help, I get no help from no Jews.” We asked him to elaborate on this to which he replied, “Here’s the funny fucking thing, I am one of the proudest Jews. Now when I say that I am a proud Jew…that means that I’m not some douchebag that uses it as fucking gimmick. Ya know what I am saying? I’m not here to say that (Sarcasm) Ooooh I’m Jewish, I’m going to rap about being a Jew. That’s a fucking gimmick to me. I am a Jew because I was born a Jew and mother is a Jew, and I go and celebrate Shabbas with her, and we eat chicken cutlets and I love chicken soup and I love my grandmother rest in peace from the Holocaust, because I am. It’s not a fucking gimmick.”
NECRO has numerous lyrics in his massive repertoire of songs that refer to his and his older brother Bill’s tough childhoods and what it was like for them growing up in the projects of Brooklyn, but not in a specific Jewish manner. It would be incorrect to define or classify or to label NECRO as a “Jewish rapper” because he does not rap about being Jewish or about Jewish matters nor does he use middle eastern motifs in his music whatsoever, NECRO is a Jew who does rap really, really well, whether you like his music or not. If you did not know that he was a Jew and nothing stood out from his music as Jewish, you would not then label him as a Jewish rapper, but rather a white rapper.
When NECRO was referring to a “douchebag that uses it as fucking gimmick”, only one particular Jewish rapper comes to our minds, the Jewish national embarrassment and literally public traitor to the Jewish people, NYC based Aviad “50 Shmekels” Cohen ( a nauseating disingenuous parody on Fitty Cent). 50 Shmekels as we call him, inexplicably exploded off of the bar mitzva circuit and onto the mass media a few years ago and was portrayed as something new and exciting and worthwhile, when all he was in reality was a completely studio created musician, a below average performer and just a general, all around big mouth with an even bigger ego. Aviad’s Shmekels were eventually laughed away by one and all, but not before he earned some serious, choice media attention by everyone from Heeb magazine to Israel’s national newspapers and made some undeserved dollars for his shmekels CDs. Aviad eventually had a complete nervous breakdown because of the humiliation and embarrassment that he brought upon himself and his poor family and to hip hop, he explained on his website not too long ago, but then he found Christianity. Yup, Aviad actually publicly converted to Christianity and has since become a full blown, fanatical, arrogant, mouthpiece for the insidious and anti-Jewish, Christian movement, Jews for Jesus. Where is that lighting bolt when ya really want it?
We asked NECRO how did he come to transition and fuse metal to rap-hip hop? What inspired him? “In the projects you’d hear hip hop, it was just like a culture in the projects itself. I just remember just being a kid and being into metal and at the same time hearing hip hop, it was almost the same to me and I never really separated it really in my mind. There was also a station called U68 that would play one video after another. One video you’d see a Queen video, then you’d see Beastie Boys, then you’d see Anthrax, then you’d see RUN DMC …so…we were just being brainwashed like dope. I taught myself how to play. I would pick out sings and shit ya know because I basically had good ears and I was actually able to pick out songs at such a young age and kinda pick it out. I am not technically a good player, but yet technically I am a great player. I can’t really tell ya the chords and the notes, but I can sit down and play parts of technical and insane rhythm shit on guitar. I consider myself a great writer. I’m really dope on bass, like a 70′s bass player, ya know, straight outa of a fuckin 70′s record. When I say 70′s record, I’m talking about 70′s funk, jazz fusion…ya know. I’m talking David Axelrod type shit which is like the type of shit shit you’d see in 70′s movies, ya know, the funky hill shit. I’ll write the craziest shit. I consider myself more head music. I like people to kick the fuck back, in their crib, and then put my shit on and listen and analyze it.”
NECRO has since played shows in England for the first time and has recently announced upcoming shows in Australia for the first time with Riviera Regime opening up for him. NECRO was a featured performer on this summer’s Sounds of the Underground tour, both of which can be attributed to NECRO’s signing a serious distribution deal back in June of 2007, with KOCH Entertainment Distribution. They announced in a Press release in June “that it has signed an exclusive distribution deal with Psycho+Logical-Records. Under this agreement, KOCH is the exclusive physical and digital distributor of the label in North America. NECRO had this to say about it, “We are proud to present and be a part of the KOCH family, since KOCH is making so many moves in the indie game, basically turning the indie world into a major game and leveling the playing field. KOCH had the best situation to offer as a distribution partner so we decided to work with them. We feel they see our vision and we will fit well in their business model at retail.”
[pro-player width='640' height='576' type='video']http://www.jewishmayhem.com/video/buryyouwithsatan.flv[/pro-player]
Bury You With Satan – Toronto
“We’re very excited to be working with Psycho+Logical-Records,” commented Eric Lemasters, VP Business Development for KOCH Entertainment. “As KOCH continues its domination of the urban market, Psycho+Logical and Necro’s releases will complement our efforts in that genre and the added marketing crossover potential into the metal scene is a unique situation that will only add to their value.”
[pro-player width='640' height='576' type='video']http://www.jewishmayhem.com/video/getonyourknees.flv[/pro-player]
Get On Your Knees – Toronto
NEW NECRO ALBUM – DEATH RAP – IN STORES SEPT. 11TH!
FEAT. SCOTT IAN OF ANTHRAX, MARK MORTON OF LAMB OF GOD, DAVE ELLEFSON OF MEGADETH, BRIAN FAIR OF SHADOWS FALL, HARLEY FLANAGAN OF THE CRO-MAGS, MIKE SMITH OF SUFFOCATION, STEVE DIGIORGIO OF DEATH/SADUS, ADAM JACKSON OF TWELVE TRIBES, RAY ALDER OF FATES WARNING + ILL BILL & MR. HYDE
[pro-player width='640' height='576' type='video']http://www.jewishmayhem.com/video/necrotoronto.flv[/pro-player]
Necro Show Highlights – Toronto
I met Klee and Benny in the winter of 2005 in downtown Toronto not too long after they released their first CD “Thugz of War” and their first video, and because I had also served as a lone soldier in the IDF, we immediately had a instant connection and have remained friends since.
Benny: I was born in Israel and lived in Jerusalem ’til like 5 years old, thats when we moved to Boston and we lived there for a while ’til I was a teenager basically. My parents divorced when i was young and my family life was fucked up ‘cuz my parents couldn’t get along. I was a drifter and pretty much a loner type for a while and I used to be into capoeira and martial arts and shit, but when I finished high school I decided to join the IDF and become a warrior.
Q: What do you guys have to say about the whole volunteering for the army choice now years later, would you have changed anything and do you have any advice to tell anyone else considering volunteering for the IDF? 
Q: Who were your musical influences then and are they the same now?
Q: Tell me about how Cold Blooded the LP came about? Was it easy? Who did the production? 
Q: What was the tour like?
This issue was a lot of fun to put together for a few reasons. A man named Brian Gross who is an agent and PR rep to adults stars such as Sasha Grey, contacted me about a new made in Israel xxx film called Assraelies that may be good for Jewish Mayhem. I was happy to feature a good quality xxx film that was made by Jews and Israelis and also made in Israel.
