Golani Style Hardcore Rap
Death / Gangster-Rap from The Battlefields Of Lebanon To The Concert Halls Of North America
By Jewish Mayhem
Photography by Josh Meles www.meles.ca
Video by Jewish Mayhem
Video editing and graphics by Jewish Mayhem
Klee Magor grew up in Toronto, Canada, and hundreds of miles away across the border in Boston, Massachusetts, lived another young Jew by the name of Benny Brahmz.
Neither one knew the other but after High School when most Jewish teenagers go to University or get jobs, or tour with Phish , both Klee and Benny traveled to Israel to join the Israeli Defense Forces.
Moving ahead a many months, Klee and Benny eventually met one another while in the Israeli Defense Forces in the Golani Brigade -12th Battalion , and being that they were the only North Americans it was natural that they become friends; plus they both also loved to rap and write rhymes. After their army services Klee and Benny began rapping together as a duo under the name Riviera Regime in Israel but eventually they relocated to Toronto, Canada where they set up studio.
Moving ahead a few years to the present Klee Magor and Benny Brahmz are still called Riviera Regime and under Klee’s independent label Landmine Entertainment, they already have self-produced two CD’s of some of the best sounding violent, gangster / death rap music that you will ever hear.
To compliment their CD’s are two self-produced videos, the first featuring the entertaining dramatization of a murder, and the second featuring sexy women grinding, pimping, and money. Sex, drugs and gratuitous violence.
What’s not to like about Riviera Regime?
Riviera Regime are obviously pushing some serious dope because underground hip hop juggernaut Necro, who also happens to be a member of the tribe of Judah, hand picked Riviera Regime to be his show opener for his recent very successful 16 city North American tour.
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.
I have posted material about them periodically on Jewish Mayhem but I wanted to do a full feature and now the moment has finally arrived. I am happy to introduce you to Klee Magor and Benny Brahmz of Riviera Regime.
Q: Hey guys, it’s great to finally interview you for Jewish Mayhem.
Klee: No doubt
Q: Let me get some history and chronology going, so where were you born and then grow up and what kind of childhoods and teen lives did you guys have? Did you go to Hebrew school or have Bar Mitzvas or speak Hebrew?
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.
Klee: I was born in Toronto and moved back an’ forth from Israel to Toronto for a period in my life. My parents split when I was young and then my moms moved back to Israel with her new husband. I stayed back in T.O. and barely finished highschool. I lived in the ‘hood ‘wit my pops back then still on Finch Ave. West. I was basically a hoodlum. I been arrested numerous times for being a delinquent on the streets. Thats when I figured it would be smart to split and head to Israel and join the army ‘cuz at that point it would of been either that or jail. And ya we both had Bar Mitzvahs…aint that what all Jewish boys have at 13?
Q: What are your parents heritages, Eastern or Western Jews?
Benny: My moms family is Israeli (ashkenazi Jews), my dads family are American Jews, also ashkenazi. You can say i got Russian, Austrian Jewish ancestry
Klee: Pops side are Hungarian Jews, moms side are Israeli since the 1800′s, but they came from Russia and Lithuania and Poland.
Q: What Tribes are you from, Judah, Levi, Cohen, other?
Benny: Levi.
Klee: The tribe is Israel, fuck divisions…I mean every Jew got a relative named Cohen or Levi, or Levin, etc…. whats the difference really?? We all in the same gang…right?
Q: Why did you guys both decide to go join a foreign army even though it is Israel’s, an army that sees combat which would entail great personal risk? What motivated both of you?
Benny: Family pride, and basically watching a lot of rambo growing up
Klee: Ha ha thats dope….for me it was also a family pride thing, my uncle is a serious war vet in israel and is a colonel in the IDF. I’m a thug and so is Benny so what better place for a thug to find himself then in the Golani brigade!
Q: Did either of you see any action over there?
Klee: Obviously, we served in Lebanon for almost half a year….we weren’t sitting around playing scrabble…
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?
Klee: If its for you, you’ll feel it and know it, and if thats the case, then do it! I ain’t got no regrets!
Benny: Me either, it helped me become a real warrior of life. Me and Klee are proabably tougher then most Jews in the world, Tzahal helped mold us.
Q: When did you both start getting into writing lyrics and rapping and why?
Benny: I used to beatbox aiight, and wrote my first rap in Lebanon, and Klee peeped it and gave me props, and thats when we became tight.
Klee: I been involved in hip hop culture practically my whole life, from my breakin days back in 1984, to my dj’n days in 92,93,94, and then in the army I started writing rhymes and rapping. It was a natural thing for me. Me and Benny even recorded some shit back then, but yall aint gonna hear it cuz its mad amatuer compared to our shit now.
Q: Who were your musical influences then and are they the same now?
Klee: Eazy E, NWA, Rakim, EPMD, BDP, 2 Live Crew, Big Pun, Fat Joe, Mobb Deep, Gangstarr, Wu Tang Clan, Onyx, as far as hip hop is concerned, but thats just to name a few. In Rock and Metal… Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jimmy Hendrix, Metalica, Anthrax, and many others believe me the list goes on……We both like reggae, blues, opera, jazz, all that shit… there’s dope music in all genres.
Q: Did you perform there? What was the scene in Israel like?
Klee: Ya we performed a few times, at this place called the Barbie in south Tel Aviv. The scene was weak when we lived there, after the army there wasn’t much opportunities in rap, at least we didn’t see it, I guess things changed and developed over the years.
Q: Did you meet any other rappers or hip hop artists while in Israel?
Benny: Ya we ran into subliminal around Tel Aviv, before he got a record deal.
Klee: We met Koby Oz and met HaDag Nachash dudes, there were a bunch of dudes we knew from around the way, but the only ones that did anything with their shit is I guess HaDag Nachash and Koby (Subliminal)
Q: Any rappers or hip-hop artists there that you don’t like?
Benny: Not really cuz we havent been there in a long time, so we aint really on the judging tip, but it aint like we really give a fuck about none of that bullshit anyways.
Klee: For real, its all about Riviera Regime and whoever down wit’ our camp.
Q: Tell me about how Thugz Of War the LP came about? Was it easy? Who did the production?
Klee: I produced the whole album
Q: You followed up the LP with that hardcore video, any stories to tell about the making of?
Benny: The video for “Dat Murder Shit” took us 2 days to shoot, and like 7 months to edit…
Klee: Ya because we worked with a retarded video editor, Benny almost beat the fuck outta him, I convinced him not to.
Q: Tell me about how Cold Blooded the LP came about? Was it easy? Who did the production?
Benny: …
Klee: Its never an easy task to record and produce and then release an album, and do it professionally. Shit takes time and patience, and crazy focus, not to mention a lot of passion! I do all the production for Riviera Regime, unless we working wit’ a talented producer and collabin’.
Q: Your second video, do tell?
Benny: We had fun doing that one
Klee: It was a party, bitchez getting naked and shit
Q: So how did you guys end up becoming the opening act for Necro?
Klee: Cuz Necro asked us to roll wit him and open up for him. He is our boy, at this point it ain’t a new thing that we down with Necro, he has been a good friend to the Regime, and I can honestly say that he is one of the truest cats I know. We gonna do an album with him, and Lord Ezec aka Danny Diablo for our combined crew “Jewish Gangsterz” , Its gonna happen sometime in the near future.
Benny: Word…shout out to Ezec and Necro!! JG’z what!
Q: How do you guys get the word out about your selves? What do you do to promote? How have you guys made as far as you have, with investors or…?
Benny: Mainly street hand to hand promo…no investors yet, all our own money.
Klee: internet, myspace has helped, but for the most part it all started with us doing the street hustle, sellin’ cd’s on the streets of Toronto, Miami, New York, and Montreal, Ottawa, spots around Toronto mainly. We had been written about in the Toronto Star, Pound Magazine, Underground radio played us here and there, we did some shows, and we got our cds in HMV stores in Canada.
Q: What was the tour like?
Klee: The tour was dope! one of the best experiences in our lives, but also it was very draining and tiring.
Q: Now for the readers edification, at a Necro concert, many, many barely legal, sober and not so sober, gorgeous, nubile ladies envelop the stage to participate in a fun spectacle of public sexual debauchery while Necro performs his hits? I was backstage and at the after party and frankly what I saw and experienced is no one’s business to know about unless you guys or Necro are the ones to say it. So what stories from the tour can you tell us?
Klee: Nothin major…basically us being Sleazebagz.
Q: As I understand it, Necro is in the Studio and you guys are in the studio recording and producing new material? What can you tell us? Any collaborations?
Klee: You gonna have to wait and see, I don’t wanna’ say nothin’ ’till its ready, feel me….just know when it is ready its gonna’ be hotter then a smoldering corpse!
Q: What are Riviera Regime’s next moves?
Benny: We plannin a video shoot in Israel this summer, shit is gonna be crazy!
Klee: No doubt, plus we working on this new album, and we in the midst of working out a distribution deal for the States.
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Q:Any shoutouts?
RR: Shout outs to all our fans and true Riviera Regime supporters!! Mad love to all of you who bought our music and rep it, and basically to anyone that has helped us spread the word, like Jewish Mayhem….RESPECT!
IF ANYONE WANTS TO CONTRIBUTE TO RIVIERA REGIME THEY CAN CONTACT US AT: RIVIERAREGIME@GMAIL.COM
VISIT OUR ISRAELI PAGE AT Myspace.comrivieraregimeisrael
BRAND NEW WEBSITE IS UP AND RUNNING: www.rivieraregime.com
BOTH ALBUMS AND 12 INCH VINYL AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AND DOWNLOAD HERE: Myspace.com/rivieraregime
Riviera Regime just re-mastered their Hebrew language song Esh Esh and have also since completed a new song called Season Of War which can be heard on their Israeli myspace page.
