I hope that everyone is well and those in the UK and feeling too cold with the recent snowfalls. I got up early today and went round taking photos of Cambridge in the snow. It was really beautiful. But I digress…

Tomorrow I’m going to be interviewed on the drive time show of London’s new Jewish radio station, Shalom FM. If you live in Bushey, Hendon, Mill Hill, Wembley or Wilesden (or even beyond according to their advert!) you can tune in on 101.4 FM. If you’re not and would still like to listen, you can listen online at www.shalomfm.com. I’m scheduled to be on at 17.30 GMT.

I’ve had a fair amount of press coverage of late, with features (and a front page appearance!) in the Jewish Telegraph and Jewish Chronicle. The London Jewish News will be putting something in at some point in February, and I’ve also been contacted by a couple of international journalists; more on that if anything comes of it. The articles are now up online at www.antithesismc.com/press if you would like to have a read.

I’ve also been contacted regarding a couple of performances in London around Purim time and that is currently being finalised. Furthermore there has emerged the possibility of me being featured on a new compilation CD of Jewish rap artists (there are quite a few of them, you know!) although that is going to take several months before it is all cut and dried.

CD sales are continuing to go well, approaching the 400 figure, and what is very exciting is the number of orders now coming in from abroad, particularly from the United States. Keep them coming!

Finally, I feel that I can’t send an email without mentioning the recent events in Israel regarding the return of the MIAs. Following extensive negotiations four of them – Adi Avitan, Benny Avraham, Omar Souad and Elchanan Tannenbaum – are hopefully going to be released tomorrow in return for Israel giving back over four hundred terrorists it currently holds prisoner. Whilst it is a shame that these people will be able to walk the streets as free men, it is wonderful that the soldiers will be coming home. Hopefully the other four will also be returned in the near future.

One thing to note – the Hezbollah can’t resist turning the knife in the wound of the soldiers’ families; it is refusing to confirm or deny rumours that Adi, Benny and Omar are dead and Israel will just be getting their bodies. Even if it is just their bodies that are returned, it is great that they will receive a proper burial. However it just shows the inhumanity of these terrorist organisations.

For more info peep www.haaretz.com or www.jpost.com.

Well, it’s been a busy month or so since I last got in touch with you…let me fill you in on what’s been going on.

First, the CDs all arrived, nicely packaged with the artwork (thank you – you know who you are!), ready to ship out and start selling. First all the pre-orders were dealt with, and you should all now have a copy if your order has come in. Then it was onto real time sales and soon we started moving lots of units.

For a brief interlude I headed off to (near) Wales to run my youth movement’s annual conference (where I made sure nearly everyone bought a CD!) before travelling to Nottingham and Limmud. Limmud is an annual Jewish educational conference. It is pluralist, so you get people there who are completely irreligious and people who are very religious indeed, with lots of people in the middle. It’s a really nice atmosphere and in addition to lectures during the day the evening is filled with music and drama and all sorts of cultural activities. This is where I came in. Following a live rendition of the majority of the EP (photos online soon) I was suddenly very much in demand and I managed to sell an awful lot of CDs, as well as getting some very nice feedback. For example, I was sitting next to a chap called Rabbi Telushkin at lunch one day. He’s a very well-known (and very amiable!) author of several books. We got talking and we began talking about my rapping. He mentioned that he didn’t always approve of the lyrics of the rap songs that his son liked. He said that he’d give my CD a listen, and it was great when I heard him exclaim incredulously: “it’s really good!”. He couldn’t quite believe that he liked a rap CD but
bought one as a result and it was very gratifying to hear that from someone who would not normally be a hip hop fan.

Also at Limmud I met up with Hadag Nachash, a major rap outfit in Israel, who are a little like The Roots. We chatted and they said they liked the CD, so we’ll have to wait and see if anything comes of that. There too were Chaim and Efrat Avraham, father and sister respectively of one of the Israeli Missing in Action soldiers about whom I recorded my first song. He was really touched by my efforts and took a whole load of CDs back to Israel to give to the families. They spend all their time campaigning to try and secure the men’s release and Chaim said that he really appreciated the fact that people in Britain cared and were trying to do something. People sometimes ask what I hope to achieve with my record – will it actually have much impact on the situation? I hope it will, just by raising awareness of the soldiers’ plight, but even if it doesn’t, the fact that it can make the families feel a little better means it is all worth it as far as I am concerned.

So, what now? I’m currently finalising a strategy that will see agents in various key places around the country plugging my CD and selling copies. I’m looking at doing a mini tour that will encompass Leeds and Birmingham and a couple of other places along the way (let me know if you’re interested). I’ve been exploring distribution possibilities in the USA, France and Israel, and have had a few press enquiries (some very exciting, but nothing confirmed just yet). It’s all kicking off in this week’s Jewish Telegraph for all the Northerners out there…

To finish off this mammoth update, I thought I’d let you know that I’ve received a few really nice emails over the past few days from people who have heard my CD over the past few weeks and have decided to do something to help the MIA cause as a result. That is what it’s all about. I know a couple of them are on this list so I’d just like to thank you – you make it all worthwhile.

One final thing – the CD price will be going up on Sunday so if you want the cheap price hurry up and order now! Also, as my marketing budget is not very large, the best way of getting more sales is through word of mouth. So, if you like the music, tell your friends! CD sales are exceeding all expectations at the moment and I hope they will continue to do so, so that I can give some serious money to charity.

Thanks so much for your support!