Subliminal, Kobi Shimoni, was born in 1979 in Tel-Aviv, Israel.
He started creating Hip-Hop sections at the age of 12, and even recorded improvisations. As a teenager
he appeared in discos and pubs which usually performed Reggae music, and in practice introduced Hip-Hop
to Israeli clubs. He started the first Hip-Hop club in Israel, and
was a actively involved in the starting of many others around
Tel-Aviv, including “Seven”, “The Joint”, “Virus”, “House on
26” and more. Friends from Los-Angeles, who heard him
perform in freestyle, persuaded Subliminal to try and sing Rap
in Hebrew. At the time, there wasn’t a recording studio in Israel
that dealt with the genre, so Subliminal built one; nor was there
a Hip-Hop stage, so Subliminal opened a club and offered a
stage to Hip-Hop artists in the club. At the age of 17 he was the
initiator of the revolutionary Rap
project “Angry Israelis, Each and
Every
One”,
and
positive
comments
and
reviews
encouraged Subliminal to keep on in his mission to create successful Hip-
Hop in Hebrew.
Subliminal immediately started to write material for his first album, “The
Light from Zion”. None of the people surrounding him
believed that there is a chance for the album to be a success,
but Subliminal drew a team around him that pursued a single
goal – to fulfil the dream of “Real Israeli Hip-Hop in Hebrew”.
And thus, in that revolutionary team, the first cornerstone of
Israeli Hip-Hop was born, in the form of his first album; thus
also began the team – “the TACT family – architects of Israeli Hip-Hop”.
When the album’s creation was almost complete, Subliminal was drafted to 3 years of
military service in the IDF and so the project was halted; nevertheless, Subliminal didn’t give
up on his dream, but rather continued to write material, plan his moves and strategy to bring the outbreak of
Hip-Hop to the Israeli public. With his release from the army, Subliminal was prepared to complete the task:
he converted TACT (Tel Aviv City)into an official label and signed a distribution contract with the record-
company Helicon, so in effect the first official Subliminal album was released with a 3-year delay, produced
by TACT and distributed by Helicon.
After releasing a song to the radio (“More than a Friend”, a duet
with Baruch Friedland), Subliminal got special attention when he was
invited to appear alongside Gidi Gov at the Tamuz Israeli music
awards ceremony. A few weeks later his first album was released, all
Subliminal
the parts written composed by him, and featuring Galit Dahan, The Shadow
(Yoav Aliasi), Chucky Dee, Shai 360 (Shai Hadad), Momi Levi, Chulo, The
Opening Quartet, and more – all unknown artists at the time. One of the highlights
in the album was “Living from Day to
Day” with The Shadow and Momi Levi,
which received very harsh critique due
to
its
explicit
political
opinion,
something which was previously only
very seldom done by Israeli musicians,
as they often tried to avoid the
turbulent Israeli political swamp.
Up until then, Israeli music was chiefly
concerned with inspiring people to dance and
be happy, and wasn’t used to convey
messages, Subliminal’s first goal to achieve
was to make the public listen to his words
and not just flow with the rhythm of the music.
Although the media wasn’t supportive of
Subliminal, calling him an “Extremist Rightist”,
a “producer of Hatred Music” and even a
“Fascist”, Subliminal had a vast amount of
support from the public and swept many youths through his
concerts, clubs and even the radio. The album eventually went
gold.
His second album, “The Light and the
Shadow”, was a Hip-Hop classic which
went double-platinum and was the most
sold
album
in
Israel.
This
album
introduced new artists like Bouskilss,
Sivan, Ha’archion, Ro’I Edri, Alona Tal and Yinon Ben-
David (Human Beat Box) – alongside ones who’re already
becoming famous from their appearance in “The Light of
Zion”, like Momi Levi, Shai 360, Chulo, Chucky Dee and
Galit Dahan. Ron Shoval was also featured in the album on one song.
At this stage, TACT was already an official body, larger and stronger than
previously due to the working teams, including an
active street-team, and now with professional studios
belonging to it, as well as clubs in Tel-Aviv and many
fans. It was the perfect timing for Subliminal to return
to his old agenda. The first single drawn out of “The
Light and the Shadow” again, dealt with political issues: “Together we’ll Survive,
Alone we’ll Collapse” spoke of solidarity; and yet in protest, Subliminal decided to
call the single “Divide and Conquer” in order to attract the attention of reviewers
and journalists. The plan was a success and the song received reviews from
enraged journalists who again spoke of extremism and tagged the song with “the
fascists are back”; by this stage, though, Subliminal was popular enough that the
public disregarded these comments and fans wrote and spoke (on radio) their
Subliminal
own positive reviews. Many found the song’s message a positive one of
solidarity and community, and it is only the song’s title that was changed; and so
the song was a hit on all the charts and was even nicknamed “the first patriotic
anthem of the Intifada”. The album proceeded to supply the songs for another
six hit-singles. “Subliminal and The Shadow” suddenly became an occurrence
which swept Israeli fans off their feet, both youths and
adults.
In subsequent years, Subliminal and The Shadow
won almost all the awards available by the Israeli
music industry, and for a year and a half they travelled
abroad to perform, performing on average 26 times a
month. They also won the European Hip-Hop
Achievement Award in Belgium.
Unlike the image associated with rappers in the
United States, of criminals and gang-members, Subliminal and The Shadow – due
to their effect on their fans – always strove to be straightforward and develop a
positive image, their lyrics supporting patriotism, respect for tradition,
serving in the IDF, and fighting smoking, drugs, violence and crime.
Songs like “Street Boy”, which pass a powerful message to erring
teenagers who turn to drugs and crime, are the success of a value-
holding, performing artist.
A song like that could change a people’s lives and return them to the
right track, and such was the case: thousands of thank-you letters were
sent to the TACT and Helicon studios, from teenagers who returned to
the right track and parents who wanted to thank Subliminal and The
Shadow for inspiring their children to do so. From Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon’s office, an invitation was sent to Subliminal and The Shadow
for a handshake and compliments on their work. Also, the education
ministry and the council for road-safety took Subliminal and The
Shadow as their image and representatives when dealing with safety
and anti-drug education for teenagers; the foreign ministry even sent
them overseas for a performance tour as
honorary ambassadors of Israel.
In 2004 the album “Tact AllStars” was distributed, featuring all of
Subliminal’s label-artists alongside top guest-artists in Israel. This album was
released independently by Subliminal’s own distribution company: “Street-
Voice Distribution”. The album included hit songs like “Flowers in a barrel”,
“The Secret” with Sarit Hadad, “No Limits” by Sivan, “You Judge Me” with
Sarel, “No-Man’s-Land” with Momo Levi, “Tinanai” by Shai 360 and Booskills,
“Forever” and “It’s in the Books” by Itzik Shamly, and more.
In addition, guest appearances on the album included Killah Priest,
Remedy from the Wu-Tang and the legendary producer J.R. (Jonathan
Rotem), who produced music for Snoop, 50 Cent, Beyoncé Knowles and
others. The album sold over 30,000 copies during the first week in the shops, and stabilised
TACT as a leading record company in Israel and revealed the existence of other Israeli Hip-Hop artists other
than Subliminal who were on the rise – In 2005 the first non-Subliminal and The Shadow album signed with
Subliminal
TACT, which was Shai 360’s. The first single from it, “Take It” featuring The Shadow, broke the ice and
opened the doors for Israeli Hip-Hop artists.
Shai immediately left for a concert tour, and in less than a year opened his own Record Label
“Emet” (Truth, a notarikon for “Art, Music, Culture”).
While other TACT artists were racing to release their own solo
albums, Subliminal surprised all with his new album “Just when You
Thought it was All Over”. In the album, Subliminal is already in the
midst of the consensus, with guests such as Shlomi Shabbat, David
D’or, David Brosa and obviously the TACT family. However, this time
Subliminal’s album is honoured with top artists from the United States,
such as Wyclef Jean and Miri Ben-Ari. From the album come several
hits such as “Toro”, “Classy and Persian”, “In Tel-Aviv” and more. The
album has practically gone gold.
By 2006 Subliminal has already a cellular content company called
“TACT Interactive”, a large, successful website: www.tact-
records.com, so that in the arena of cellular and digital downloads, Subliminal was selling hundreds of
thousands of copies of his songs independently.
With the success of the album and the exclusive repertoire Subliminal has, TACT Interactive has
become the leading company of its sort in Israel, having introduced cutting-edge technology and acquired
many customers. In 2007, Subliminal wrote together with the Grammy-awarded Hip-Hop
violinist Miri Ben-Ari a touching song dealing with the memorisation of the Holocaust,
“Wordly Lord, Until When?” with the aim of fighting teenagers’ ignorance of the topic. They
performed the song together on Holocaust Memorial Eve and at the Yad-Vashem ceremony
in front of Holocaust survivors and teenagers from around the world in events which the
manager of Yad-Vashem defined as “the changing of history’s wing-beats”.
Today, Subliminal is involved in many other associated things: his own recording studios,
representing new artists and booking, artistic management for celebrations, publishing, manufacturing and
marketing of side-products, nightlife, marketing through TACT, commerce through the Internet and cellular
services, and even bringing artists from abroad to Israel (such as Akon in 2007 to Tel Aviv). Subliminal also
appears on advertisements and marketing campaigns for large companies and leading firms in a variety of
fields. In addition, Subliminal has cooperated numerous times with important social issues: he collaborated
with the “Green Light” organisation, Holocaust memorisation, anti-violence campaign in partnership with the
Elem committee, Tu Bishvat plantings with the Jewish National Fund, concerts for soldiers, telethons and
more.
Subliminal was chosen by the government to represent the country as a musical ambassador overseas
and even went on tours with the country’s blessings. Recently
Subliminal and the TACT family appeared in Mexico in front of the
Jewish community on behalf of Keren Hayesod; over 5000 people
attended. As of today, all of the TACT artists’ solo albums are ready
and prepared, and next year the TACT label will release the début
albums of The Shadow, Itzik Shamly, Sivan and Booskills, and Shai
360’s second album. Subliminal has become a multi-age consensus,
present in every home in Israel, to young and old, children and parents,
to Israelis, Jews, and anyone who likes Hip-Hop in Israel and abroad.
And this journey has only begun…