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Don’t mess with Kosha Dillz.
The New York City rapper and comic is fighting antisemitism and the outrage of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror assaults on Israel with rhymes, beats, humor — and a tricky embrace of his heritage.
“This event changed my life. It changed everybody’s life, but I feel it especially changed mine,” the dual-citizen Israeli-American performer advised Fox News Digital in an interview on Monday close to his dwelling in Brooklyn.
He wore a “FREE OUR HOSTAGES” sweatshirt and a sequence with a pair of pendants, a Star of David plus a topographical map of Israel set round a blue diamond.
Yet Dillz mentioned he watched with dismay as some performers, together with associates, scrubbed their Israeli id or Jewish religion from their social media profiles within the days after the assault.
Israeli-American Rami Even-Esh of New York City, higher often called rapper/comic Kosha Dillz, sports activities a “Free Our Hostages” sweatshirt and a sequence carrying a Star of David and a map of Israel pendant whereas chatting with Fox News Digital within the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
“I didn’t retreat. I leaned into it. I said, ‘Not on my watch.’ I’m not going to be quiet. In fact, I’m going to be a little bit louder.”
Dillz, whose given identify is Rami Even-Esh, was born and raised in New Jersey to a Romanian father and Polish mom whose households survived the Holocaust.
“I didn’t retreat … I’m not going to be quiet. In fact, I’m going to be a little bit louder.”
His household nonetheless has a house in Kiryat Tiv’on, in northern Israel.
“See I used to get punched in the face/But now I do the punching,” Dillz raps in “Bring the Family Home,” a viral hit he wrote and recorded on Oct. 7 itself, following a efficiency that day at a California music competition.
“My family heated because most of us died in the ovens.”
New York City rapper Kosha Dillz waved the flag of Israel in Central Park on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, throughout the metropolis’s first winter snowstorm in two years. (Instagram screenshot from @koshadillz)
Dillz has achieved notoriety as a road rapper, freestyle performer and social-media movie star over the previous 15 years, with greater than 115,000 followers on Instagram alone (@koshadillz).
He carried out on stage with famous person rapper Fat Joe in Denver in 2021 and appeared as himself as a playable video-game character alongside Snoop Dogg and Drake in “NBA 2K11.”
“Always outspoken about Israel,” Dills said — and his work has now taken on new power and purpose after the Oct. 7 terror attacks.
“Bring the Family Home” is a fearless embrace of his culture and his faith, even as a non-practicing Jew.
“I put the yarmulke on; not even religious with it,” he raps in the song.
Rapper and comedian Kosha Dillz has become a citizen-journalist, skewering pro-Hamas protesters in a series of viral videos on social media. (Instagram screenshot from @koshadillz)
The terror attack, and the responses to it, forced him to confront the fact that groups he once publicly supported had abandoned his people in their time of need.
“I marched for BLM/I marched for Ukraine/But this time me and my people in the Negev need rain,” he raps in “Bring the Family Home,” referencing the parched Israeli desert.
“I used to get punched in the face/But now I do the punching.” — Kosha Dillz in “Bring the Family Home”
“People let you down,” he said to Fox News Digital about BLM’s staunch antisemitic response to the Hamas attacks on Israel, noting with disdain that the organization used the image of a Palestinian terrorist paratrooper in one of its responses.
“The organization failed to represent the movement. There were plenty of Black people kidnapped or murdered on Oct. 7.”
Dillz has found a new and unexpected role in the wake of Oct. 7 as a citizen-journalist reporting from New York City, Washington, D.C., and Israel.
Outspoken pro-Israeli rapper and comedian Kosha Dillz wears a chain with a Star of David and a cut-out map of Israel during an interview in New York City with Fox News Digital. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
His man-on the-street interviews with pro-Hamas protesters have generated millions of views on social media.
He exposes many of the protesters as clueless about their cause.
“The retaliation is beyond insane,” one woman tells him, while carrying a sign decrying Israel’s “genocidal siege & war.”
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She seems dumbfounded when Dillz asks what she would do if Hamas had taken certainly one of her daughters and her grandchildren hostage.
“I would do everything possible to have them back,” she admitted.
The interview has been “liked” practically 156,000 occasions on Instagram alone.
Kosha Dillz of New York City wrote and recorded “Bring the Family Home” within the hours after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror assaults on Israel, following his efficiency that day at a music competition in California. (Instagram screenshot from @koshadillz)
“The interviews were a fluke, really,” he mentioned. “A combination of the stuff I’ve learned from my comedy, my improv, my freestyle rap.”
He has balanced his outrage with his humor.
He faucets his comedic abilities whereas killing some critics with kindness and sarcasm, posting his responses to antisemitic rage on Instagram.
“F— u and ur whole generation, you Jew rat,” mentioned one offended message he obtained.
Dillz responded, “Jew rap, which you misspelled slightly, is an unnoticed generation of aspiring artistry.”
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“You weak a– b—-,” shouts one other critic.
“Trying to do more squats current to develop the score strength I deserve,” Dillz responds, each defusing the message and mocking the sender.
Israeli-American rapper and comic Kosha Dillz has been fearless in his embrace of his heritage because the Oct. 7, 2023, terror assaults. He met with Fox News Digital close to his Brooklyn dwelling on Jan. 8, 2024. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
“But I am being lazy, appreciate the inspiration.”
Nearly 100 days have handed because the Oct. 7 assaults, forcing Dillz to tackle one other problem: brief recollections.
“The exhaustion of the internet is real,” he mentioned. “We nonetheless should free the hostages. Bring the household dwelling. I’m all about it, even three months later.”
More than 100 Israelis are nonetheless being held hostage, and practically two dozen have died in captivity in Gaza over the previous three months, in response to Israeli officers, regardless of the well-publicized reviews of hostages returning dwelling.
“The interviews were a fluke, really. A combination of the stuff I’ve learned from my comedy, my improv, my freestyle rap.”
Dillz intends to maintain wielding the mic as a weapon.
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“A big question is like, ‘Do you think your stuff changes anyone’s mind?'” he mentioned in a single talk-show look he posted on Instagram.
“I was like, ‘No. But it makes other people confident in finding their stuff.”
For extra Lifestyle articles, go to www.foxnews.com/way of life.
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