Where My Girls At?

Tonight, I went to The G-Spot, an Israeli hip-hop club. (The tag line is "Finally, I found it!")

You gotta love that.

I took pictures of the packed dance floor, the sweaty crowds, the guys doing the snap dance when "Oh I Think They Like Me" came on...and the girls doing the Chicken Head dance when Chingy's song came on and everyone doing the Crip Walk when anything by Snoop came on.

But none of the pics came out very well. It's a dark nightclub. What did I expect?

So you'll have to settle for the artwork displayed in the entrance of the club.

Anyway. There were two rooms at The G-Spot. In one room, the DJ was cutting and scratching songs like Nas', "Made You Look" and LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out." Cats were breakdancing, freestyling. And then in the other room, (My friend Emily and I started calling it the Hot 97 Room), they played 50 Cent, (who will be here next week!), Lloyd Banks, Lil Kim... et al.

The song the crowd went crazy for? J.Lo's "Get Right." Yeah. I was confused too. And then my toe started tapping and my hand starting waving in the air like it just didn't care. There's something about that horn-heavy intro that is infectious.

They also went nuts when that new song by DMX came on. The one with Swizz Beatz. That confused me.

I saw a large concentration of black folks at the G-Spot. My guide, Harry, who lives in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, (sorry Harry!) said he had no idea the hip-hop scene was so big here. (Read: He had no idea there were so many black people here.)

UPDATE: Harry informs me that he knows good and well how many black folks is up in the spot. So there. [See Comments].

At any rate, most of the black folks were of African descent. Although Harry someone, (not Harry!), told me there is a small community of African-Americans, particularly athletes and those who work at the American Embassy, I didn't see any.

Interesting side note: a lot of the Black folks had just as little rhythm as the white folks jerking and spazzing out on the dance floor. I think it's a European thing.

I couldn't stay at the club long. Cats were eyeing me and I started to feel really uncomfortable. I was The American Black Girl. And I was authentic. As long as I sat around and just took pictures, everything was cool. But as soon as a song I loved came on and I hit the dance floor, it was problematic. People started staring at me like I was from another planet. Not sure what that was about. I mean, I'm not the greatest dancer but dang....

I saw Sagol 59 perform. It was exactly what one expects from an underground hip-hop show. He's got a good stage presence. But the crowd wasn't exactly eating out of his hands. But how could they? He's not 50 Cent. So no matter what, they have to play it cool. The dudes had their hands jammed in their pockets, just barely nodding their heads. Pretending not to look but practically staring. The girls, (who, I'm sorry to say, are really poor dancers), gyrated off-beat near the stage. He rhymed over familiar beats, in Hebrew, and then, it was back to the DJ mixing Fabolous, Biggie and Jay-Z.

Although I noticed many Black men in the club, I saw no Black girls. Not sure where they are. My tour guide wondered if perhaps more men immigrated into the country for work. I suppose that's a theory. I'd like to know for sure. I mean, really. Where my girls at?

This time difference thing is really start to get to me. At home, it's 10PM. Here, the sun is about to come up. And I'm just going to bed. Not good. Tomorrow, (if I can wake up), I have to take a windsurfing lesson at a Tel Aviv beach. I'll keep you posted...

-A

Comments

[Felix]

Very intresting my dear... I thought I was the only one who peeped that the euro-afro folks are dreadful on the rhythm tip... What kind of security was present in the party district?? Is it as tense there as the news portrays?? Or, is the whole Israelunderfirefromtheterroristmenace overplayed?? Stay safe..

[Perez]

You keep Me reading ...Thanks
America does not export much anymore other than Its McCulture and Hip Hop ...Its everyhere...JLO that is weird...

Peace & Prayers

[harry]

Hi Aliyah, just to be clear, I meant the Tel Aviv Hip Hop scene, not the number of black people. I've been living in Israel long enough to know who lives here.

I live outside of Jerusalem and primarily go to events organized by Segol in Jerusalem where the numbers (of people, black and white) are substantially less than the crowd at the g-spot. And that wasn't me who said embassy workers. I've never met an American Embassy worker in my life. I think that you are confusing what I said with what the owner of the club stated...

[Nir Mamon]

Hey Girl!

Nir here, owner of the Gspot Club.

I was very excited to read this column and have an outsider's view first encounter with the Gspot, no pun intended.

Your blog is both accurate and entertaining, I only wish you could have stayed longer..

Several points that do need clatification, though...:

A) Our main room plays usually mainstream hiphop AND rnb, indeed ranging from TI to beyonce or Jlo. Our filter is the american top 40 billboard chart AND european MTVBASE charts. We are not judging a song by it's color but usually bt it's popularity in those urban-specific outlets. Hence Jlos (ft fabolous) presence at the G. Her songs chart well at the billboard Hiphop/RnB chart, (her last album debuted at no.2) and althouhgh that specific song flopped (Get-Right) it had some impact on dancefloors...

b) Sagol's show was a one-off set for you guys, to see chen on stage. As you observed, correctly, a large portion of the G regulars donr appreciate live shows during their parties. Interestingly enough, we have a much younger hard hiphop line where highschool kids are much more into that. MUCH. Also Sagol's native stage is an underground preferrably jerusalem set-up...

c) Regarding the Americans, well, we enjoy a large community of local afro-americans, including girls. Most of them are b-ball players (the girls too). Thing is they usually show up at the club at around 2:30-3:00. I guess Maybe God knows why. As for embassy employees, I meant in general - many foreign embassies, including the large american one we have here...but also, for example, Nigerian.

You can browse at some of the photos in the following links to get a better ides...

Black Eyed Peas visiting:

http://www.gspotclub.co.il/pics/Fri_2006_06_02_BlackEyedPeas/index.htm

and

http://www.thegallery.tv/Gallerys/G-Spot/v/02-06-2006/

Some pics from the night you described...(not too good though)

http://www.thegallery.tv/Gallerys/G-Spot/v/19-05-2006/?g2_page=8

Our english website has tons of pics and other stuff...

www.gspotclub.co.il

Thanks for the visit and the article...

Hope to see you sometimes in the future...

Nir

[Lee]

Hey-
I see you wrote this a while ago, but I just came across this while looking for good hip hop joints...anywhere in this holy land.

Since you seem to have experience and a sharp eye, I wanted to know if youve found anything good.

Also, have you discovered what the deal IS with ppl not knowing how to dance and lookin at me funny/gettin the WRONG idea when I dance??

if you actually read this, feel free to email me

chavimocha@hotmail.com

--Lee aka ur sympathizer