Samuel Green (rapper)
Samuel Green (born March 28, 1983) was Mazkir (Director) of FZY (the Federation of Zionist Youth of Great Britain and Ireland). He is also known as Antithesis and under this name produces rap music and presents the radio show Kol Cambridge. His alias was given to him by a friend who once told him that he was the antithesis of a stereotypical rapper.
Background
Samuel Green was born and grew up in Kingston upon Thames, South London. He has one younger sister, Hannah. From the age of eleven he studied at City of London School in the centre of London. After leaving school Samuel spent nine months in Israel with the FZY Year Course programme, also participating in the Machon L'Madrichei Chutz La'Aretz (Institute for Youth Leadership) programme for four months.
On returning from Israel Samuel began a degree in Oriental Studies at Trinity College, Cambridge. He spent his first year in the Japanese department before moving over to Hebrew and graduated with a First Class degree in 2006.
Whilst at Cambridge Samuel was elected president of the Cambridge University Jewish Society in 2004, serving during the Michaelmas term of that year. He was later elected president of the Cambridge University Israel Society in 2005, serving for the Michaelmas term of that year. Varsity (newspaper) named him as one of Cambridge's 100 most talented students in February 2005.
Samuel speaks French, Spanish, Japanese and Hebrew and has worked in France, Japan and Israel.
Rapping career
Samuel first took an interest in rap music at the age of eleven when acts like MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice were first penetrating the UK market. By the age of fourteen rap was his music of choice, with artists such as Snoop Dogg, Tupac and The Wu-Tang Clan being major influences. At fifteen he was writing his own lyrics and in 2000 he entered a song competition run by FZY, the youth movement of which he was a member, by penning the song Just Peace. The song came third in the competition. While living in Israel Samuel heard a speaker who was to have a big influence on his future writing. He was the Chaim Avraham, the father of Benny Avraham, an Israeli soldier who had been kidnapped by Hezbollah forces on Israel's border with Lebanon. On hearing Mr. Avraham, Samuel wrote the song Ima Mechaka BaBayit ('Mother is Waiting at Home'), a lament AbOUT the seven Israeli soldiers who were currently MIA.
Mr. Avraham heard about the song and asked Samuel to record it. He did so at the end of 2001, and through an independent distribution network of friends and family sold several hundred copies of the single, with all profits going to fund the campaign to rescue the missing soldiers. The song became well known among young British Jews as a result of its use on summer camps by all the major Jewish youth organisations in the UK.
In September 2003 Samuel went back to the studio, recording three more songs which together with Ima Mechaka BaBayit made up The Israel Question EP, released in December of the same year. As of December 2005 over 1000 copies had been sold through an independent distribution network of volunteers and friends. All profits are donated to charity and as of June 2007 over ÂŖ3000 has been raised for the UJIA Terror Victims' Support Fund and the International Coalition for Israeli Missing Soldiers.
Since the album's release Samuel has performed around the globe and has been featured in the media of several different countries. He has recorded more music but this has so far only been released via his page on MySpace. His second CD, United Kingdom of Racism, is due to be released on December 4, 2007.
Radio career
Samuel's first experience of radio was when he set up his own internet radio programme, Radio K.U.T. (standing for Kingston upon Thames), in 1999. The programme was dedicated to hip hop and would air once a week.
In 2004 Samuel joined Cambridge University Radio and in January 2005 launched Kol Cambridge, a programme dedicated to Israeli and Jewish music. The programme initially aired for one hour a week. After attracting ratings which made the show the station's most popular by some distance the programme controller agreed to extend its slot, making it two hours a week.
The show picked up an international listenership, which was greatly aided by the fact that Samuel created a podcast of each programme. It was one of the first podcasts to be listed on iTunes in the summer of 2005. Many highly respected guests have appeared on the programme including platinum and gold-selling Israeli artists such as Subliminal, Sarit Hadad and Idan Raichel, in addition to senior figures from the Jewish political world such as Jonathan Sacks, Natan Sharansky and June Walker.
In 2005 the programme received a nomination for the BBC Student Radio Awards in the Best Specialist Programming category. The show stopped broadcasting regulary in the summer of 2006 but there have been some programmes since then, including brief guest stints on WMBR in Cambridge, MA and Shalom FM in London.
FZY career
Samuel joined FZY in 1999 as a founding committee member of the South London regional society. He later became Chairman in the same year. After spending a month in Israel on two separate occasions with FZY in 1999 and 2000, and attending various events in between, he participated in their Year Course programme from September 2001 to June 2002. The programme consisted of a mixture of studying and volunteering.
On returning to the UK Samuel assumed the title of boger (graduate). He was a volunteer leader on various camps and seminars, and in 2003 was Co-chairman of Veida, the residential AGM. In 2003 he was elected to the Mazkirut (national executive) and was reelected in 2004 and 2005. In 2003 he founded the East Anglia regional society, based in Cambridge, and resurrected the movement's regular newsletter, The Bulletin in 2004.
In December 2005 Samuel was elected Mazkir (Director) of FZY and he formally assumed the position in August 2006. In 2007 the Jewish Chronicle listed him as number 78 in their list of the top 100 individuals with most influence on the British Jewish community.