Forget chicken soup, the Jews have a new Remedy–29-year-old Wu-Tang Clan affiliate Ross Filler a.k.a. Remedy Ross. What distinguishes Remedy from other rappers is his decision to make his Jewish identity central to his music and his rap persona.
Although not all of his songs deal specifically with Judaism, Remedy’s connection to his people and identity is clear throughout his debut album The Genuine Article, released last spring. The album features the song “Reuven Ben Menachum” (Filler’s Hebrew name) and his best-known song, the Holocaust memorial “Never Again.”
But Judaism wasn’t always a central part of Filler’s life. Like many other young Jews, Filler wasn’t interested in the lessons of Sunday school. It wasn’t until he got older that he began to get back to his roots and heritage.
Filler was born and raised in Staten Island, New York City’s fifth borough, made famous in the world of hip-hop by the Wu-Tang Clan. Influenced by the likes of Run DMC and the Beastie Boys, he became immersed in the world of hip-hop. His association with the Wu-Tang Clan began as a teen at Staten Island’s New Dorp High School, where he befriended original clansmen Methodman, Inspectah Deck, and Raekwon the Chef.
Early on, Remedy’s rhymes were filled with his thoughts on the world around him from his perspective as a street hustler trying to get by. Remedy’s early release “Seen It All/Everything Is Real,” which was released as a single, received warm responses.
Remedy also began to gradually reconnect with his Jewish heritage. “I started learning about Judaism and customs, and all the good stuff as I got older. I just started investigating on my own over the last seven years,” he says. “As you get older you’re like, ‘What is all this Judaism stuff they don’t teach in school?’ I just wanted to know more, and began reading the Tanakh [the Jewish Bible].”
Remedy’s own search for meaning in Judaism eventually led him to pen the powerful lyrics that became “Never Again,” his breakthrough hit. Over samples that include the Friday night Kiddush taken from Schindler’s List, and portions of the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah, Remedy weaves a tale of suffering and ultimate survival. “Never Again/shall we walk like sheep to the slaughter/Never Again/shall we sit and take orders/stripped of our culture/robbed of our names/raped of our freedom/and thrown into the flames/forced from our families/taken from our homes/pulled from our God/then burned of our bones.”
The song is deeply personal. It is based on his grandmother’s stories of surviving the Holocaust. “My great uncle got shot in the back,” says Remedy. “His family was taken to the camps, never to be seen again. My own blood went through this. Who made it. Who immigrated. Who didn’t.”
In 1997, “Never Again” appeared on The Swarm, a compilation album featuring up-and-coming soldiers from the ranks of the Wu-Tang army. The song is viewed by many as the album’s highlight.
Since the release of The Swarm, Remedy has been embraced by Jewish communities around the world. On a now regular basis, Remedy travels to Hebrew schools, colleges, and even synagogues to perform his music and deliver his message of tolerance and remembrance. “I’m representing humanity,” he says. “So even though I’m telling it through what happened to the Jews and our perspective, it happened to the blacks, it happened to every people. Everybody went through some type of struggle, slavery, or holocaust.”
Remedy is now hard at work cultivating artists for his own label, Fifth Angel. His newest track, a work in progress, is entitled “Exodus” and begins with music from the soundtrack of the epic film of the same name commemorating the birth of the State of Israel. This spring, he is planning a trip to Israel in conjunction with the film’s re-release.
While “Exodus” continues with Jewish themes, Remedy is not trying to recreate “Never Again.” What he does hope to continue doing, however, is to keep creating music that is meaningful to him and his listeners: “I made a song that made people cry. That’s better than making them jump in the stands and go nuts for you, if you can touch somebody’s heart and make them cry.”
