I know the title of this post may seem implausible but wade through my usual flurry of insignificant details and conversational detritus and I promise the explanation will avail itself to you.

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I am a huge fan of hip hop music. I have been since my pre-teen days (Public Enemy's "Apocalypse 91'," N.W.A's "Straight Outta Compton") and it makes up about 99% of the music I listen to. There is something about it that I have always latched on to, something about the music and the style of vocal presentation that speaks to me like nothing else. My dad, who has never been able to understand the appeal, joked once that it must be the Moor in my blood (his great grandparents came to this country from Sicily). I've even been known to mix up a fresh beat and drop a verse or two, should the mood strike me. I'm no M.C. Frontalot, but when I spit, I spit hot fire.

I am lucky enough to get the station MTV Jams with my digital cable which is great because it's basically all hip-hop, all the time, with little or no commercials and nothing but videos. It's what music television should be. Over the past year or so I had noticed a new face popping up in videos here and there, a pretty young woman enthusiastically playing the violin. Not something you see everyday in a rap video. And, for sake of clarity and illustration, no the violin was not iced-out, no "violin" is not a slang term for glock, and no I haven't been mixing my medication with alcohol.

The violinist in question is a talented woman by the name of Miri Ben-Ari. You can read her bio online, but the short version is as follows. Miri Ben-Ari grew up in a small town near Tel-Aviv, Israel, where she studied violin. A scholarship from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation helped her on her way and during her mandatory military service she was chosen to play with the prestigious Israeli Army String Quartet. She studied Jazz at the Mannes College of Music in New York City and release three jazz albums, "Sahara," "Song of the Promised Land," which featured appearances by her mentor Wynton Marsalis, and "Live at the Blue Note." Her entrance into the world of hip-hop came when she performed with Wyclef Jean at Carnegie Hall in 2001, where he dubbed her "the hip-hop violinist" (told you I'd get there eventually). Since then she has collaborated with numerous rap and hip-hop artists, notably Kanye West for whom she wrote, produced, arranged, and performed all the strings for his surprising (and 10-time Grammy nominated) debut album, "College Dropout." She has performed on Showtime At the Apollo (and earned an Apollo Legend Honor) and appeared twice on BET's 106 & Park, performing her rendition of several well-known hip-hop tracks on, of course, the violin. She is currently working on a hip-hop/R&B album ("The Hip Hop Violinist," March 22, 2005) with appearances by Kanye West, Mya, Fabolous, Lil Mo, Joe Budden, Twista, and Pharoahe Monch. The first single off the album is entitled "Sunshine to the Rain" and features Scarface and Anthony Hamilton.

And maybe this is why I like hip-hop: it's constantly evolving and reinventing itself, trying new things, and growing as an art form. Maybe there's hope for The Hip Hop Programmer after all....

Tags: Hip Hop, Music