Diwon
| Diwon | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Erez Safar |
| Born |
May 2, 1979 San Diego, CA |
| Genres | Dancehall, Jewish hip hop, pop, Middle Eastern |
| Occupation(s) | DJ/producer |
| Instruments | Ableton, keys, synths, drums, turntables, guitar |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Labels | Shemspeed |
| Associated acts |
Y-Love Dreams In Static TJ Di Hitmaker Matisyahu Kosha Dillz Kyle Rapps Bonhom |
| Website | erezsafar.com |
Diwon (pronounced dee-wan) is an American DJ, producer and songwriter. Under his legal name, Erez Safar, he serves as CEO of Bancs Media, an American production company specializing in music and video production; Studio Bancs, a creative art space; and Shemspeed, a record label and promotional agency. He is also the founder and director of the Sephardic Music Festival.
Safar, an Orthodox Jew, is the son of an American Jewish father and Yemenite Jewish mother. He grew up listening to Mizrahi and Yemenite music. In 2003, he graduated from the University of Maryland, and moved to Brooklyn later that year.
Safar’s career in music began at the University of Maryland when he founded Juez, a breakbeat klezmer jazz quartet in which he played drums. That year, he also began performing under the moniker DJ Handler, spinning a blend of Hip hop, Afro beat and Arabic music. In 2004, Juez released their lone album, Shemspeed Alt Schule, on Modular Moods, an independent record label founded by Safar.
In 2007, Safar was named to The Forward 50, an annual list of the world’s most influential Jews, as chosen by the editors of The Forward. He was recognized for his work as DJ Handler, for heading Modular Moods, for founding and running the Sephardic Music Festival, and for that year’s formation of Shemspeed. That same year, in a cover story on DJ Handler, The Jerusalem Post called him “one of the top visionaries of young Jewish cool’s celebrated vanguard.”
In an effort to introduce Sephardic music to a greater audience, Safar launched the Sephardic Music Festival in 2005. The seven-day festival takes place annually in December around Hanukkah at venues across New York City.The New York Times described the festival as having an "eclectic lineup of traditional and contemporary artists, including many dedicated to fusing disparate sounds or bridging new and old." Shemspeed has released two compilation albums, Sephardic Music Festival, Vol. 1 (2010) and Sephardic Music Festival, Vol. 2 (2012), featuring Middle Eastern-tinged tracks from a variety of acclaimed Jewish artists, including Matisyahu, Pharaoh's Daughter, DeScribe, Moshav and Sarah Aroeste.
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