Yoni Wolf, MC and mastermind behind psuedo hip hop band WHY?, released

Published 7:00 am Thursday, April 9, 2009

Yoni Wolf, MC and mastermind behind psuedo hip hop band WHY?, released an album last year, Alopecia, that is probably the most approachable of all WHY? records to date. The band will be hard-pressed to top it next time around, they’ve raised the bar so high for themselves. Like WHY?’s other records, Alopecia’s rife with Wolf’s clever, singsong rhyming, but the pop melodies are consistently catchier and more approachable than the instrumentals on previous WHY? recordings. Though the songs on Alopecia don’t pay obvious tribute to Wolf’s religious upbringing, it was Judaism that indirectly inspired Wolf’s musical awakening: A rabbi’s son, Yoni Wolf began writing songs in high school after discovering an old four-track in the basement of his father’s synagogue. The work of G-d? Happy coincidence? We’ll never know for sure. (Photo courtesy Sarah Cass.)