Steve Lieberman (born 1958) (also known as the Gangsta Rabbi) (Hebrew name ליב פרץ בין אליאזר ה־בדלן ה־נזדי or Lev Ava'ran bar-Eli'ezar ha-Bad'lan ha-Naz'ari) is a Jewish-American punk rock singer, musician, composer and producer residing in Freeport, New York. Considered an outsider musician,[2] "walking the line between insanity and genius [sic]",[3] partially attributed to his lifelong struggle with bipolar disorder,[4] which first struck him in 1970 at the age of 11 and his six-year fight with leukemia in his later years, he has commercially released 28 CDs as well as 38 cassette albums in the underground.[5] On all his releases, Lieberman sang and played all instruments himself. In addition to guitar, bass and beats, he added flutes, various brass instruments and a variety of exotic Eastern instruments .In his later years, he added and arranged a full range of trombones in an effort to fuse punk-rock with marching band music and elemental jazz,by combining these elements creating a more powerful sound, which he did beginning with his 24th cd, 2015's "Blast-O-Rama" and continuing through his 2016 releases, "Terminator V617-F" ,"The Gangsta Rabbi's Quadrophenia" and "The Gangsta Rabbi's Tommy" . He has shared the stage with Weezer, Andrew WK, Glassjaw, Ryan Dunn and the Misfits before retiring from performing in December 2011 to battle accelerated phase myeloprolifirative leukemia.[6] He had briefly returned to the stage in the spring of 2016 to perform the entire Gangsta Rabbi's Quadrophenia on a three-stop farewell tour as a solo act, accompanying himself on his trademark distorted bass, a 3-string Fender Stratocaster and alto trombone,as he remained prolific in the studio, producing no less than six full length cd's between 2012 and his death.
In 2009, Lieberman signed a multi-album deal with Jewish indie label JDub Records,[7] taking the place of Matisyahu on their artist roster. As of the spring of 2011, Lieberman, a town comptroller by trade, was "the world’s only orthodox Jewish heavy metal musician with a record deal", according to Newsday.[8]
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