Before ‘Eating the Cats’ The Kiffness remixed a Psalm – The Forward

The Kiffness performs in 2018. Photo by ZINYANGE AUNTONY/AFP via Getty Images

By PJ Grisar
September 17, 2024

Praise be to The Kiffness and his kittens.

The South African musician whose remix of Donald Trump’s bogus debate claims that Haitian immigrants were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, reached 50 million views and $7,000 for the city’s SPCA. But did you know the creator — whose real name is David Scott — once transformed some more divinely-inspired words into a certified bop?

In 2022, Scott remixed Psalm 127, In Hashem Lo Yivneh Bayisediting a video to appear alongside the Shira Choir, Brooklyn-based group he sampled.

Scott presented the remix to the Cape Town Hebrew Congregation in his native South Africa in a pre-Shabbat Zoom, releasing it online just hours before his wife gave birth. (He sought out the congregation’s chazan to consult on the translations and transliterations for the video.)

The musician told the South African Jewish News at the time that he was inspired to work with the Shira Choir’s song after a few people sent it to his inbox — he let the choir know his plans and they approved.

“The original is already a masterpiece on its own,” said Scott. “My remix just injects a bit more chutzpah into the song.”

The song, sung in a joyous wall of sound, is traditionally attributed to David, and dedicated to his son who would build the Temple, says “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain on it.”

For those who are trying to forget Trump’s erroneous, dangerous comment — Springfield police denied reports that cats were being eaten — or at least sixteen the silver lining of more cat content, the dance remix will deliver; it too features a kitty.