Reuben Ezra Formey (born 1981), known by his stage name Prodezra, is an American Jewish rapper and producer based in Savannah, Georgia.
His grandfather, Henderson Formey Jr., was a Baptist minister and interim superintendent, and the first black leader of the Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools district.
[1][2] Sylvester Formey was introduced to Chabad by Rabbi Manis Friedman while attending college in the 1970s, and the family formally converted in 1993, shortly before Reuben's bar mitzvah.
[3][4][5] He was interested in music from a young age, using his cousin's Casio keyboard to sample and mix his collection of pop, rock, and metal tapes.
[1] He graduated from Alfred E. Beach High School in 1999 and attended Georgia Institute of Technology, where he continued to make beats.
"[1] After finishing his degree in business management, he moved to Israel and studied in yeshiva at Mayanot Institute, which he would later dedicate a song on his second album to.
[9][10] In December, he performed on the court at Philips Arena for the Atlanta Hawks' Jewish Heritage Night event, which included a menorah lighting and preceded a game against the San Antonio Spurs.
[15] Writing for Tablet in 2016, Shais Rishon compared him to fellow black Orthodox rapper Hebro, saying their music "combines the conscious lyrics of classic hip-hop (Nas, Mos Def) with post-2010 synthetic sounds, put to mid-90’s style rhythms, which makes for an anachronistic yet uniquely pleasing aesthetic.