Do you know Matisyahu?
By Cédric on Tuesday 4 March 2008, 19:53 - Music - Permalink
Today, I would like to introduce you to such an amazing and talented artist : his name is Matisyahu! If you didn't know him until now, you missed something. But better late than never!
Matthew Paul Miller (his birth name), is a 29 year old artist known for mixing his traditional jewish influences with reggae, hip-hop and rock sounds. Born in Pennsylvania (U.S.A), he now lives in Crown Heights, a district of Brooklyn (New York) where the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic community is located. By the way, the main originality of Matisyahu is the fact he adopted Orthodox Judaism at 16 and managed to be a famous and respected reggae singer while following the strict way of life related to his religious convictions. For example, Matisyahu stands out for wearing the traditional clothing of Hasidic Jews and not performing on the Sabbath - that is to say no concert on Friday nights (source Wikipedia).
I discovered Matisyahu for the first time thanks on a TV program called "Trax" on the German-French channel Arte. I was really impressed by his musical style, the ability to change the flow and the strength of his spiritual lyrics so easily. Obviously at first sight, the traditional jewish dressing of Matisyahu, is the most amazing thing about him and this can become a "commercial advantage". But beyond thE aspect of his personality, Matisyahu deserves to be better known. He manages to seduce so many different people from the yeshiva boys with their tzitzit (ritual fringes) to the real hip-hop fans and even some trashy-sexy girls ready to spend one night with him... This artist is a phenomenon! He has an exceptional spectrum of different vocal style and he's even able of rapping or doing beatbox. The easiest comparison would be similar to the conscious and cultural sides of Buju Banton, Sizzla, Capleton, or Junior Kelly, but with the upbeat message of Luciano, Bushman and Everton Blender, and vocal dexterity of Barrington Levy (source Wikipedia). To show you how good Matisyahu IS I chose the live version of the song "King Without a Crown" to accompany this post. I hope you will enjoy the video as much as me.
Matisyahu according to Wikipedia