Matisyahu

[iscream22]

<p><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="5"><img src="http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/9341/matisyahu5jc.jpg" border="0" /></font></p><font face="Tahoma" size="5" /><font face="Tahoma" size="5"><p><font face="Tahoma" size="5">Just picked up Jewish Reggae master &quot;Matisyahu&quot;'s new album &quot;youth&quot; and i love it.</font></p><p><font face="Tahoma" size="5">I think he is a positive influence to Jewish Youth, and he is actually skilled.&nbsp; What do you guys think?</font></p></font>

<span class=post_edited>This message was edited by iscream22 on 3-15-06 @ 11:48 AM</span>

[Dirtybird12]

<p>Good stuff.&nbsp; This guy has mad skills.&nbsp; His band is awesome as well. </p><p>good call deek</p>

[JustJon]

<p>I think you should consider a smaller font.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I've heard the two songs that have gotten airplay, King Without a Crown and Youth, and I prefer the former to the latter, but I think he's pretty good.&nbsp; I just still haven't checked out either of his cds yet.&nbsp;</p>

[coffeeal401]

<p>WHATS UP MY WIGGER, SORRY I MEAN MY JIGGER.<img src="http://www.ronfez.net/messageboard/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/wallbash.gif" border="0" /></p>

[JerseyRich]

I prefer listening to him over watching him.<br />

[iscream22]

<p>Jigger. LOL</p><p>Surething JustJon</p>

[ShelleBink]

Its definately something different when it comes to music... I totally dig it and respect the dude.<br />

[bobrobot]

<p><strong><font color="#000099">If ya buy Matisyahu's &quot;Youth&quot; at Best Buy there's an extra track!!! &quot;King W/Out a Crown&quot; remix! NICE!!! The album has a cool Electronica/Reggae fusion to it, but I must confess I miss the guitar player and would like more of him!</font></strong></p>

<span class=post_edited>This message was edited by bobogolem on 3-15-06 @ 12:24 PM</span>

[coffeeal401]

so what do you call a jew rapper shmiz i grew up in BROOKLYN. i know where eastern parkway is. he needs a shape up.<img src="http://www.ronfez.net/messageboard/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/smoke.gif" border="0" />

[Death Metal Moe]

Ehhhh

[bobrobot]

<img src="http://jasonamiller.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/Oy%20Vey-705750.jpg" border="0" />

<span class=post_edited>This message was edited by bobogolem on 3-15-06 @ 1:34 PM</span>

[TheMojoPin]

Matisyahu (n‚e Matthew Miller) is a guy from White Plains, N.Y. who smoked weed and followed Phish and played in those drum circles everyone hates. One spiritual breakthrough later, he realized he loved dancehall reggae and Judaism (order unclear) and started making music. He performs wearing traditional Hasidic garb, and he beatboxes and stagedives. That's the whole story. Stop reading those magazine articles. <p>His music, however, isn't all that special. Mixing high school retreat Rasta spitting, Yiddish verse, and occasionally legit patois over a synthesized version of trad reggae, he's on that old search for enlightenment and devotion but his struggle reeks of bored rich kid. Foolish to question his faith, but in the face of Bob Marley's homeland righteousness and complicated politics or Sizzla's maniacal, militant Rastafarianism, Matisyahu's roots reggae is flimsy stuff. Not necessary novelty. Just not that novel. </p><p>Matisyahu's third album is his first studio release since last year's rep-making SXSW performance and comes on the heels of a live album, <em>Live at Stubb's</em>, that currently resides in the Billboard top 50. The LP is overrun with standard religious tropes. <em>Youth</em> was produced by Material linchpin Bill Laswell, who issued Trojan's <em>Dub Massive Chapters One &amp; Two</em> last year and has helped produce avant-garde music for the likes of John Zorn, Laurie Anderson, and Herbie Hancock (he played bass on &quot;Rockit&quot;). His contributions are obvious on &quot;Indestructible&quot; and &quot;Late Night in Zion&quot;, tracks that glide away from traditional Jamrock stomp and dabble in bouncy ethereal movements and wanky soloing. Lyrically, Godspeak is unassailable stuff (ask Sufjan) but Matisyahu is not immune to clunky turns of phrase like, &quot;What I'm fighting for is more than silver and gold&quot; or &quot;I'm all shook up like I been in the blender,&quot; and is often downed by them. &quot;Unique in My Dove&quot; is admirable stuff, pleading and pledging fidelity to his woman, and extrapolated to his faith. But it's treacle jammy stuff; with all those natty drum fills, MOR progressions, and lockstep dub grooves the good will goes to shit. </p><p>Authenticity and showmanship appear to be the stumbling blocks and great emancipators for Matisyahu. Inexplicably, he attracts jam-rock blaggards and disoriented hipsters with nowhere else to turn with his wacky ability to make beat noises out of his mouth. It was annoying when Justin Timberlake did it and it's annoying now. Still, as large venues continue to sell out, Baby Boomers remember they luuuhve Marley and hey, this guy, at least, kinda sounds like him if you can't remember the 70s that well. Plus he's worth an extra 20 minutes of convos at the steak house before the show. &quot;Wait, he's Jewish? You're kidding!?!&quot; It's sad that relatively innocuous musicians are indicted on the strength of their audience, but sometimes the demographics don't lie. </p><p>In his 2005 end-of-the-year comments, Pitchfork's boss hog Ryan Schreiber dissed Matis simply by quoting the Bravery's Sam Enidcott's ill-considered declaration that &quot;This is the future of music.&quot; Others have also hopped on this dubious idea. I'm not entirely sure anyone knows what Endicott's statement means. I suspect the next Hasidic dude rocking the mic is gonna get shouted down for being a poseur. Perhaps Endicott meant that artists who step out of their cultural realm and embrace an unlikely sound to deliver their message are the future. There might be something to that.</p>

[TheMojoPin]

<a href="http://www.ronfez.net/messageboard/viewmessages.cfm/Forum/80/Topic/48057" target="_blank">And that's a pretty good last word.&nbsp; Please use the previous thread.</a>