Good Matisyahu article in Chicago Tribune

I've seen his name in alot of theads here lately, so I thought some might like to see this. I've heard an advance of "Youth" and it's pretty good.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/enter...6874238.story?coll=chi-entertainmentfront-hed

Reggae-rap star Matisyahu's dream is to light up the world

By Andy Downing
Special to the Tribune
Published March 2, 2006


Before he became the world's biggest -- and only -- Hasidic Jewish reggae-rap star, Matisyahu (born Matthew Miller) was a conflicted young man. In his early 20s, as he began delving deeper into his faith studies, the now 26-year-old singer openly questioned his long-held musical ambitions.

"There is one specific moment I remember," says Matisyahu, by telephone from a tour stop in Reno, his 6-month-old son crying softly in the background. "I was walking down the street and thinking to myself, 'That's it. I'm not going to do it. I'm going to give [the music] up completely.' To me, I think that moment has a lot to do with my success. You only get something when you're ready to let it go."

The decision to persevere has proved to be a wise one. His album "Live at Stubb's" (Or Music), released last April, has become a surprise success, climbing as high as No. 33 on January's Billboard chart. His rise is almost certain to continue when his major label debut, "Youth" (Epic), is released Tuesday.

"As far as the connection [to the audience], a lot of that stems from his artistry and his no-frills approach," says Scott Igoe, music producer for "Jimmy Kimmel Live," the show that jump-started Matisyahu's rise to prominence. "He's very honest, and he's very sincere. He's really doing what he loves to do. It's obvious that this kid has wanted to be in a reggae band for a long time. It shows every time he performs."

Dressed in the traditional black suit and wide-brimmed hat favored by Hasidic men and sporting the long beard that is part of his faith, Matisyahu cuts a striking figure when he takes to the stage. His music, an unlikely melding of reggae, hip-hop and free-form jamming, is equally audacious.

"His style is very eclectic," says Stan Ipcus, a longtime friend and collaborator who drops a guest verse on the song "WP." "He's always been like this. His style is a mix of beatbox and hip-hop and reggae. I think he's just matured [as a performer]. He keeps getting better."

The songs on "Youth" echo the performer's eclectic nature, veering between suntanned Caribbean melodies and chunkier hip-hop beats. The title track even finds agile guitarist Aaron Dugan uncorking a scrawling guitar solo that would leave Phish's Trey Anastasio grinning. The lyrics are uniformly spiritual, Matis rhyming about rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem and the comfort of God's grace.

"It wasn't a conscious decision of `I'm going to be a reggae artist,'" says Jacob Harris, who has known Matisyahu since 2003 and is his manager. "He started to sing, and that's what came out. It was hip-hop. It was reggae. It was breaking down into these Yiddish melodies he was studying and singing [in yeshiva]. It was a mixture of all those things."

The singer's reggae roots come from a natural place. Growing up in a strict Jewish household in White Plains, N.Y., Matisyahu (who adopted the name, which is Hebrew for Matthew, in 2001) says that he already felt disenchanted as a 14-year-old entering White Plains High School.

"I was feeling disillusioned by my environment and my parents and my friends and the whole system around me. I was looking for a positive, honest message that I could connect to and draw inspiration from," says Matisyahu. "With reggae music, there was all this Jewish imagery. I could really see myself in the music."

Emulated Bob Marley

He immersed himself in the culture, smoking mar1juana and growing his hair into long dreadlocks to emulate Bob Marley, a singer his mom, Rochelle Lieber-Miller, viewed as an "archnemesis." "It was like my mom's nightmare come true," says the singer. "She was like, `Oh, my son got swept up in drugs.' And that was the fault of Bob Marley."

At age 17, Matisyahu dropped out of high school and spent four months crisscrossing the country as he followed Phish, experimented with various mind-altering substances and struggled to find his place in the world. Upon returning to White Plains he again tried high school but found himself ill-suited to academia the second time around. Taking his mother's advice, he enrolled in a wilderness program for at-risk teens in Oregon.

"It was something that I wanted to do. I wanted to go and be out in the woods and hike for weeks and get away from my environment," says Matisyahu. "One thing my parents did instill in me, my mom especially, was the idea of working on yourself constantly and trying to understand yourself and become a better person."

That mission of self-discovery is what drew Matisyahu to the ultrastrict Chabad Hasid sect of Judaism. He studied with Hasidic rabbis at New York University, recording songs in his studio apartment in Crown Heights in the evening hours. Some of these earliest efforts -- "Close My Eyes," for instance -- appear in reworked versions on "Stubb's." At the urging of his rabbis and fellow students, Matisyahu debated giving up music for good.

`Against the stream'

Despite the mounting pressures, Matisyahu continued "going against the stream," determined to reconcile the music, which he calls "a deep part of who I am," with his faith. After much soul-searching, he finally came to an acceptance of his mission as a Jewish man, explaining that "the idea of a Jewish soul is that they come into this world of darkness and they struggle to illuminate the world." With his current popularity and growing audience, Matisyahu sees an opportunity to spread his "light" to the distant corners of the globe.

"When I was becoming religious I was like, `Oh yeah, now I know why I have this gift,' Matisyahu says. "And now I know what I'm supposed to do with it."

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Matisyahu, 8 p.m. Saturday, Riviera Theatre, 4750 N. Broadway Ave. $24; 773-275-6800.



Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

 

It's the 12th isn't it?

 

When I first heard about him, I thought the same thing. He blends alot of sounds I personally like (Phish, Bob Marley), and the end result is really good. When you hear him, the "schitck" of his appearance and religion goes to the background quickly because his talent takes your attention. If you haven't heard anything by him, give "Live At Stubbs" a listen. His beat box track on that CD is what I use to introduce people to him.