GifS A.V. Club: Matisyahu!
30 March 2006 by Sean
I saw this dude on the Jimmy Kimmel show months ago and I knew he was gonna be a huge smash. Indeed, he has.
NEW YORK (AFP) - Matthew Miller cuts a striking figure on stage with his black hat and beard. The fervent Hasidic Jew better known as Matisyahu is also an unlikely rising star of reggae and rap.
The 26-year-old has reconciled strict religious demands with a staccato chant pop style that has taken his latest album “Youth” straight into the Billboard charts at number four with 120,000 copies sold in one week.
With the help of internet chat rooms, in a few months Matisyahu has gone from local shows to headlining national events. He will be one of the top names at the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago in August.
But no shows on a Friday, the eve of the Sabbath, and no fraternising with female fans. “There’s always one drunk girl who runs up to give me a hug. I have to pull away,” he said in a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine.
Here’s the Kimmel clip, still one of the best live recordings of Matisyahu out there.
Never let it be said that secular humanists don’t like religious people. After all, how could a humanist say that certain humans aren’t of any worth? It’s not that we don’t like them, it’s that we don’t like their ideas.
30 March 2006, on 3:55 pm
Call me cynical, but I think his current popularity has more to do with the novelty of his act than anything else.
30 March 2006, on 4:02 pm
But of course, that’s part of the amusement about it all. He’s not bad, though. Pretty good, in fact. Just one would have to wonder how many other rap/reggae artists there are out there who could wax his ass but don’t have a gimmick like his.
30 March 2006, on 4:09 pm
Man, ain’t that somethin’ else… Check out this Wikipedia pic of him- It’s all like Hasidic gangsta.
30 March 2006, on 4:34 pm
Reminds me of the Hebrew Hammer, which has one of the funniest opening sequences of any recent film:
http://www.thehebrewhammer.com/
30 March 2006, on 5:19 pm
Untalented. Misogynist. Asshat.
30 March 2006, on 7:34 pm
I didn’t know they were allowed to involve themselves in the evils of the western world ways. Weird.
31 March 2006, on 6:56 am
“Untalented.”
Absolutely NOT. He rocks. But in an amateurish way. I’ve been listening to him for over a year. He’s gotten much better.
“Misogynist.”
Well he is an Orthodox Jew. The terms are practically synonymus.
“Asshat. ”
Is he? I don’t know anything about him.
31 March 2006, on 12:54 pm
Maybe he’s gotten better since I listened to him years ago but I doubt it. He’s all schtick. Follow some mp3 blogs, get out more, go to some shows, visit a city. He is absolutely talentless. “He rocks. But in an amateurish way.” - don’t know why I bother responding to someone who doesn’t know obviously doesn’t know talent and falls so quickly for novelty.
31 March 2006, on 1:03 pm
Man… you’re a dick, aren’t you Pete?
31 March 2006, on 1:31 pm
I don’t think Matisyahu is worthy of such heated argument. I just thought it would be fun for those who hadn’t heard of him to see his act. He sometimes performs with a Muslim musician as well. If that’s schtick, I welcome more of it.
31 March 2006, on 1:40 pm
“don’t know why I bother responding to someone who doesn’t know obviously doesn’t know talent and falls so quickly for novelty. ”
Translation: “you’re a stupid GIRL what do you know about music!”
Pete, you don’t know anything about me, but thanks for showing what a phoney asshat you are.
31 March 2006, on 3:14 pm
Damn… this thread needs more yarn womb.
31 March 2006, on 5:20 pm
By, the way, I don’t really care all that much if he is a misogynist or not. I have no problem separating an artist from her/his work (I like H.P. Lovecraft, although he was a xenophobe).
There’s one case where I was totally unable to do that: Cat Stevens calling for the death of Salman Rusdhie. That was just intolerable. I stopped listening to his music after that, despite his later attempts to wriggle out of it and claim that’s not what he meant. Something about an artist calling for the death of another artist for exercising his right to free expression. It repulsed me.
4 April 2006, on 7:00 pm
I heard Matisyahu on Yahoo! Music a couple of months ago. Sounds great to me! Although I don’t agree with his religious views at all, it doesn’t really matter. He’s a musician, which is one step above an actor talking about politics… you just can’t take it seriously. If musicians or actors had anything really important to say/do they would be out there doing it..
8 April 2006, on 9:38 am
Orthodox Judaism can certainly be described as “sexist” based on contemporary standards. However can you please be more specific when you say its “misogynistic?” Are you suggsting that they are synonymous?
8 April 2006, on 1:21 pm
15. Beth Says:
April 8th, 2006 at 9:38 am e
Orthodox Judaism can certainly be described as “sexist” based on contemporary standards. However can you please be more specific when you say its “misogynistic?” Are you suggsting that they are synonymous?
Nobody used the word “sexist.” Pete said that Matisyahu is specifically a mysoginist. I don’t know what this opinion is based on.
As for Orthordox Judaism…
sexism: discrimination based on gender, especially discrimination against women.
misogyny: hatred of women
I think that a man would have to have been programmed with some contempt for women to subscribe to a belief system that paints them as inferior human beings. So, no, they are not exact synonyms, but I would argue that you kinda can’t have one without the other.
Lya Kahlo recently wrote an excellent posting on the sexism and misogyny in Judaism here.