Matisyahu

Has anyone here heard of this dude? I just saw his music video for "King Without a Crown" on MTV2 and was blown away. If anyone can recommend any other good songs of his then I'd really appreciate it.

Yeah, hes a jewish orthodox rapper that is blowing up in the U.S. for some reason. I'm watching Bill Maher and theyre talking about him...apparently hes a religious nut that refuses to shake hands with women. Yeah...not making this up. But also, apprently, he is pretty good. I havent heard any of his stuff yet because I heard "jewish rapper" and thought "gimmick"...

apparently hes a religious nut that refuses to shake hands with women.

Thats an orthodox jew thing. My mom used to work for a company called Universal Brake Parts, before they were sold to the chinese, and they were run by orthodox jews and NONE of them would shake hands with any woman. Its a common practice with them i believe.

I havent heard any of his stuff yet because I heard "jewish rapper" and thought "gimmick"...

Heh, yes, i hate gimicks of any kind. His music is on the local "alternative" station in Chicago on occasion though. I've heard it and its basically reggae rap.

A white, jewish reggae rapper? You have got to be kidding me...and I thought Snow, the white Canadian reggae rapper was a joke...

Matisyahu... I went to his concert a couple of months ago... I tell you, that was one of the strangest experiences of my life. On one side, you had the temple kids who went to the concert to see their hero Matisyahu. You know... good Jewish kids who are training for their bar mitzvahs in order to become proper Jews. On the other side, you had the hippies. These were middle aged, acid-induced druggies who just popped a few pills or smoked a few joints and then blazed for the rest of the night while listening to the beat. It was quite hillarious.

Just as the show started, you could see clouds of pot smoking surrounding the crowd. Parents looked disagreeingly while the temple kids were escorted out of the doors. Then, he started singing. One would think that a 'Jewish reggae rapper' would be a miserable singer, but he's atually pretty good. His guitarist and him blew my mind away in that concert. I mean... he's no Peter Tosh, but compare him to Vanilla Ice, and Matisyahu certainly has talent.

His message is clear and firm. Though he's a bit "out there", it is fun to see how this man has surpassed taboo after taboo and gained a fanbase for himself. I mean, let's be honest here. First of all, he's Jewish. We all know that people in general dislike Jewish singers (or Jews in general). Can anyone spell 'Barbara Streisand'? Furthermore, people tend to shy away when they listen to anything that relates to religious extremism. Just notice how your friends skip the Christian rock FMs and go right to the rap/whatever the heck they listen to. Third, he's a white reggae singer. There's something certainly screwed with this combination. A white Jewish boy immitating Jamaican singers? On paper, the idea is laughable... as a matter of fact, I am laughing right now. But when I go to my Itunes, and tune in to his song 'Chop em' down', my generalizations/prejudices are chopped down and I see that the man has actual talent, both in music and in writing. So don't diss... just embrace.

Wow, well said Siblesz.


Well, hes actually not the first succesful jewish rapper. The Beastie Boys are also jewish and theyre seen as legends in the rap world. I dont want to take anything away from them, since they did earn their legend status, but I just never dug their sound either.

From everything I've heard of this Matisyahu guy, the hardcore rap fans generally express an impressed bewilderment when talking about him...just like you said, they expected him to be crap but they say that he actually impressed them, and he's good.

I'm not a fan of reggae...but now I'm tempted to actually give him a try, since so many people seem to like him. I still dont condone religious nuttery...but hell, if I didnt listen to a rapper because I disagreed with some of their views, then I wouldnt ever listen to any rappers.

I guess I'll check him out now...

Ah yes... the Beastie Boys. They have a similar background, too. I don't like their stuff, but I can at least admire their effort.

As for Matisyahu, try these songs out:
Chop em' Down
King Without a Crown
Exaltation

If you like reggae, then you can at least be entertained by Matisyahu. As I said, he's not a mastermind musician, but he ain't bad either. Sometimes, it's chill to tune to him... and his concerts are very trippy.

I like king without a crown, but I haven't heard any of his other songs

Hmm is his "music" just as out of melody as all the other rapp ive ever heard?
And btw razza: Jewsih people aint white

Originally Posted by Habelo

Hmm is his "music" just as out of melody as all the other rapp ive ever heard?
And btw razza: Jewsih people aint white

No he's melody is actually very much in tune,
and he doesn't do rap he does reggae.

Melody? If you want melody then maybe rap is not the genre for you. Theres plenty of melody, its just that most of the time, its not in the prodction, its in the lyrics. Bone Thugs n harmony have good melody....other than that, that word is not often used in the rap world. Flow, metaphors, multi's, rhythym...these are the words commonly associated with rap music.

*looks at skin*

Looks white to me.

And i kinda dont like the idea with actually not having any instruments and call it music
(synth aint a instrument!)

*Looks at Razzas skin*

Yeah mayby you are right haha

We swedish people dont have like black and white like you americans have(well what ive confirmed with my experience) we swedish have, we only call people swedish if they are: slavic looking, keltic, germanic, scandinavian. Everything else is :wub:
But we(well this is mostly my opinion cant speak for all swedish peopleyou know) also accept immogrants much more easier, learn the languge and adept to society and then you are so swedish as you can get
sorry little oftopic

Did anybody mention "Close My Eyes"?
Great song.

Beat Box is the best.
Mostly because my friends and I were playing it and going, "Go whitey! Go whitey!"

LoL, I know the first time I heard I was like WTF!! But then further on it was very good and the end was the best. I let all my friends listen to it and at first they were laughing but that quickly ceased.

Originally Posted by Ecclesiastes

LoL, I know the first time I heard I was like WTF!! But then further on it was very good and the end was the best. I let all my friends listen to it and at first they were laughing but that quickly ceased.

Same with all my friends. They were like, "Is this for real? Wow, he's a loser."
Then they come back and ask me to copy his CD for them.