As the world's only known platinum-selling Hasidic Jewish dancehall-reggae sensation, metaphysical MC and human beatbox, Matthew "Matisyahu' Miller cuts a distinctly awkward figure amongst the gallery of image-obsessed, MTV-endorsed, chart phenomena he's recently found himself rubbing shoulders and sharing airspace with. Standing at an imposing six-feet plus and sporting the traditional shaven head, unruly beard and long, flowing sideburns, or payoth, of the Ultra-Orthodox Eastern European branch of Judaism known as Hasidism, the 26 year-old Brooklynite is perhaps 2006's oddest - and most strikingly original - crossover artist. His music - a heady broth of hip-hop beats and vibrant, accessible reggae-pop - is infused with unabashed lyrical celebrations of his faith and the Jewish condition ("3,000 years with no place to be/And they want me to give up my milk and honey/Don't you see, it's not about the land or the sea/Not the country but the dwelling of his majesty" he sings on "Jerusalem"), and has been variously dismissed as a novelty curio by some, and hailed as the advent of a truly original voice by others. The man himself remains ambivalent about suggestions that his success lies in the fact that no one's ever seen an Orthodox Jew beatboxing before, stating simply that, "This is me. If anyone thinks I'm a novelty, they should come to a show, close their eyes, listen, and decide on their own whether or not it moves them."Read more at The Independent.
Matisyahu - King Without a Crown
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