Chabad's Very Own Rasta #2

The New York Post has an interview (via CrownHeights.info) with Matisyahu. The Post, not known for a stong arts section, appears to love him. Not so with Rolling Stone, which just trashed Matisyahu's second album this way:

The whirlwind of attention surrounding twenty-six-year-old Matthew Miller -- better known as the reggae newcomer Matisyahu -- can partly be attributed to the fact that the world has never seen a Hasidic Jew rocking payos side-locks and the mike with equal devotion. Youth, his major-label debut, arrives amid numerous high-profile slots at reggae festivals and a cameo on P.O.D.'s recent track "Roots in Stereo."

Much of the time, Matisyahu sounds like the former Phish-following high school dropout from White Plains, New York, that he is. His voice is nimble but reedy, his choruses generally given over to starchy platitudes like "You can't sew a stitch with one hand while you're taking it apart." … [T]he most exceptional thing about Matisyahu remains the most circumstantial.

Funny. Rolling Stone's take is basically what I wrote last week. Matisyahu pimps the image, and Chabad pimps Matisyahu.

[Partial hat tip: Dovid Lerner.]

Comments

[Dovid Lerner]

How dare you insult the NY Post, that is blasphemous! :) (Of all of Rupert Murdoch's media outlets, it's the most entertaining...)

[Nachum]

Yesterday's Metro paper said that he's already being turned against by the music world. Yesterday's news, it seems.

[Stimach]

He is indeed, lamer than crap. The worst thing is his ridiculous Jamaican accent for singing and his faux Yiddish lilt for speaking--neither of which are the accents he grew up with. He defines the word poseur in every way possible.

[Shep]

Ummm, I hate to defend Matisyahu, but if RS can't tell he doesn't have peyot how can dissect his album (which does sound terminally pop - he is to Yiddish what Christina Aguilera is to Latino).

[ben matityah]

chabad, min haktubim !
how so ?
sheneemar :
כה אַל-יֵשְׂטְ אֶל-דְּרָכֶם לִבֶּךָ; אַל-תֵּתַע, בִּנְתִיבוֹתֶם.
כו כִּי-רַבִּים חֲלָלִים הִפִּילָוַ; וַעֲצֻמִים, כָּל-הֲרֻגֶיהָם.
כז דַּרְכֵי שְׁאוֹל בֵּיתָם; יֹרְדוֹת, אֶל-חַדְרֵי-מָוֶת.

[kelli]

Hey Nachum,
I think Matisyahu is awesome He is singing about G-d and reaching out to the younger generation with good things (Jews and Non-Jews). He might have different accents (which he did not grow up with) but at least he is saying good things with those accents!

[OneTopJob6]

Way to use selective quoting... If this is your idea of "trashing" Matis, I'd hate to see what you'd say when they ACTUALLY trash him.