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.]