"I had moved out of Crown Heights (neighborhood of Brooklyn). I didn't
want to confront the people over there. I think that most Hasidic people
that I know, that I am actually friends with or that are acquaintances,
all say that they think I seem like a happier person now than I was
then, and they respect my decision. There were times, late at night or
whatever, where I would go online and I was interested or I would check
it out, but it always came back to bite me in the ass because you read
those comments that are just mean and it hurts."
Matisyahu in Israel earlier this year
CNN's Belief blog has an interview with the formerly-hasidic reggae singer Matisyahu. Here's a brief excerpt:
[Hat Tip: APC.]…Belief: Was there a single moment when you knew you were going to shave the beard?
Matisyahu: Over the course of years, I was thinking about it, but there was a time when it just came down to this moment where I was like, "All right, I need to move now, it is time to shift." And I was going back and forth with it, the pros, the cons, what do I believe, this thing or that thing, and I kept going back and forth. Then there was an actual moment where, I remember, I was walking down the street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and I just realized, it just clicked. "I can let go. It is my life." That was it, "It is my life." And then at that moment it was like a backpack of bricks just came off.
Belief: Your change shocked a lot of people. Why do you think that was their first reaction?
Matisyahu: Because I was a Hasidic reggae superstar. My whole thing was the Hasidic thing. I guess people aren't used to change so much. I've been through lots of different phases, but when I made that commitment and jumped into it, when you take on that ultimate reality, a lot of people don't usually leave from that. That's it. It's ingrained into you. This is the way, and to let go of that takes some chutzpah.
Belief: Did you worry when you shaved it off that you were going to lose that artistic hook as that Hasidic rapper?
Matisyahu: No. Because I believe in my music and I always have. I never felt that I was getting fans because of this. I felt it helped put me on the map and get me attention because I always had that surprise attack element to what I did, because I was a white boy singing reggae music with an authentic reggae patois.
Belief: How did you react to the negative responses from the Hasidic community?
Matisyahu: I tried to stay off the Internet. I had moved out of Crown Heights (neighborhood of Brooklyn). I didn't want to confront the people over there. I think that most Hasidic people that I know, that I am actually friends with or that are acquaintances, all say that they think I seem like a happier person now than I was then, and they respect my decision. There were times, late at night or whatever, where I would go online and I was interested or I would check it out, but it always came back to bite me in the ass because you read those comments that are just mean and it hurts.
Belief: Did it bother you that people may have initially gravitated to you because of your appearance as an outwardly religious Jew?
Matisyahu: It didn't bother me, I represented different things to different people. At a certain point early on in my career it became obvious to me that the majority of my fans at my shows, that were buying my music, most of them had no idea what Hasidism was. A lot of them had no clue I was even Jewish. Or they knew that I was Jewish, but that wasn't the main thing for them. It was my music, it was the lyrics, it was the music that was inspiring and empowering people. And then there were people that it was more about, "OK, here's this Jewish guy who is making Judaism cool, representing Judaism to the rest of the world," and for them, a lot of that was very much tied into my look. So I didn't really care, I was proud to do that. I was proud to represent for the Jewish people. I figured, who else should do it if not me?…