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by EV // March 8th, 2006
Arts & Culture

Now I don’t want Matisyahu’s “Street Team” and legions of die-hard fans attacking me, so I’m just posting this for people’s reference, okay? I’m not even gonna quote from it, people. So don’t call me a hater, and direct your vitriol to the NYT, thank you very much!

Kelefa Sanneh tears Matisyahu apart on the Front Page of The New York Times Arts Section.

1. ASC Says:
   March 8th, 2006 at 3:04 pm

   Odd that nowhere in the article does she [is Kalefa a she?] allude to his Jewish — that is, Orthodox — fan base. If she is puzzling over why this particular white reggae singer is able to sell out the Ballroom, you’d think she’d want to factor in his logical constituency.

2. tzvee Says:
   March 8th, 2006 at 3:07 pm

   OK it is not a glowing review - but it is not a bad one either and do you realize what a watershed this is to make it into the Times? If I were M I’d be jumping all over the place with joy about now.

3. EV Says:
   March 8th, 2006 at 3:22 pm

   Kelefa is a he.

4. Monk Eastman Says:
   March 8th, 2006 at 3:25 pm

   I agree with ASC -

   But allow me to push further.

   The author of this article is not necessarily wrong. Matisyahu certainly did not come from a very frum background, is indeed of suburban origins, and is does definitely use a West indian affect in his music.

   What I take umbrage at is more that the author makes no mention of artists who affect similar fashions to their music, and attract similar audiences.

   Where’s the reference to MIA, whose album, Arular, borrows HEAVILY from Jamaican dancehall? There’s a Tamil Sri Lankan making music from a VERY similar perspective to Matisyahu: not W. Indian, attracting a non-W. Indian audience.

   New York hip hop artists have been using patois for DECADES - even and especially non W. indian hip hop artists.

   Hell, E-40 STILL uses it.

   What I’m saying is, the writer clearly went for the superficial aspects of both performer and audience when writing this article. I can almost HEAR a “Oh HAYL no - first Eminem, now THIS?!”

   So really, I guess what I’m saying is…

   Fuck this author.

5. Chaim Says:
   March 8th, 2006 at 3:39 pm

   That wasn’t pretty. I still think it’s funny that it’s taken 2 years and till this point for the haters to come around.

6. Proud Self-Loather Says:
   March 8th, 2006 at 3:48 pm

   Yeah, I generally agree with Monk. It’s one thing for the reviewer to say his concert sucked. That’s an opinion, and he-she is entitled to it. I saw Matisyahu play once at the JCC of Manhattan and thought he sucked too (and have since chalked it up to a down night). But it’s another thing completely to say only Jamaicans can do reggae or dancehall, as is implied in the second-to-last paragraph. That would be like Jews bitching if black people starting playing klezmer, or if Madonna starting singing about Kabbalah…oh wait…what was my point? Oh yeah. That only Jews can play klezmer, so all you pretenders, STEP OFF!

7. Mobius Says:
   March 8th, 2006 at 4:44 pm

   he also got slammed by pitchfork, the boston globe, and just about everyone else who reviewed his album, all for different reasons

8. Matt Says:
   March 8th, 2006 at 5:07 pm

   Proud Self-Loather is right. It would be fine if the author just said that Matisyahu’s concert sucked, but instead he had to go ahead and turn this into some white conspiracy to steal black people’s music, just as that asshole Benzino (though it should be Benzona) accused Eminem of stealing rap and turning into white music. But then again, Eminem has nothing on Nas, Jigga, or Kweli, to name a few. I mean, Eminem is good sometimes. But if I say he sucks, it’s because he’s just not a good rapper (and he’s got talent, I’ll give him that), but not because he’s a white guy doing black music. That’s what he grew up around, so that’s going to be the basis for his musical style. Same with Matis.

   But anyways, Sanneh just completely racialized much of the tension surrounding the image of a hasid playing reggae.

9. eli di geto zinger Says:
   March 8th, 2006 at 5:21 pm

   stay tuned for something from me. i think a lot about this, maybe cuz I’ve collected reggae for so long. Sanneh’s deliberate omission of Jewish ethno-genesis in America smacks of cultural chauvanism. Especially since Matisyahu makes a point at every show to acknowledge the origins of reggae music, and his own, which lay among the masses of Yiddish speaking Ashkenazim, ancient Israelites, and suburban Jewish youth grappling with the inability to consume their own culture.

   - eli

10. michael Says:
    March 8th, 2006 at 5:40 pm

    There’s a certain logical inconsistency in castigating Jews for playing reggae. If a Jew playing reggae is ripping off black/Rasta culture (not that reggae is Rasta music, but most of these people seem to think it is), then we can also criticize the Rastas for ripping their entire worldview off the Jews.

    Or, to come at it from another angle, why is it the color of your skin that predisposes you towards the right to play a certain kind of music? Would a middle-class suburban American black kid have any more right to play poor urban Jamaican music than a middle-class suburban American white kid, if playing music was indeed about right?

    And, of course, reggae, much like hip-hop, has become a completely global phenomenon. I’ve heard Russian reggae, Japanese reggae, Israeli reggae, you name it…and in the end, it’s about the talent of the musician, not about their skin color.

    Of course, it’s still possible that the album sucked. But criticize the music, not the melanin.

11. daniel brenner Says:
    March 8th, 2006 at 5:53 pm

    I agree, Michael. He argues that Rastafarians ‘borrow heavily” from Jewish tradition but when anyone with White skin (like Matisyahu) attempts to sing reggae it raises “thorny questions about cultural appropriation.” The opposite is true. When Leonard Hall, founder of Rastafarianism and one time resident of Harlem, decided back in the 1930s that Black people were the true Jews, he was the one performing the ultimate act of cultural appropriation. Matisyahu is not claiming to be the true Black man, he is, like young people everywhere, borrowing artistic inspiration from the musicians of Jamaica.

12. invisible_hand Says:
    March 8th, 2006 at 6:52 pm

    i agree with mr brenner. cultural diffusion is part of what makes musical and cultural traditions still valid even as their original phases pass by. It is not as though he is putting on a minstrel show: his content is thoroughly jewish as is his garb and speech. yes he adopts a musical style that originates from a certain land that happens to be largely populated by a people of a certain color… but welcome to the good side of globalization. i refer the reviewer to a film called 1 Giant Leap, a film by two british white guys who go around all over the world and construct a working “world music.”
    To raise a thorny issue: when i was in high school, everyone was a “nigga.” specifically, i, the one kid wearing kippah and tzitzit in a very ghetto school, was a “jewish nigga.” it seems to me that as long as one is not identifying predominantly with the mainstream white/european/american culture, that is to say, one has a distinct “other” cultural identity, then one has more access to non-white cultural forms. that’s the way it seemed to me at least.

13. Ariel Beery Says:
    March 8th, 2006 at 7:44 pm

    Sorry to see Matisyahu slammed–but I’m even sorrier to see the NYTs print such a racialist article. The review suggests we listen to another group, Jamaicans, if we want true reggae. Would he also suggest we go only to the Jews for money, Mexicans for tacos, Chinese for Railroads? Come on. The editors should have caught this one before it went out.

14. Boruch Dovid Says:
    March 8th, 2006 at 8:18 pm

    all good points. this article should never had made it to print. it’s racism, pure and simple. plus, the writer doesn’t even get the facts right. she makes insinuations that fall on their face, like claiming “Matisyahu is by no means the first reggae star to sing of Mount Zion, although he might be the first one who has had a chance to go there.” luke perry and mad professor were in Israel in december (which took me exactly one minute to find out). she also implies that he hides his race with his hat. rediculous. if he was boring, fine. don’t like the cd? fine. (personally, and i’ve been listening from the beginning, i think it isn’t his strongest stuff, but enjoyable nonetheless.)
    this writer seemed to have an ulterior motive. she doesn’t even aknowledge that he was invited to headline carifest last year… but i go on to long.

    and by the way, mobius, thanks for introducing me to y-love. i can’t wait until he puts out something consumable.

    raising torah loving yid kids in soflo with my queen,
    Boruch Dovid

15. shmuel Says:
    March 8th, 2006 at 11:45 pm

    yeah this article is pretty racist.

    btw, the people at carifest loved him.

    although, i will say, i didn’t like this album at first listen, b/c i was expecting a more reggae album and this album is not so much or at least, it’s a diff. kind of reggae. SOTDA was pretty roots reggae in its approach and i guess i was expecting something more like that, but now that i’ve listened to Youth a few times I understand it, and I love it.

    If you liked Youth, I would recommend also “Welcome To Jamrock”, Damian Marley’s newest album. Kind of similar styles.

16. Ronen Says:
    March 9th, 2006 at 2:37 am

    re: black musicians playing klezmer, peep Don Byron.

17. rootlesscosmo Says:
    March 9th, 2006 at 3:17 am

    matisyahu sort of sucks I think.

    so does this author. I have been reading Sanneh’s drivel for years now. he’s basically an unabashed East coast nationalist with a particular proclivity for riding Jay-Z’s dick.

    props to Rahav Segev for a great photo, though!