Matisyahu and race: Is it okay for white Jew to sing reggae?

Chicago Jewish News ^ | 3-30-06 | Liel Leibovitz

[SJackson]

Matisyahu and race: Is it okay for white Jew to sing reggae?

By this point, Matisyahu, the Chasidic reggae artist, needs little introduction. His first album, “Live at Stubb’s,” has sold more than 500,000 copies. His second, “Youth,” has topped online music vendor iTunes’ album chart ever since. His lanky figure — black hat, beard and all — has appeared everywhere from Rolling Stone to the staid Wall Street Journal to Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show.

But while most critics are united in praising his music, Matisyahu nonetheless raises a complex tangle of questions about race, religion and cultural appropriation, bringing these topics to the forefront in a way few American artists — think Elvis or Eminem — have done.

These issues were perhaps best, and most troublingly, brought to the foreground in a review of Matisyahu’s Manhattan concert written by The New York Times’ pop music critic, Kelefa Sanneh. The review, published on the front page of the paper’s Arts section, had little to say about Matisyahu’s music but plenty to discuss about his race.

“Matisyahu’s black hat,” Sanneh wrote, “also helps obscure something that might otherwise be more obvious: his race. He is a student of the Chabad-Lubavitch philosophy, but he is also a white reggae singer with an all- white band, playing (on Monday night, anyway) to an almost all-white crowd. Yet he has mainly avoided thorny questions about cultural appropriation.”

Almost instantly, the Jewish blogosphere lit up. Why, most commentators asked, was Matisyahu singled out for a cultural act — call it appropriation — that many white artists have happily, and seamlessly, committed?

Writing in his blog, “Canonist,” religion writer Steven I. Weiss labeled Sanneh’s review as a “hackneyed, disingenuous, and self- contradicting series of assessments about religion, race, and culture.”

“What takes [Sanneh’s] essay from the disrespectful and disingenuous into the absurd,” Weiss wrote, “is Sanneh’s assumption that reggae is, at this point, a ‘black thing’: white artists using reggae and white reggae artists have been around for a long time and if Sanneh would like, by extension, to exclude all of those artists from a relevant musical discussion he’ll be excluding a good many who’ve made real contributions to the form.

“But Sanneh doesn’t bring other white artists into the discussion, and it’s reasonable to wonder why. It’s hard to shake the notion that Matisyahu is being presented as singularly white, and that his Jewishness could comprise part of that judgment.”

This singling out, Weiss said, denies Jews the right to see themselves as an ethnicity, corralling them collectively into “whiteness.”

“For Matisyahu to be singled out,” he said, “speaks to an idea that there’s probably some disdain for the fact that he gets off as an ethnic curiosity, and that Jews in general perhaps can be seen as something other than white.”

The claim of cultural appropriation, Weiss added, was particularly odd, given reggae’s traditional affiliation with the Rastafari movement, which borrows heavily from Jewish imagery and whose followers believe themselves to be the true Israelites. And while Matisyahu, he said, was criticized for co-opting reggae music, reggae music — with its penchant for such themes as Mount Zion or the Lion of Judah — is never criticized for appropriating these staples of Jewish thought.

“The reality is there’s borrowed imagery,” Weiss said. “But [Sanneh’s] acknowledgment that both [Matisyahu and reggae music] would be equally subject to a claim of co-option is absent.”

Several phone calls and an e-mail message to Sanneh for comment went unanswered.

Sanneh, it turns out, isn’t alone in his critique of Matisyahu as something of a cultural thief. Writing in Slate, the online journal’s music writer, Jody Rosen, goes so far as to position the singer as the latest in a long line of Jewish minstrel acts, from Al Jolson to Bob Dylan, “who channeled the cadences of black bluesmen,” to the Beastie Boys. “Successive generations of Jewish musicians have used the blackface mask to negotiate Jewish identity and have made some great art in the process,” Rosen writes.

“And while [Matisyahu’s] music is at best pedestrian, his minstrel routine may be the cleverest and most subtle yet,” Rosen continues. The singer’s “genuinely exotic look” and “spiritual bona fides” are an “ingenious variation on the archetypal Jewish blackface routine, immortalized in ‘The Jazz Singer’ (1927), when the immigrant striver Jolson put on blackface to cast off his Jewish patrimony and become American. In 2006, Matisyahu wears Old World ‘Jewface,’ and in so doing, becomes ‘black.’ ”

The question of cultural appropriation is always an important one to raise, said Murray Forman, a professor of communication studies at Northeastern University who has written extensively about reggae and hip-hop. And yet, he added, “I wouldn’t necessarily start from the perspective simply of race and difference.”

Race, he said, is certainly an important factor, but it is not the only one. “I sense that sometimes there are claims of racial essentialism,” he said, “that are somehow going to trump other forms of identity status. We’re always grappling with authenticity. Rather than isolate the debate solely in terms of racial dynamics, I’d take it to the question of reggae, and ask, ‘Is it legitimate or authentic in that context?’ ”

As an example Forman mentioned Snow, an Irish-Canadian reggae musician who came from a working-class background, living and working mainly with Jamaicans. “People gave him a little bit of a pass by virtue of class authenticity,” Forman said. A similar statement, he added, could be made about Sinead O’Connor; the Irish singer recently released “Throw Down Your Arms,” an album of reggae classics that was produced by Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, reggae’s most prolific production team, and recorded in Jamaica with leading reggae studio musicians.

“As Matisyahu comes from the Chasidic perspective,” said Forman, “O’Connor carries her well- known Catholicism into the mix.”

What, then, determines the boundaries of appropriation? What measures must be used to ascertain an artist’s “right” to work in a cultural tradition associated with another religion or race?

Forman’s formulation is simple. The main principle, he said, should be that “you owe it to the culture,” stressing not an artist’s essentials — place of birth or color of skin — but his or her connections to the art form. And, he added, just as Snow was connected to reggae through his socioeconomic class, Matisyahu’s connection may just be his religious beliefs and its thematic ties to Rastafarianism.

“The onus is on Matisyahu to articulate more explicitly what his cultural approach is in relation to this black cultural form,” he said. “What is it about reggae that he sees as viable, and how does he see himself as a white performer in a predominantly black idiom? If he wants to say it’s the commonality between the Rastafari movement and Judaism, he has an interesting line. I don’t want to privilege race, because in this case, maybe it is not the most dominant aspect.”

Matisyahu himself has claimed something similar when, in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, he said, “In any Bob Marley song, you hear lots of powerful quotes from the Torah,” and added that it was reggae’s recurring references to Jewish symbols that first attracted him to the genre.

But, Forman added, no discussion of Matisyahu — or any other artist, for that matter — would be complete without mention of a social force mightier than race and religion combined: money.

“At some point we also have to recognize that Matisyahu is also a product of culture industries,” he said. “Not only he benefits from adopting reggae, but the music industry benefits as well.”

In Matisyahu, he said, the industry found an unlikely and attractive musical vehicle, one that could deliver reggae music to an audience, predominantly white, that would otherwise have most likely remained uninterested.

“Matisyahu is being promoted and marketed to a particular audience,” Forman said. “There’s an industry alongside this that says this is where we’ll meet the largest audience and generate the greatest revenue. And I think it’s folly for anybody to overlook the industrial role here.”

As proof of sorts, Forman mentioned that the industry itself refrained from labeling Matisyahu’s music as reggae. His albums are listed under the “Alternative” category on iTunes, and “King Without a Crown,” his biggest hit, reached No. 7 on Billboard’s rock chart, and not the R&B and hip-hop chart, which monitors reggae musicians as well.

To be sure, other artists who have begun as marketing schemes have since risen to prominence. Eminem, to cite the best example, got his first break for being the first white rapper, became successful for appealing to a large white audience otherwise indifferent to hip-hop and went on to become one of the genre’s most esteemed musicians, regardless of skin color.

Given the recent ride he’s on, Matisyahu may be moving in that direction. But Forman is skeptical. “Eminem is a superior rhyme artist, he’s a skilled producer, he can freestyle, and his style is quite literally unparalleled,” Forman said. “He’s much better than Matisyahu is in his respective category. Matisyahu will never be at the top of the reggae skill chart. He’ll never trump even half of the artists we haven’t even heard of. He is not a superior artist.”

[SJackson]

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“Matisyahu’s black hat,” Sanneh wrote, “also helps obscure something that might otherwise be more obvious: his race. He is a student of the Chabad-Lubavitch philosophy, but he is also a white reggae singer with an all- white band, playing (on Monday night, anyway) to an almost all-white crowd. Yet he has mainly avoided thorny questions about cultural appropriation.”

It's OK as long as someone buys the tunes. There's a lesson there for the Times about selling newspapers.

Hasidicreggae.com

[muawiyah]

Seems to me that to the degree Rastifarianism and it's associated Reggae music draw down on ancient Jewish customs, prophecies and images, it's not unfair for a Jew to perform Reggae.

To question this man's right to his own music is over the top ~ and suggests his critics don't have the slightest idea where the Bible came from.

[cripplecreek]

It's Hebrew Hammertime

[Lion in Winter]

Nice poster. What's reggae? Just kidding...

[billorites]

"Is it okay for white Jew to sing reggae?"

No.
No it's not.

[Scribbz]

My brother just bought his album and it is awsome.

His messages are very positive.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

typical "lets find the racism somewhere" article.

Bad Brains got dissed by the music snobs because they fused alternative and metal with reggae.

Eminem got plenty of flack in his early days because he was white. When Dr. Dre first heard tapes Eminem sent him, the assumed he was black until he went to see him perform one night and did a double take.

[Liberal Classic]

If Harry Belafonte can sign Hava Nagila at Carnegie Hall, I'd say the answer is 'yes.' ;)

[freebilly]

Stir It Up....

[Scribbz]

Here is a horrible article I read on Matisyahu recently while trying to find more about him.

http://www.slate.com/id/2138032/

[Dialup Llama]

I don't understand the reason. But I've come across a large numnber of white reggae musicians. Much larger than the Eminem white rapper phenomenon which is very much a minority, limited phemomenon within rap.

Maybe reggae has a more universal appeal much like the Irish music. You have a lot of non-Irish playing Irish music.

[El Conservador]

What do you expect from Slate???

Matisyahu's music is awesome!!!

[Larry Lucido]

Well, I think it's an abomination for anyone to sing reggae, but hey, that's just me. :-)

[freebilly]

Psalm 137--

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, sat and wept, as we thought of Zion.
There on the willows we hung up our lyres,
for our captors asked us there for songs, our tormentors, for amusement,
"Sing us one of the songs of Zion."
How can we sing a song of the Lord on alien soil?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither;
let my tongue stick to my palate if I cease to think of you,
if I do not keep Jerusalem in memory even at my happiest hour.
Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem's fall;
how they cried, "Strip her, strip her to her very foundations!"
Fair Babylon, you predator,
a blessing on him who repays you in kind what you have inflicted on us;
a blessing on him who seizes your babies
and dashes them against the rocks.

Bob Marley--

By the rivers of Babylon
Where he sat down
And there he wept when he remembered Zion.


Oh from wicked, carry us away from captivity
Required from us a song
How can we singing out for song in a strange land.


So let the words of our mouth
And the meditations of our hearts
Be acceptable in thy sight
O-verride


By the rivers of Babylon
Where he sat down
And there he wept when he remembered Zion.


Oh from wicked, carry us away from captivity
Required from us a song
How can we singing out for song in a strange land.
How can we singing out for song in a strange land.

[SJackson]

Funny. Perhaps the author doesn't like him cause he can't sell records, and is stuck reviewing them at Slate. I love.

That emphasis on self-actualization and uplift, combined with Matisyahu's ceaseless diatribes about the moral impurity of secular life, is reminiscent of nothing so much as Christian rock. It's a reminder that Orthodox Jewish fundamentalists share a lot with their Christian counterparts, including political priorities—and that there's no one quite so beloved of the Left Behind crowd these days than Orthodox Jews, whose in-gathering in Israel is essential stage setting for the coming of the Rapture. (At which point, presumably, Jews will be cast into the hellfire.) As if to make explicit the burgeoning alliance, Matisyahu recently recorded "Roots in Stereo," a duet with evangelical rap-rockers P.O.D. It's a cruddy piece of music and, as politics, it can't be good for the Jews.

Jody needs to lighten up a bit, it's music he's writing about, not something important like baseball. Maybe the promotion will come through next year.

[Lancey Howard]

Somebody told me that "Matisyahu" is the Hebrew "Matthew".

He does a nice job and his stuff is very well produced. But whenever I hear one of his tunes, I can't help but grin and wonder if it's satire that nobody "got" and so he decided to play it coy and just go with the flow. Like sort of a too-subtle version of what Weird Al Yankovich does.

Matisyahu has to cash in NOW for everything he can get because I don't see this fad lasting very long. Anyways, there's plenty of regular white people who do reggae very well. Long Beach Dub Allstars (formerly backing up Bradley Nowell in Sublime) for example.

[Xenalyte]

I'd pay good money to hear a Jew sing "Legalize It."

[MaDeuce]

I wonder if Slate magazine would be ripping the guy if it was Mohamed-yahu. I'm sure they would have nothing but praise if it was ... especially if the song was about killing Jews and Infedels.

Good song that King Without a Crown. The guy is a one-of-a-kind ... a greate marketing point.

Other white reggae group (sort of) that is excellent is 311.

[Incorrigible]

The guy is definitely "unorthodox" but the music is great!

Check out these lyrics from his biggest hit (Sung to reggae of course):

Matisyahu - King Without A Crown

You're all that I have and you're all that I need
Each and every day I pray to get to know you please
I want to be close to you, yes I'm so hungry
You're like water for my soul when it gets thirsty
Without you there's no me
You're the air that I breathe
Sometimes the world is dark and I just can't see
With these, demons surround all around to bring me down to negativity
But I believe, yes I believe, I said I believe
I'll stand on my own two feet
Won't be brought down on one knee
Fight with all of my might and get these demons to flee
Hashem's rays fire blaze burn bright and I believe
Out of darkness comes light, twilight unto the heights
Crown Heights burnin' up all through till midnight
Said, thank you to my God, now I finally got it right
And I'll fight with all of my heart, and all a' my soul, and all a' my might

What's this feeling?
My love will rip a hole in the ceiling
Givin' myself to you from the essence of my being
Sing to my God all these songs of love and healing
Want Mashiach now so it's time we start revealing 1

Me no want no sinsemilla.
That would only bring me down
Burn away my brain no way my brain is to compound
Torah food for my brain let it rain till I drown
Thunder!
Let the blessings come down


Strip away the layers and reveal your soul
Got to give yourself up and then you become whole
You're a slave to yourself and you don't even know
You want to live the fast life but your brain moves slow
If you're trying to stay high then you're bound to stay low
You want God but you can't deflate your ego
If you're already there then there's nowhere to go
If you're cup's already full then its bound to overflow
If you're drowning in the water's and you can't stay afloat
Ask Hashem for mercy and he'll throw you a rope
You're looking for help from God you say he couldn't be found
Looking up to the sky and searchin' beneath the ground
Like a King without his Crown
Yes, you keep fallin' down
You really want to live but can't get rid of your frown
Tried to reach unto the heights and wound bound down on the ground
Given up your pride and the you heard a sound
Out of night comes day and out of day comes light
Nullified to the One like sunlight in a ray,
Makin' room for his love and a fire gone blaze

What's this feeling?
My love will rip a hole in the ceiling
Givin' myself to you from the essence of my being
Sing to my God all these songs of love and healing
Want Mashiach now so it's time we start revealing


Reelin' him in
Where ya been
Where ya been
Where ya been for so long
It's hard to stay strong been livin' in galus (exile) for 2000 years strong
Where ya been for so long
Been livin in this exile for too long



What's this feeling?
My love will rip a hole in the ceiling
Givin' myself to you from the essence of my being
Sing to my God all these songs of love and healing
Want Mashiach now so it's time we start revealing