Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Matisyahu and race: Is it okay for white Jew to sing reggae?
Chicago Jewish News ^ | 3-30-06 | Liel Leibovitz

Posted on 03/30/2006 6:09:47 PM PST by 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.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-66 next last
To: SJackson
“The onus is on Matisyahu to articulate more explicitly what his cultural approach is in relation to this black cultural form,” he said.

The guy likes reggae. Calm down.

41 posted on 03/30/2006 9:47:49 PM PST by Cinnamon Girl (OMGIIHIHOIIC ping list)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

Matt knows he's a minstrel act. he is no different than the 1000's of other Jewish suburbanite teen boys raised in the NYC burbs who moved to music to get stoned and laid in high school. Nothing wrong with that, I come from 4 generations of Jewish musicians.

I know dozens of other Jewish musicians our age we grew up around here who are by far better musicians.

To fully understand where Matisyahu comes from, listen to his unreleased song about White Plains high school. The spirituality was his "hook" to get the religious girls to put out, and he turned it into a career. He's still the 17 y.o. phishhead, add a few years of yeshiva study, but it's still a heavy stoner under that Lubavitcher facade.

http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=18680
disc 2 song 2

I've been to some small pre 1st record release gigs of matisyahu's, I couldn't resist seeing this schtick.
In between sets I grilled Matt and Alon Cohen about reggae, house, hall, dub, steel drum bands/musicians that are generally considered standard repetoire for reggae artists, trying to get a feel on where he came from, Matisyahu was blank on most of them, Josh Werner jumped in and took over the conversation. I also immediately saw Matisyahu as another Perry Farrell type, and they've since found each other.

I get a kick out of Matt stealing Jewish symbology BACK from the anti-Semitic Rasta culture.


42 posted on 03/30/2006 9:54:06 PM PST by JerseyHighlander
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nachum
My kids love him.

And so do I, as others say, he rocks! My daughters were raving about him, and gave me his album as a gift last year. The Jewish lyrics are so much better than the drivel put out by some other reggae singers (although I do also like Bob Marley music).

43 posted on 03/30/2006 11:08:27 PM PST by roadcat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: Alouette

This critics name is Kalefa, as in Khalifa. His views are probably colored by TROP. I don't care what he thinks..


44 posted on 03/30/2006 11:20:25 PM PST by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

He's a good reggae singer.

Either listen to him or don't, as you prefer. Quit whining. Stupid author, creating a fuss about nothing.


45 posted on 03/30/2006 11:36:05 PM PST by Alexander Rubin (Octavius - You make my heart glad building thus, as if Rome is to be eternal.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zionist Conspirator
If you're not angry at me about the other thread, check out this one - this is the singer I was telling you about.

i've seen Matisyahu in concert - he's a very talented guy.

46 posted on 03/31/2006 5:21:55 AM PST by wideawake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson
A white Englishman who performed under the name of Judge Dread in the mid-1970s had a number of chart-topping reggae hits in both the UK and Jamaica.

he was close personal friends with Jamaica's premier reggae DJ, producer and artist (until Bob Marley took his crown) Prince Buster.

Sanneh is a dumbass who doesn't understand the history of reggae music, and is apparently unaware of the fact that Bob Marley was as white as he was black.

I suppose that Sanneh doesn't listen to music by Jimmy Cliff or the Ethiopians or other seminal reggae acts because some of their music was written and almost all of it was produced by Leslie Kong, a Jamaican who must have been a "cultural appropriator" because he is Chinese, not black.

47 posted on 03/31/2006 5:27:24 AM PST by wideawake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

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

Ridiculous. O'Connor is most famous for ripping apart a photograph of the late Servant of God Pope John Paul II on live television - she is clearly an apostate, not a Catholic.

48 posted on 03/31/2006 5:30:53 AM PST by wideawake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson
As proof of sorts, Forman mentioned that the industry itself refrained from labeling Matisyahu’s music as reggae.

Matisyahu doesn't perform reggae exclusively - some of his tunes are reggae, some are melodic beatbox tunes and some are kind of neo-psychedelic jams.

Categorizing his music as "alternative" is proof of nothing.

49 posted on 03/31/2006 5:33:21 AM PST by wideawake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JerseyHighlander

"I get a kick out of Matt stealing Jewish symbology BACK from the anti-Semitic Rasta culture."

Me too! That's what I think is the best about him.

Matisyaho is ok. I'm personallu more a fan of dub like mad professor type stuff and also the more roughneck ragga styles.


50 posted on 03/31/2006 6:12:06 AM PST by adam_az (It's the border, stupid!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: wideawake

yup


51 posted on 03/31/2006 6:12:54 AM PST by cyborg (I just love that man.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: JerseyHighlander

"To fully understand where Matisyahu comes from, listen to his unreleased song about White Plains high school. The spirituality was his "hook" to get the religious girls to put out, and he turned it into a career."

I grew up on Long Island - not far away. If that's what he was looking for, he should have just joined USY. :)


52 posted on 03/31/2006 6:13:19 AM PST by adam_az (It's the border, stupid!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: SJackson
I think his music is crappy.. especially when he speaks with a NYC accent. It is like watching a Disney character... or the reincarnation of Vanilla Ice
53 posted on 03/31/2006 6:15:15 AM PST by Porterville (Si Se Puede!!! We can stop businesses hiring illegals!!! Si Se Puede!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JerseyHighlander

How many rastas do you know? Do you know anything about rasta culture? I worked for rastas for years and never heard an antisemitic thing ever. I've never heard antisemitic reggae either and they played that stuff ALL THE TIME. I'm not into the really hardcore Buju Banton type stuff. Matisyahu and Bob Marley is as reggae as I get.


54 posted on 03/31/2006 6:17:49 AM PST by cyborg (I just love that man.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: Tailgunner Joe
Rastafarianism is a black supremacist religion.

There are several "houses" of Rastafarianism. The one Marley belonged to - Twelve Tribes of Israel - is not black supremacist.

They actually consider themselves to be a branch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and many of these Rastas have been received formally into that church.

There are other "houses" that are openly racist and who perceive Marley to be a talented but wussy sellout.

55 posted on 03/31/2006 6:24:11 AM PST by wideawake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: wideawake
Everyone's heard of this guy. Of course, I don't have any of his CD's since 99.999% of my music is on vinyl and cassette (the only CD player I have is the one in my computer). And I don't even know what an i-pod is! (And the only MP3 players I have are the programs in my computer. I have no idea about these portable MP3 players or how to get music for them.)

I think us rednecks should sue the Black community for appropriating our dialect.

56 posted on 03/31/2006 6:35:29 AM PST by Zionist Conspirator (Hachodesh hazeh lakhem ro'sh chodashim; ri'shon hu' lakhem lechodshei hashanah.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: SquirrelKing

Yeah mon!


57 posted on 03/31/2006 8:59:08 AM PST by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: cyborg

I knew a few Rastas in Brooklyn and got no "heavy manners". No beef..


58 posted on 03/31/2006 9:04:47 AM PST by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: sheik yerbouty

LOL! wow...


59 posted on 03/31/2006 9:05:22 AM PST by cyborg (I just love that man.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

Well, "Day-Oh" was written by a Jew, and sung by a black (Belafonte) who seemed to specialize in fake "calypso" songs, and that was apparently alright.


60 posted on 03/31/2006 9:55:41 AM PST by Stultis (I don't worry about the war turning into "Vietnam" in Iraq; I worry about it doing so in Congress.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-66 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson