This is the first in a hopefully ongoing series of Savage Minds posts about music I and my fellow SM’ers care about. The subject is, loosely speaking, “world music”, with all the ambiguities and troubling exoticisms that phrase implies. My hope is merely that, given the wide range of music that we as anthropologists are likely to come across (and, perhaps, be somewhat more receptive to than the average listener), we can expose some of our readers to music they might not otherwise have heard of.

My first entry comes from the “unlikely bedfellows” category: Matisyahu, the Hasidic Jew with the mighty dub reggae sound. Born in 1979 to a secular Jewish family in Pennsylvania and migratory throughout his childhood, Matisyahu joined the Chabad Lubavitchers at age 19 following a trip to Israel and a couple years of soul-searching. A Phish and Grateful Dead follower in his teen years, Matisyahu brought a jam-band sensibility to his religious expression, finding in dub reggae — with its already-existing religious imagery (Zion, Babylon, lost tribes, etc.) and message of peace — a way to be Jewish.

Today Matisyahu lives in Crown Heights, a crossroads of traditions and aesthetics in the heart of Brooklyn. His music represents the other side of the anxieties that fueled the riots in 1991, cutting across musical and spiritual traditions with an ease which has won him fans across the racial spectrum — and on both sides of the Atlantic. The image of this mensch, in his black suit, full beard, and fedora (sans sidelocks — which are not shared by all Hasidim, especially those of Russian descent) , belting out rhymes can be jarring, at first (this video clip includes excerpts from his live performances) — most of us think of Hasidim as a kind of urban Amish, not as beatboxing jammers. But the spiritual exhortations of Matisyahu follow easily from the mysticism and joyful prayer of the Hasidic tradition, and music has ever been part of the celebration of life that is central to the Jewish tradition.

For a taste of Matisyahu’s music, you can download the following MP3s from JDub Records, Matisyahu’s label:

Warrior (Laswell Dub)
King Without a Crown (live)
Heights (live)

Or listen to the whole album Matisyahu Live at Stubbs at the album’s homepage.