Matisyahu

Matisyahu是马太·保罗·米勒(于1979年6月30日在宾夕法尼亚州西切斯特市出生)的希伯来名和艺名。他是一名美国犹太人，雷鬼音乐家。
除了因混合犹太人主题和雷鬼以及摇滚音乐而出名之外，Matisyahu最被人知晓是因为他是一个犹太教哈西德团体加巴德-卢巴维特奇的成员之一。因此，Matisyahu由于穿着传统的哈西德派犹太人服装和不在安息日演出而备受瞩目。从2004年开始，他发表了三张录音室专辑和一张现场演出专辑、两张混音CD、还有一张演唱会的DVD、以及一系列的采访。在他还不长的职业生涯里，Matisyahu已经和雷鬼界最响当当的几个名字例如比尔·拉斯威尔还有斯莱和罗比组成了拍档。
从他的首次演出开始，Matisyahu就同时在摇滚和雷鬼乐界受到了好评。最近，他更被Billboard评为“顶级雷鬼歌手”。
by William Ruhlmann
When Matisyahu emerged with his debut album, Shake Off the Dust...Arise, in 2004, his musical persona seemed to some a novelty. Here was a Hasidic Jew, dressed in a black suit with a broad-brimmed black hat worn over a yarmulke, and sporting a full, untrimmed beard, who nevertheless performed toasting raps about the glories of traditional Judaism over reggae beats in a dancehall style directly from Jamaica, punctuating his performances with stage diving. It may have seemed like a joke at first, but Matisyahu was serious, and he began to attract press notices to go with the enthusiastic audiences that packed his concerts.
Matisyahu was born Matthew Miller on June 30, 1979, in West Chester, PA, although his family moved to Berkeley, CA, when he was a child before settling in White Plains, NY. He was given a traditional Jewish upbringing, against which he rebelled at first, considering himself a Deadhead and a hippie by his early teens. But at the age of 14, during a camping trip in Colorado, he reconciled himself to Judaism and soon after visited Israel. After returning to White Plains, he dropped out of high school and traveled the country to attend Phish concerts. Back at home again, he agreed to let his parents send him to a wilderness school in Bend, OR, where he became enamored of reggae and hip-hop, and began rapping at open-mike competitions. He returned to New York at 19 to attend the New School for Social Research in Manhattan, but also joined the Carlebach Shul, a synagogue where his musical interests were encouraged. Meeting a Lubavitch rabbi, he became interested in the strict Lubavitch Hasidic sect of Judaism and renamed himself Matisyahu.
Continuing to perform, Matisyahu assembled a backing band consisting of Aaron Dugan (guitar), Josh Werner (bass), and Jonah David (drums). They recorded Shake Off the Dust...Arise, released by JDub Records in 2004. A concert held in Austin, TX, on February 19, 2005, yielded the follow-up release, Live at Stubb's, which was released by Or Music on April 19, 2005, then picked up for national distribution by Epic Records, a division of Sony BMG, which reissued it on August 23, 2005, as Matisyahu toured around the country and prepared a second studio album produced by Bill Laswell. The final product, Youth, appeared in March 2006 and was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Reggae Album. A simultaneously released dub version of the album was made available exclusively to mail-order customers. The singer's backing band named themselves Roots Tonic and released Roots Tonic Meets Bill Laswell in May, and by the end of the year the EP/DVD combo No Place to Be was released. The CD featured a cover version of the Police's "Message in a Bottle" along with some remixes while the DVD featured interviews and a concert recorded in Israel.