Hasidic reggae explores faith, familiar sounds

Hasidic reggae. That’s a new one.

Though that’s certainly not to say that the music of Matisyahu is a novelty, or strange, or unwieldy. The 26-year-old Hasidic Jew, known as Matthew Miller before taking on his Hebrew name, combines rapping, beat-boxing and the heady rhythms of reggae and dancehall with an expression of his devout, complex, often inspiring faith. This seemingly unlikely combination will be on display this Saturday, when Matisyahu performs at Colby College in Waterville.

Born in Pennsylvania in 1979, Miller and his family eventually moved to White Plains, N.Y., where he grew into a hippie lifestyle during his teenage years, sporting Birkenstocks and dreadlocks. He also developed his first interest in hip-hop, learning how to beat-box between, and often during, classes in high school. Though he was brought up in the Jewish faith, he was never particularly faithful.

By 11th grade he had moved into a different stage of his life. On a trip out West, Miller discovered G-d – spelled that way because the Jewish faith forbids using his true name – as he explored the Rocky Mountains. He later traveled to Israel, where he grew into his Jewish identity by spending time in Jerusalem. Upon returning to the U.S., however, he lost some of his zeal for the faith, and dropped out of high school to follow the band Phish.

After several years of contemplation and study, including a time at a wilderness school in Oregon, he came back to New York and enrolled at the New School, where he studied theater and worked on his music. He had been listening to reggae and hip-hop, and had been attending a synagogue in Manhattan that encouraged musical expression. When Miller met a Lubavitch rabbi, he transformed himself into Matisyahu, and took on the Luvavitch Hasidic lifestyle, a branch of Orthodox Judaism.

With his faith strengthened and renewed, Matisyahu now began to utilize his music to convey his personal spiritual experience. “Shake Off the Dust … Arise!,” his first album, had an urgency and passion that spoke volumes to the intensity of Matisyahu’s faith. “Live at Stubb’s,” a live album recorded in Austin, Texas, last year showed off his backing band, three jazz, hip-hop and reggae performers assembled to give life to his rhymes, as well as his excellent beat-boxing skills.

Though reggae is steeped in the spiritual world of Rastafarianism, the religious angle is often overshadowed by the image of the stereotypical ganja-smoking hippie. Matisyahu brings it out front and center, reconnecting the music with the message. Songs like “Aish Tamid,” about the destruction of the Second Temple, and “King Without a Crown,” a more straightforward celebration of G-d and faith, are very traditional, musically, in the vein of modern reggae groups such as Sizzla and Morgan Heritage.

It may seem that Rastafari and Orthodox Judaism, though in some ways similar, are miles and miles away from one another culturally. But if there’s one thing Matisyahu succeeds at, it’s bridging the gap between styles – the religious, the cultural and the musical. Testimonials from those who have seen him live describe feeling almost uncomfortably uplifted by his music, turning the staunchest atheist into at least a temporary believer.

It just may be that it’s a bit disarming to see a man with the traditional wide-brimmed hat, white button-up shirt and full beard of Orthodox Judaism beat-boxing, rhyming and dancing. But why should it be? It doesn’t matter whether it’s G-d or Jah – faith is faith, and music is music.

Matisyahu will perform at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 11 at Colby College in Waterville. For ticket information, visit www.colby.edu. For information on Matisyahu, visit www.hasidicreggae.com. Emily Burnham can be reached at eburnham@bangordailynews.net.