MATISYAHU

SPIRITUALIZED: Matsiyahu aims to transcend genre on his slick new Spark Seeker

By: MATT ASHARE |
Published: July 25, 2012 http://www2.the-burg.com/entertainment

TO BEARD OR NO TO BEARD: That is the question for Matisyahu

A little over six months ago, Matisyahu, the reggae-inflected rapper who'd been openly flaunting his devotion to orthodox Judaism since the start of his musical career in 2005, sent a missive to his fans. He employed what's fast become the preferred means of mass communication for hip artists. He Tweeted, presumably not on the Sabbath. "No more Chassidic reggae superstar," he began. "Sorry folks, all you get is me." Included was a fresh photo of the singer without the traditional long beard and unshorn hair that had become a Matisyahu trademark.

It looked as if the Pennsylvania-born Phish-head, who'd dropped out of his Westchester, New York high school before getting his act together in Israel, reclaiming his Jewish roots, and launching his musical career from Brooklyn in full Chassidic garb, had taken the first steps toward secularizing himself.

       Not coincidentally, Matisyahu, who'd relocated to LA, was also gearing up for the release of his fourth studio album, Spark Seeker, a slickly produced, big-budget, multi-national operation overseen by proven hitmaker Koool Kojak, a dude who has also worked with the mainstreamed stars Nicki Minaj and Key$a. Matisyahu, it appeared, was ready to move on to a new stage in his career. As he Tweeted, "Get ready for an amazing year filled with musical rebirth. And for those concerned with my naked face, don't worry. . . you haven't seen the last of my facial hair."

       I can't remember the last time there was something even remotely resembling a stir over the status of an artist's beard, unless you count the possibly apocryphal incident when Gillette offered ZZ Top frontman Billy Gibbons a large pile of cash to take a razor to his face. Then again, I'm fairly certain that, prior to Matisyahu's emergence, there weren't many opportunities to string together the words "Chassidic reggae superstar" outside of an imagined SNL skit or, perhaps, a discarded Sascha Baron Cohen film treatment.

       There is a largely underground scene of devout Jewish musicians centered around Brooklyn and the indie label Jdub, which is where Matisyahu got his start. But it's safe to say that, until now, dude's pretty much had the stage to himself, so to speak. If that's occasionally made Matisyahu, who peppers his raps with Hebrew prayers, a little Yiddish here and there, and plenty of allusions to the Old Testament, seem like something of a novelty act, then so be it. Clearly, his spiritual message has continued to resonate, particularly with various tribes in the land of jam-banding, where transcendence through sound and a certain open-ended positivity are the coin of the realm, whatever one's musical or religious persuasion may be. No surprise then that this weekend's FloydFest, an eclectic, four-day roots 'n jam celebration in Floyd, Virginia, that runs through July 29th, is one of the first stops on Matisyahu's Spark Seeker tour. He's scheduled to be one of the Saturday headliners.

Matisyahu, Spark Seeker (Fallen Sparks)

As for the album Spark Seeker, it's not quite the departure that Matisyahu's change in grooming habits might suggest. Recorded in both in Israel and LA, it's more transitional than transformative, more Los Angelian than Brooklynite, and, despite the singer's Jamaican-inflected delivery, more West Coast hip-pop than Trenchtown Jamaica. The disc opens with a snippet of a Hebrew prayer that gives way to some very Middle Eastern sounding Arabic instrumentation, a nod in the general direction of the mostly unstated panculturalism that Matisyahu embodies. But the track, "Crossroads," quickly gives way to a propulsive hip-hop groove, with Matisyahu throwing down defiant rhymes with what could be vaguely veiled references to the Holy Land. "These lies have got me tired/I'm free falling, I'm done stalling/I'm done crawling up this mountain top/I won't stop 'til I manifest my crop." His voice, surrounded by a complex array of synths and sequencers, is joined by a chorus of background vocalists as he delivers the sort of anodyne chorus that's become his stock in trade: "Crossroads, one million miles/I'm kicking up dirt when I fly by."

       It's about as workaday as a Justin Timberlake refrain — and as a singer, Matisyahu’s no Justin Timberlake. So, even if Matisyahu wants to insist that "I've come back to take the music back," he's really not breaking any new ground here. Indeed the disc's first single, the reggae-styled, electronified "Sunshine," with its touches of echoey dub production, rests on the rather generic chorus, "Reach for the sky/Keep your eye on the prize/Forever in my mind/Be my golden sunshine." You don't have to be a Biblical scholar to come up with lines like that. Any self-help book would pretty much do the trick.

       On the other hand, if Matisyahu's intent with Spark Seeker was to find a more mainstream approach that would accommodate his idiosyncrasies, he succeeded. Tracks like "Sunshine" and "Crossroads" are offset by deeper, more religiously inspired cuts like the freewheeling "Tel Avin'n." A breezy ode to Israel's most cosmopolitan city, it finds him getting back to the Book, calling out to the "Moshiach" (the Hebrew word for "messiah"), and stopping mid-song to recite the first verse of one of the holiest of Jewish prayers in Hebrew.

       The only real misstep, if you could call it that, is "Buffalo Soldier," a tribute to Bob Marley that's not the Bob Marley song, but that quotes liberally from the original. Matisyahu's smart enough to bring rapper Shyne aboard to handle rhymes like "Buffalo soldier/No, I'm not a Rasta/Used to be a mobster/Burning up the block, bro." Matisyahu picks up the flow with some of his semi-Biblical wordifying ("Went running away to the cave/Went in a slave and came out all flames”). But his cred as a rapper takes a major hit when Shyne shows up for the final few verses and simply shreds as he offers a timely take on a message Marley might appreciate. "I shot the sheriff, the D.A., and the deputy/Sorry Al Sharpton, I don't need you to lecture me/Maybe I'll stop talking about guns/When you talk about the fund that they cut for the youth." Maybe it's time for Matisyahu to bring back the beard.