For a few months I’ve been hearing this song King Without a Crown on the radio. I listened to it all the way through the first time I came across it. KROQ doesn’t play much music that sounds like that so I was surprised and curious. After listening to it though I decided it was a very trite interpretation of old-style reggae music. I also thought that the actual production values of the recording were a little low and raw. To make matters worse when I heard the name of the artist I thought they were copying off of another artist. After all, as a long-time modest mouse fan (yes BEFORE they were on The goddamn OC) I thought it was weird that another band would put the word Modest in their name. And to pair it with the word Yahoo (a very popular web-portal and email host) was even weirder. Eventually whenever the song by “Modest Yahoo” came on the radio I would switch the station immediately.

As mentioned in my last post I bought tickets to Coachella. When looking at the extensive artist line-up I noticed an artist named “Matisyahu.” After pronouncing it in my head I realized that maybe I was mistaken and this was the true name of what I’d been calling “Modest Yahoo.” A short trip to their website later and I found this assumption to be correct. I listened to a few more of their songs and noticed that their singer is an Orthodox Hasidic Jew wearing the full beard and traditional clothing.

Unlike almost any other person in the whole world- I have a very solid reason for disliking this artist. Unlike anyone else- I heard the music before I saw the persona. I disliked the song and the sound long before I ever knew there was anything religious going on at all. In fact, because he “raps” so quickly many people assume he speaks Yiddish-however this is not true and almost all his lyrics are in English. Upon seeing this connection it has become all too obvious why this artist has become so immensely popular in such a short time. I’m going to name this syndrome the Look at Me syndrome. Here is my description of this unfortunate trend that seems to affect so much of America.

– If I like his music- I can’t possibly be a bigot since I’m supporting alternate lifestyles

– I can support alternate lifestyles and beliefs without openly admitting I’m still a homophobic while at the same time I identify with the artist who (according to his own beliefs) doesn’t like homosexuals either. However, unlike an artist like Eminem- the anti-defamation league won’t condemn Matisyahu because he is already a cultural minority figure (Eminem was just a racist homophobe from Detroit- an easy target). I can have my cake and eat it too.

– I can pretend I’m down with black culture by liking an artist that is not black but has appropriated a predominately black musical style. (The same reason every white boy in America under the age of 25 with an IQ below 90 owns an Eminem album but has no clue who NWA was)

– I can convince my parents I’m into religious music, which will let me attend events tied to this artist where I can do things wholly un-religious such as, do drugs, drink alcohol underage, and in some cases engage in sexual activity while my parents are for the large part unaware.

– There has never been a successful orthodox Jewish “rapper” before thus I’m supporting something new and different thus classifying me as someone with an ear for new music and “with it.” (yet I’d like to see one fan of Matisyahu sit through an entire Godspeed You! Black Emporer album)

– Being young and open to different viewpoints I can really relate to what he is saying. (Note: out of all Jews in America less than 10% actually follow the rigid rules that the Matisyahu appears to live by with the beard, clothing, etc.)

I could go on all day about this folks, but the main point is that we are taking the search for things that are “new and different” and reducing it to just “different.” There isn’t anything at all musically new about Matisyahu’s music, only his/their appearance. The assumption can be made that if this group had rejected their religion and pursued the same musical dreams they would still be playing in their parents’ basement in Pennsylvania. Yes, that’s right- the epicenter of the dub and reggae movements and corporate headquarters of QVC– West Chester Pennsylvania. Their popularity can only be attributed to the “hangers-on” described above. If you love reggae music and you already bought Damian Marley’s album BEFORE Matisyahu’s I can’t think wrong of you for liking Matisyahu. However, if you say “who is Damian Marley, they don’t play him on TRL?”…you’re out of luck (and brain cells).

Note: I don’t own any of the albums discussed above and I am NOT a Damian Marley fan at all. His dad maybe a little…