Matisyahu
Matisyahu (Matthew Paul Miller, West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1979) is a Jewish reggae star, but in his music mixes influences from genres such as syncopated dub and ska. Closely related to culture reggae, their lyrics used in spiritual themes arising out of its Hasidic Jew. Matisyahu is the Hebrew equivalent to the name Matthew.
Matthew Miller was born in West Chester (Pennsylvania, USA) on June 30 of 1979, according to the Jewish calendar which corresponds to 5 Tammuz 5739 (Tammuz is the tenth month of the year according to the computation of the months since the creation of the world . Your sign corresponds to Cancer). Shortly thereafter, his family moved to Berkeley (California) and later to White Plains (New York). At the age of 12 one of his first dream was to become a professional player of hockey for the NHL. At age 14, Matthew Miller had settled into an easy lifestyle teenage hippie. I was a fan of the Grateful Dead, grew dreadlocks, played the bongos and learned to imitate a drum from last desks of the class. After nearly burn down his chemistry class, he decided to go to a camping trip to Colorado. In the Rockies, far from the urban life of White Plains, Matisyahu says he discovered his God.
His spiritual curiosity led him to Israel on a trip that marked a turning point in his life. Matisyahu took advantage of the time praying, studying and thinking about music in Jerusalem. Your sleeping Jewish identity emerged into their consciousness and on his return went to a school in Bend (Oregon), introduced in reggae and hip hop. Every week I went to a local amateur where rapped, sang, gave the drum machine (Beat Box) and remained active creatively. It was then that he began to develop the sound reggae – hip hop today is it so distinctive.
Matisyahu returned to New York to study at The New School, where he continued his music and tried his hand at the theater. Also went to the Carlebach Shul, a synagogue on the Upper West Side known for its hippie atmosphere and the exuberance of their songs, where he converted to Hasidic Judaism. While at The New School, Matisyahu wrote a play called Echad (One), which was a boy who meets a Hasidic rabbi and is converted to the religion. Shortly after the premiere of the work, Matisyahu’s life strangely imitated his art. Years after he burst into the first spark of religiousness, Lubavitch Rabbi Matisyahu met, initiating the transformation of Matthew in Matisyahu. The person who had so long been skeptical of the authority and rules, adapted to the discipline and structure of Judaism, following their strict laws and engaging in an intellectual challenge and spiritual dialogue he had sought for a decade. Today, Matisyahu lives in Crown Heights, splitting his time between the stage and the yeshiva (an institution for the study of the Torah, the most important document of Judaism).
Matisyahu is currently married, his wife’s name is Tahlia Miller (married name) and father of a boy, Laivy.
