Matisyahu – King Without A Crown

21st September 2004 · 2004, Music, Reggae

And now for something completely different. Straight outta Crown Heights, Brooklyn, here comes Matt Miller – aka Matisyahu – the only Orthodox Jew in reggae.

Like many New York teenagers in the Nineties, Miller grew up skateboarding, smoking weed and listening to reggae. But he began to see similarities between Bob Marley’s songs inspired by the Old Testament and the Psalms and Judaism.

That led him to embrace his Jewish faith so deeply that he joined the hardcore Hasidic movement and embraced the spiritual life… with one big difference.  He used roots reggae to convey the messages of his faith, often performing in synagogues, wearing the traditional garb of his religion.

Listen to this hopeful hymn to the coming of the Messiagh, and you can immediately hear how closely the Rastafarian faith and its Old Testament messages corresponds with Judaism.

More importantly – it’s a damn good tune!