College campuses are institutions of learning and creativity, where acceptance stems from thought and engaging with new and different people. This same idea is the foundation for Matisyahu and his college tour, which includes a stop in Madison March 30.
Matthew Miller, or Matisyahu, is a reggae, jam and hip-hop artist who has intermingled his Jewish background to create a unique style of music in a genre where originality is difficult to achieve. Originally converting from Jewish Orthodox traditions to Jewish Conservative and then later to spiritually Jewish, Matisyahu has embodied his physical art to something bigger than himself in both political and spiritual spheres.
His breakout album Youth contained the three rock hits “Youth,” “Jerusalem” and “King Without a Crown” and took the music world by surprise because behind it all was a Hasidic Jewish man from Crown Heights, Brooklyn. This thoroughly rare combination was enough for Matisyahu to gain reputation — then add in the fact that his music is rocking, and it’s a recipe for success.
Q&A: Matisyahu discusses adversity faced, upcoming college tour
No longer identifying as a Hasidic Jew, though, Matisyahu said the transition out of this identification was natural. “My life was a culmination of everything that happened before that. I tried figuring out, was there anything in my religion that really resonated with me?”
The artist is still driven by his spirituality, though, and this combined with his love for reggae music, created what Matisyahu calls an “organic blend” that will culminate with his performance at The Overture Center.
This upcoming performance is sponsored by University of Wisconsin-Hillel and is just one leg on his college coexistence tour. Matisyahu is performing at college campuses across the U.S. with the Palestinian-American acoustic, hip-hop performer Nadim Azzam for what should be an outrageous musical journey extending beyond all political boundaries.
This tour itself is in direct response to Matisyahu the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, an organization dedicated to ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine, protested a show of his last year in Spain. Matisyahu said the performance was the first time he was targeted on stage for being Jewish. At the performance itself, Matisyahu found himself singing in front of a hostile crowd screaming obscenities and throwing stuff on to the stage — an intense experience the artist recalls.
“We think the notion of coexistence is really important and the fact that it’s Matisyahu with a Palestinian-Egyptian hip-hop artist, we think that bringing them together will be really great for the Madison community,” Amy Kasmir, assistant director of programming at UW-Hillel and executive producer, said.
Matisyahu will be performing with his usual band, however they will be playing songs in an unstructured style. Like a Phish or Grateful Dead jam, Matisyahu and his band could end up playing a 45-minute rendition of “King Without a Crown,” the crowd and the band both exploring where improvisation can truly go.
Also an acclaimed beat-boxer, Matisyahu is also known to do entire transcendent jams with his band while he rips apart the beat and makes it his own. It is an added touch to his set that gives it a real “wow” moment — something that many artists strive for in their live performances, but something that not everyone accomplishes.
In the end, regardless of one’s stance on Israeli-Palestinian relations, Matisyahu’s performance is not trying to persuade attendees to one side or the other. Instead, Matisyahu and Azzam are attempting to promote acceptance through love and their art.
