MATISYAHU

Matthew Paul Miller, born in West Chester, Pennsylvania in 1979, makes music as Matisyahu, and the result is a restless hybrid of spiritual lyric and street rhythm. Raised in White Plains, New York, within a Reconstructionist Jewish household, he pulled away from that upbringing as a teenager before returning to it with real intent. The sound draws on reggae, rock and hip hop, with beatboxing supplying a percussive pulse that sets him apart. Beyond the microphone, he has also appeared as an actor in films.

His 2004 debut, Shake Off the Dust... Arise, came out on JDub Records, and Youth, produced by Bill Laswell, followed in March 2006, becoming Billboard's number-one digital album. That year brought No Place to Be, a remix collection that included a cover of the Police's "Message in a Bottle". The single "King Without a Crown" had already reached the US Top 40 in 2005. He shared a Bonnaroo stage with Trey Anastasio of Phish, opened for Dave Matthews Band, and supported Sting in Israel. The film Unsettled, in which he appears, won the Grand Jury Prize at Slamdance in 2007, and Light arrived in August 2009.