Celebrate Hanukkah with Hip Hop

The NY Times is reporting on Matisyahu, a Jewish Hip-Hop artist who sings about God and Orthodox Jewish identity. He's holding a series of Hanukkah concerts in NY.

Matisyahu has built a career on analogies between Rastafarian roots reggae and Hasidic songs. Both are concerned with faith and survival struggles and have lyrics phrased in Biblical allusions; both draw on modal scales and melismatic vocal lines that can sound Middle Eastern. Near the end of the concert Matisyahu sang long, cantorial phrases while rocking back and forth, as if davening, or praying. Yet if his lyrics weren’t so clear about their references to Jewish history and the majesty of God, most of the time Matisyahu would simply be one more reggae-loving rocker. (source)

Photo by Rahav Segev for the NY Times
Check out his huge mirrored, rotating dreidel! How cool is that?!

-t