Matisyahu Knows His Reggae - And His Disney

Photos by Beau Grealy/ Press Here PR

​When Rocks Off called Matisyahu last week, he was battling a nasty cold. But it didn't stop him from giving us a few minutes of his time. If you've never heard of Matisyahu, then you've probably never heard of the greatest basketball game in history: NBA2K10.

That slow-rolling reggae jam that comes on when you pause the game to set a double-team on Kobe Bryant? Yeah, that's Matisyahu's "One Day." The first song he ever wrote, "King Without a Crown," reached No.28 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and launched his career into the stratosphere.

We talked to the genre-jumping artist about the art of writing a pop smash, his summer tour, and his upcoming album, Live at Stubb's Vol. II. Dive in.

Rocks Off: When you write songs that go on to become hits, like "King Without a Crown" and "One Day," do you know as you're writing them that these songs will blow up?

M: With those two songs, I did feel it. "King Without a Crown" was really the first song that I made. It was sort of like my firstborn child.

​In a lot of ways, I feel like you live your life; you learn your lesson and develop your style. Sometimes you have one shot at fame, you know what I mean? You have one song that's going to encapsulate the essence of who you are. A lot of artists don't ever get to that. For me, "King Without a Crown" was kind of like my whole life. I felt like this is what I have to share with the world.

With "One Day" it was a similar feeling. When I went in, I was trying to write a song that would be heard among the masses, distill my message and get it to a point where the mainstream audience could really connect with it. It was like, now I want to appeal to the masses. Obviously, I don't want to sacrifice my musical integrity. I don't think you need to do that with art. And that's what I was trying to do with "One Day."

RO: Which is more important to you? The message or the music?

M:I can't see a separation between those two things. Any of the greatest artist, whether it was Bob Marley or John Lennon, they never thought about the message vs. the music. So I don't think there's a separation between the two.

RO: Light isn't as heavy on reggae as your earlier work. Why did you decide to step away from reggae on that album?

M: I never really think of it like that. If I'm being inspired by reggae, then that's going to have an influence on it. I'm trying to create a fusion of different colorings, different emotions and different ways of expressing. Just trying to create, man.