He was the Cool Ruler, the Lonely Lover, possessed of the sweetest voice to grace reggae and perhaps my favourite reggae artist of all time. A compilation of his mid to late seventies work has been one of my most played albums of the many, many thousands that I own. I have played his music at various restaurants I have managed over the years and have had an enormous amount of people - most of whom I would never consider to be fans of reggae, come and ask me about the artist.
He experienced the ups and downs of fame, though for all his personal trials he produced an incredible body of work that proved to be remarkably solid despite the overwhelming quantity he released.
His music has and will continue to be a soothing tone, a healing vibration, a lovers soundtrack, a poor man's vision of hope. He was the Cool Ruler. RIP!
You may front on white boys loving gangsta rap but what can you say about a Reggae loving Hasidic Jew? The mind boggles. Click on the image to read more about Matisyahu.
