Matisyahu - "King Without A Crown"

[crash46]

Well, a lot of songs in the top 20 are experiencing some drastic turnarounds now, although I won't deny that there's probably some serious payola going on with this song.

Still haven't heard this on the radio yet, although I am at last familiar with the song. I can take it or leave it at this point. I do like the chorus riffs very much, but I really wish there could be any point during the song where I could understand what he's saying. This song could go to #1 for twenty weeks and I still couldn't see myself remembering anything distinctive about the lyrics.

[[upsilon]™]

Heh, I can understand him fine, but that's probably just me.

Lyrics (according to Letssingit.com):
You're all that I have and you're all that I need
Each and every day I pray to get to know you please
I want to be close to you, yes I'm so hungry
You're like water for my soul when it gets thirsty
Without you there's no me
You're the air that I breathe
Sometimes the world is dark and I just can't see
With these, demons surround all around to bring me down to negativity
But I believe, yes I believe, I said I believe
I'll stand on my own two feet
Won't be brought down on one knee
Fight with all of my might and get these demons to flee
Hashem's rays fire blaze burn bright and I believe
Out of darkness comes light, twilight unto the heights
Crown Heights burnin' up all through the twilight
Said, thank you to my God, now I finally got it right
And I'll fight with all of my heart, and all a' my soul, and all a' my might

What's this feeling?
My love will rip a hole in the ceiling
Givin' myself to you from the essence of my being
Sing to my God all these songs of love and healing
Want Mashiach now so it's time we start revealing


Me no want no sinsemilla.
That would only bring me down
Burn away my brain no way my brain is to compound
Elevated my soul you're a flying my sound
Like the sun of a sun ray burning up through a cloud
Torah food for my brain let it rain till I drown
Thunder!
Let the blessings come down

Strip away the layers and reveal your soul
Got to give yourself up and then you become whole
You're a slave to yourself and you don't even know
You want to live the fast life but your brain moves slow
If you're trying to stay high then you're bound to stay low
You want God but you can't deflate your ego
If you're already there then there's nowhere to go
If you're cup's already full then its bound to overflow
If you're drowning in the water's and you can't stay afloat
Ask Hashem for mercy and he'll throw you a rope
You're looking for help from God you say he couldn't be found
Looking up to the sky and searchin' beneath the ground
Like a King without his Crown
Yes, I wanna get down
A King without his Crown
Yes, you keep fallin' down
You really want to live but can't get rid of your frown
Tried to reach unto the heights and wound bound down on the ground
Given up your pride and the you heard a sound
Out of night comes day and out of day comes light
Nullified to the One like sunlight in a ray,
Makin' room for his love and a fire gone blaze

What's this feeling?
My love will rip a hole in the ceiling
Givin' myself to you from the essence of my being
Sing to my God all these songs of love and healing
Want Mashiach now so it's time we start revealing


Reelin' him in
Where ya been
Where ya been
Where ya been for so long
It's hard to stay strong been livin' in galus (exile) for 2000 years strong
Where ya been for so long
Been livin in this exile for too long

[Nicholas2.0]

I should say that upon viewing an issue of Rolling Stone from last summer that I'm just now getting to, I saw that they reviewed his album (**1/2). So I should have known who he is, but at the time when I first flipped through it, I had no idea who it was, saw the foreign name, and just kept on going, instantly forgetting it.

I noticed he guests on two tracks on P.O.D.'s upcoming album.

[SyrupBoy]

This is WEQX's #1 song of 2005.

No, I'm not kidding.

[hc]

syrupboy said:

This is WEQX's #1 song of 2005.

No, I'm not kidding.

I guess because they started playing this back in August. I used to listen to EQX when I was younger and lived in the area. Their year end countdowns always were more favorable to songs at the end of the year, but I like that they don't follow othe mainstream. I think the last year I listened to it (1999?) Guster's "Barrel of A Gun" and Stroke 9's "Little Black Back Pack" were #2 and #3 for the year - but you'd never hear those songs anymore.

[SyrupBoy]

hc said:

I guess because they started playing this back in August.  I used to listen to EQX when I was younger and lived in the area.  Their year end countdowns always were more favorable to songs at the end of the year, but I like that they don't follow othe mainstream.  I think the last year I listened to it (1999?) Guster's "Barrel of A Gun" and Stroke 9's "Little Black Back Pack" were #2 and #3 for the year - but you'd never hear those songs anymore.

EQX still plays those two quite a bit actually. I'm not sure about previous years, but this year's countdown was completely request based. So blame the good people of Vermont and upstate New York for enjoying such a terrible song.

Another highlight was 'Coin Operated Boy' coming in at #6. The DJs didn't even try to hide their hate for the song.

[SyrupBoy]

This piece of aural torture has reached the top ten.

Every day this song gains spins, god kills a kitten.

[Ragin]

radical347 said:

Both the alternative stations here play this a lot and just about every time I hear this the DJ insists that really, he really is a Hasidic Jew that really is doing reggae.  Umm... hearing that, and seeing that in the first post, am I missing something when I say, who cares?  Are Jews not allowed to do reggae or something?  Is reggae its own religion?  I'm not trying to be sarcastic here, it just seems like an odd thing to bill him as and keep on saying over and over, to me it seems as ridiculous saying that as it would be, say, to hear things like "David Gray is a singer-songwriter that likes drinking orange juice... no really" every time they play a David Gray song, and I'm wondering if there's some significance behind that.

Actually Reggae is often linked, and maybe to begin with exclusively linked with the Rasta religion, which is why all those Bob Marley songs refer to Hailey Selassi (sp?). Now, I doubt that the DJ saying that actually even knows that, but yes, it IS surprising in some ways that a Jewish person would be performing reggae. On the other hand, as others have pointed out, reggae has been taken up and altered by many non-rasta bands at this point, so really, from that standpoint, it is not a big deal. Take your pick I guess.