Jews For Jah

This may label me (further) as a musical elitist, but why hasn’t Jeff “King Django” Baker gotten any love with Matisyahu‘s rise in popularity? You’d think that what appears to be the only two Judaic reggaae artists out there would have some love for one another, especially when you consider both have strong roots in the NYC.

However, you have to figure that Django’s pretty much an underground musician. Most of his stuff has been released on indie labels like Moon and his own Stubborn Records. He’s done the whole Stubborn All Stars thing, Skinnerbox, and had a solo release on Hellcat. Django’s also got the claim out for doing the whole Judaism / reggae thing YEARS before Matisyahu, vis-a-vis his 1998 Roots and Culture release on Stubborn.

Someday, maybe… Matisyahu’s got a new album called Youth that drops on March 7. Maybe he’ll get hip to the history and get a good opening act. Better than some hippie jam act.

Listen to some King Django over at Epitaph and MySpace. Also, here’s Matisyahu’s Archive dot org site.