''Youth'' is an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

singer

Matisyahu Matthew Paul Miller (born June 30, 1979), known by his stage name Matisyahu (; ), is an American reggae singer, rapper, beatboxer Beatboxing (also beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum mac ...

, which was released on March 7,

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

. It is his second proper studio release, as '' Live at Stubb's'' is a live album. The CD quickly shot to the top of

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

best sellers list the day it was released (partially because iTunes ran a special promotion for pre-orders). The first single from the album is " King without a Crown", which also appeared on Matisyahu's previous album, '' Live at Stubb's''. However, a different music video was shot for the ''Youth'' version of the song, whereas the version on the ''Stubb's'' concert album was accompanied by a concert video. The album debuted at number four on the ''Billboard'' 200 with over 119,000 copies sold in its first week released. A month later, the album was certified gold by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

. As of September 24, 2008 the album has sold approximately 585,000 copies in the United States according to

Nielsen Soundscan Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...

. On December 27, 2006,

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

announced that ''Youth'' ranked 3rd overall on the 2006 Reggae album charts, immediately behind ''Live at Stubb's''.http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=musicNews&storyID=2006-12-27T122224Z_01_N27320024_RTRIDST_0_MUSIC-REGGAE-DC.XML&WTmodLoc=EntNewsMusic_C1_%5BFeed%5D-2
''Today.reuters.com'' Retrieved on 05-24-07 The topic of the album is mostly the support and promotion of

youth voice Youth voice refers to the distinct ideas, opinions, attitudes, knowledge, and actions of young people as a collective body. The term youth voice often groups together a diversity of perspectives and experiences, regardless of backgrounds, identit ...

, more explicitly in the

eponymous An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

second track. The album, along with its topic, mixes Matisyahu's lyrics, which contain several references to his Jewish beliefs, with a mainstream sound.

Track listing

Personnel

* Matisyahu – vocals * Roots Tonic – music (Aaron Dugan: guitar, Josh Werner: bass and keys, Jonah David: drums) * Marlon "Moshe" Sobol – guest musician on "WP" * Stan Ipcus – guest musician on "WP" * Yusu Youssou – guest musician on "Shalom/Saalam" and "Ancient Lullaby" * Bill Laswell – production, engineering * Ill Factor & Jimmy Douglass – production on "Time of Your Song", "Indestructible", and "Jerusalem" * Bob Musso – engineering * James Dellatacoma – assistant engineering * Michael Fossenkemper – mastering

Charts

References

{{Authority control Matisyahu albums 2006 albums Epic Records albums JDub Records albums