(CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Only a few days before his major label debut album “Youth” hit the shelves, Hasidic reggae star Matisyahu unexpectedly terminated his relationship with the managers that helped start his career. They are now threatening legal action against the popular young singer.
Matisyahu, real name Matthew Miller, was signed to nonprofit record label JDub, started by Aaron Bisman, who, with his partner Jacob Harris, led the singer through his early career by setting up gigs and handing out flyers, while helping to define the career a successful pro-Jewish hip-hop and reggae act.
According to the New York Times, Bisman, 25, and Harris, 26, received an unexpected call from the performer, who partnered with the label while they were all students at New York City universities, to terminate the relationship.
“He was in Kansas,” Bisman told the paper. “He said, ‘I don’t know if you guys are old enough or have enough experience.”
Bisman and Harris said they still have nearly three years left on a four-year management contract with Matisyahu, and are consulting lawyers on how to proceed.
“There has to be some sort of legal action,” Bisman told the paper.
While JDub has not been Matisyahu’s label for two year, Bisman and Harris continued to serve as his managers, and rely on his engagements to bring in a substantial part of the company’s revenue.
JDub has an annual budget of nearly $1 million, about half of while comes from grants and the rest from label revenues. They work with a handful of other artists and promote concerts around the country, but Matisyahu was central to the company’s finances and goals.
“We really though of this as an endowment to do this for a long time,” Harris told the Times.
Both men said that JDub’s finances were strong enough to continue, but that the loss would be painful. Matisyahu’s lawyer, Valerie Marcus, declined to comment to the paper.
“This is the music business, I guess,” said Bisman. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
