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Praise
the Creator and peace to all, I am known as The
Grand Verbalizer Brother J, nucleus of the messenger
group X Clan Millennium Cipher. I want to thank
thaformula.com for offering me this column to express
the truth behind many questions about my group and the
lessons that come from my cipher. I will be
doing an exclusive interview with thaformula.com
covering the upcoming projects from my production
company Dark Sun Recordings in the near future. In
this column I will be addressing issues from the
original X Clan and information about the new. This
will help loyal supporters to understand the evolution
of this group in the mission for Freedom, Justice, and
Equality for all.
Today's
column will be addressing a few issues on my return to
the music industry, comments about the Eminem Rolling
Stone interview and comments on the original X Clan
members building in XXL magazine.
First
things first, for those who do not know me or the
nature of my group, I am a Black Nationalist speaker.
I am also a universal builder so I cannot be a racist,
interpret me as an activist. My focus is to improve
conditions surrounding people of culture. So, anyone
who is opened minded or considered a
"minority" in this American system should be
able to relate to my music and media conversations.
The
original X Clan article (XXL magazine, Nas cover 2004)
Understand
me, I have nothing to prove but, for the respect of
all that I have built and what I am building I feel I
have to give our loyal audience a better sense of the
history. X Clan has been gradually rubbed out of so
much of Hip Hop history, it's time to set some shit
straight. You can't bleach out this level of blackness
and knowledge. We are not superheroes from another
planet, we are brothers in the struggle for freedom
and we too go through shit as any family does.
On
my website (www.darksunrecordings.com),
I created a shortened version of the history of the X
Clan (in the press kit section) so that people could
start to realize the true genesis of Hip Hop
messengers and the inspiration that molded our group.
Every member of our group had a position to play, it
was music production, management, networking, etc. In
the article I read in XXL I couldn't understand how
the business part of X Clan was all of the sudden the
" Dr. Dre's" of the X Clan. I always give
the Architect and Professor X their props for bringing
the Clan into the game, but in no way were they
producing and writing hooks as quoted. You can't tell
the magazines fairy tale shit for kudos because the
industry does not care for any of us, including me.
You have to earn your respect every day in this
twisted Hip Hop game. For instance, the XXL article
suggests that Professor X created the X Clan- THAT IS
NOT TRUE. Professor X (Lumumba Carson) started The
Blackwatch movement an organization I was proud to be
a part of. The Blackwatch to the founding members was
a alternative to Afrika Bambataa's Zulu nation
organization. The Blackwatch movement was the group
that PX was influenced by his father to create-not X
Clan. X Clan was a Hip Hop group consisting of two
members: Sugar Shaft (the DJ) and myself Brother J
(the MC). Architect was a talent scout/promoter who
was originally a manager of the legendary night club
Latin Quarters in NYC. Shaft and I were part of many
Hip Hop groups between high school and X Clan; those
are the dues you pay in learning the game. The last
title we had before X Clan was "Rated X"
which was corny as fuck, trying to be all mysterious
with my ego tripping and book knowledge. I joined
Blackwatch in high school where I was prepared to do
security and understand how to live a lot of the
teachings that I was getting from my father Samuel
Hunter, from church, black history class, my elders,
my mother, etc. I needed a playground to exercise all
that pent up energy and Blackwatch was it. I could
have joined any organization, but the Creator brought
me to a young organization that was Hip Hop and
knowledge combined and I needed that. It could have
been a gang, it could have been the Boy Scouts, but I
needed something. So, paying my dues for a few years
in the Blackwatch movement and analyzing my
environment I felt that X Clan was an appropriate
title and it was professionally stronger than
"Rated X" or any other title me and Shaft
could think of. I originally wanted to bring all my
homees from my block in Flatbush Brooklyn on as the
original X Clan and the world would have witnessed a
large group similar to Wu Tang. But, in talking with
Shaft he felt that we should include the brothers that
helped us mold our talents. Shaft named our manager
Lumumba Carson "Professor X" and Paradise
who was very creative would be known as the
"Architect Paradise."
What
really disturbed me with the XXL article was that it
was a "masturbation conversation" meaning I
did this and I wrote that. It wasn't about the future
of the efforts that we started, it was about stroking
themselves for production credit. If I was asked
questions about the business side of X Clan back then,
I would say you have to talk to PX or Architect. If
someone is asking questions about creative process
surrounding the lyrics and production, the natural
response would be talk to Brother J. I would have
loved for them to say we are rekindling the Blackwatch
movement because ignorance is out of control in the
Hip Hop industry that we helped to foundate. We as a
people need that now even after the mistakes of the
first Blackwatch efforts! (But, That's another story.)
Leadership is molded through trial and error, ask any
person of wisdom and experience. My brothers will
always be council for the new Clan team and the Dark
Sun house I never wrote them off. Sugar Shaft was such
an inspirational brother and bridge, I miss him when
it comes to shit like this. Peace to the gods and
goddesses.
Eminem/Rolling
Stone interview (2004)
"How
can polar bears swing on vines with the gorillas,
please?!" - Grand Verbalizer, 1990 Album title-
To the East Blackwards/Island records
My
brother Fidel Rodriguez/Divine forces radio, Los
Angeles called me and said "yo you've got to go
get the Rolling Stone interview on Eminem, he made a
comment on you that you have to interpret."
Now,
Fidel is a trusted brother of intelligence and
information, and if he is concerned I'm concerned. So,
I go and pick it up and see that Eminem is giving me
lyricist props saying, "Brother J was a lyricist
that I was afraid of lyrically, his delivery was so
confident." But, in the next sentence does he
suggest I am a racist? saying, "But, he also made
me feel like an outcast by calling us polar
bears" I have to take this seriously from a
person that has a few million supporters worldwide
commenting on music that was meant to uplift - not
hinder anyone.
Let's
start with the line "how can polar bears swing on
vines with the gorillas?" which interprets to
become "Play your position!" I can't be a
bull and want to fly, I can't be a cat and want to
swim like a fish. I can't be black and wish to live
the white experience, I have to play my position and
live out my destiny. Be yourself! Bottom line. You
have to understand my interpretation of history
indigenous people have always been leeched upon, even
in music which this conversation is about. Vanilla Ice
was a clone of MC Hammer, Marky Mark was a clone of LL
Cool J, etc. etc. People forget that this music
industry is a corporation. Corporations manufacture
what gets the masses excited. So, I have to cock block
any Red, Black and Green medallion wearing white guys
who feel they can clone the talk of messengers. Red,
Black and Green the colors of the liberation flag is a
very serious issue. People have died for the effort of
liberation, I represent the seriousness. None of these
rappers hold any weight as a topic to me, fuck beefing
with MCs, it's time to get free! Hip Hop is my outlet
to speak the peace of the people. I represent the
grimy basements of Brooklyn, the block parties, the
places that a lot of people were afraid to pay dues. I
think that is what people hear in my tone. I looked at
that picture of Eminem in the Rolling Stone, I would
have hated to have seen him come out like that (with a
flat top and black medallion) and I am sure his fans
feel that way too. If my words encouraged Eminem to
write better lyrics and to rally up his white fans,
then that's the whole purpose of my quote. Play your
position! Rally amongst your own and then come to the
table universal. At least I know then that you have
knowledge of self and your culture. That doesn't mean
that you can't be my friend or you can't listen to my
music. But, it does mean you can't come to my hood and
say "what's up nigga?!" Do you think I was
picking on 3rd Bass because they were white rappers?
Hell no! I fucked with 3rd bass because the
corporation that was pushing them made people think
that the group was black. The twang of the lyrics,
even some content was pertaining to black issues. It
was hard enough to get in the door to get a decent
deal in the 90s do you think I am going to sit back
and allow someone to bamboozle the audience and take
position? You do the math. Don't get mad at me because
I represent my people, I'm born for that. My audience
consists of intelligent people of all races who
understand the mission of uniting for defined
revolution. People want to understand revolution now
because of political problems, it's bigger than that.
Pinpoint on what separates us as a people. 1)
Censorship on radio and TV and 2) today's standard of
music quality that has separated generations who now
choose there type of Hip Hop. (Hip Hop and R&B,
Hip Hop and Rock, Hip hip and pop, Punk rock Hip Hop,
etc.) How can I be Hip Hop based and be in the same
category as Usher or Alicia Keys? You might as well
say "put all the niggas in one bucket give them
shiny awards and jewels, they will make sense of it
eventually." Black artists still go through a lot
of shit and as a black artist I have to fight that
battle. No one is going to fight that for me. Music
that was once one power has now been divided and it
has created further racial problems and stereotypes. I
always enjoyed groups like the Beastie Boys because
they never tried to be anything other than what they
were. I couldn't digest Eminem's music at first
because there were several groups in Dr. Dre's camp
that I felt deserved that spot. But, getting over my
personal shit and seeing it as an artist, I let it
grow on me. The flow was good and overall it taught
the white audience how to come to the game as
themselves. As a man of justice and equality I can see
the peace in that.
I
hope this begins to create clarity on my position with
the music and the message. For further information on
X Clan-Millennium Cipher visit www.darksunrecordings.com.
Peace
- Brother J
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