Understand Hip Hop Volume 1

Understanding a lot of hip-hop culture (and where it comes from) means understanding the Five Percent (or The Nation of Gods and Earths). Read Islam in the Mix: Lessons of the Five Percent.

Among the commercially successful and critically hailed rappers who belong to the Nation of Gods and Earths are: Rakim (Allah) of Eric B and Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Poor Righteous Teachers, Busta Rhymes, Leaders of the New School, The Guru of the group Gangstarr, Pete Rock and CL Smooth, and Mobb Deep (whose latest release entered the Billboard charts at #6 on December 1, 1996). All members of the group, Wu Tang Clan, belong to the Five Percent Nation, including those whose solo work has sold in the millions: Method Man, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Raekwon, and most recently, Ghost Face Killer [sic], whose album Ironman charted at #2 in November). The Grammy Award-winning Digable Planets are also part of the Five Percent orbit, and the Digables’ second release Blowout Comb is loaded with Five-Percent references. In fact, many more noted rappers belong to Five Percent Nation than to Minister Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam.