Five Percenter Rap
Peace,
I’ve been promising for a while to do a review of Five Percenter Rap: God Hop's Music, Message, And Black Muslim Mission by Felicia M. Miyikawa. I’ve just been slow gassing. Bro Omi even beat me to the punch. With all that said let me drop the all eye seeing perspective on this book. I got a long list of grievances so here we go:
-As I’ve said in a previous post scholars be treating us from an anthropological stand point. It is as though they are studying a ‘dead’ civilization. As such they continue to not let us speak for ourselves. In the bibliography there are no issues of ‘Behold the Sun of Man’ , ‘The Word’, or ‘The Five Percenter’ which are all Nation periodicals. She hasn’t watched one video of our Nation’s events even though anyone can get access to them. She hasn’t spoken to any of our elders (who actually walked with Allah the Father) such as 1st Born ABG#7, Abu Shaheed (who left the temple with Allah and has a show on public access in Power Born), 1st Born Al Jamil, or any of the 1st Born of Medina. All of the above are easily accessable. The time of prophets and messengers is over. If you want to speak about the Gods then go to the GODS.
-She uses the excuse that she is ‘white’ to explain why she couldn’t have complete access. She basically states that white people have no access to the Nation. It sounds as though she is repeating something she ‘heard’. If she had researched any she would have found Azreal, the first white five percenter who was taught by Allah in Mattewan. Though she has the book ‘The Mayor’s Man’ in her possession she failed to realized that Barry Gottwiter was a white man who had access to the Nation. Even nowadays, Michael Muhammad Knight, a white muslim, just showed up at our events and asked questions. In his articles you can see that he spoke to many of the
1st Born, Abu Shaheed, and I even saw him speaking to Knowledge Allah (one of the authors of our anthem, the Enlightener whom Felicia stated was written by Brand Nubian..wtf??!!!) during the Show and Prove. It looks as though she didn’t even try.
-Speaking on the ‘not trying’ level. I saw no mention of her ever visiting or calling the school nor attended a Parliament or Show and Prove.
-I spoke of this in another one of my post yet I’ll reiterate it again. She kept calling him Clarence 13X. From a scholarly point of view that is weak. He was only Clarence 13X when he was in the temple. The time of his life that is important to her study is when he was amongst the youth from 64-69 i.e. when he revealed himself as ALLAH. It doesn’t matter what her ‘theological beliefs’ are if she is writing as a SCHOLAR. She should refer to him by his NAME. She has no problem referring to any of the ‘rappers’ by their ‘MC’ names. When you read books on Father Divine his birth name is only given in the intro. When you read books on the Popes their birth names are only given in the intro.
-She states that ‘there is no standard’ to judge who is God or not; even amongst the Gods. Yet she goes on to then write a whole book on the ‘influence of the Gods in Hip Hop’. That’s like saying you don’t know what a ‘dog’ is (and you are going to do a report on dogs) and you have a mixture of dogs, cats, horses, etc… You then start recording the ‘behavior’ of the mixture with ‘hairballs’, ‘eating hay’ , etc. Then you say that dogs spit hairballs, eat hay, etc.. There has always been a way to detect a true and living God. Maybe she just should’ve ASKED THE GODS AND EARTHS or CALLED THE SCHOOL or READ OUR LITERATURE. The Nation has ALWAYS been critical of “MCS” who came in the name of Allah. Also, she has no reference for how deeply involved a person was in the Nation. So there are some who may have just ‘changed their name’ yet she referencing them as though they are the Nation spokesperson.
-She doesn’t bring new information to the table. She regurgitates a lot of the information that is out there already in the Free Cipher. She didn’t even interview any of the Gods or Earths in her book. She states that she is ‘just putting the information out there’ and THAT is a dangerous thing. What she ends up doing is repeating the same disinformation from some of the articles AGAIN. For instance, she refers to Allah as Clarence Jowers Smith in one portion. THAT is disinformation that could’ve been cleared up if she had done ANY research to her sources. She would’ve seen that one of his wives maiden name was JOWERS i.e. THAT Clarence was his SON. This is the source of disinformation about his ‘record’ in that they mixed up his son’s record with his own.
-She also it appears just ‘makes up information’ like when she states that the Gods were probably trained the martial arts because they were former members of the NOI and would’ve gone through FOI training. The 1st Born DIDN’T come from the NOI, they were youth on the street. That was the whole point of what Allah did. Only a few left the temple with him (such as Abu Shaheed and later Eubeka and Rajab) yet the youth who he taught weren’t in the temple.
-Says she is aware of our lessons yet confuses the NOI Actual Facts with ours (which have 11 original and 2 add on facts). So when she is drawing up what a certain lyric’s relationship to the lessons are she states that the weight of the planet Earth is in the Actual Facts #19 or something. It ISN’T in our Actual Facts at all. It is only in the 6th degree of the 1-40.
-She stated doctrines associated with NOI started with Fard. Actually Fard NEVER stated anything started with him. In fact NOI doctrine states that MFM went and got all of the information from colleges, libraries, people, etc.
-She made a statement that the Nation is ambivalent about marriage under the government. Uh, no, the Nation is clear on that. Our National spokesman Dumar Wa’de has written a reflection on not marrying under the government as well as Allah B.
-She stated that the rise of conscious rap and Five Percenter rap should be credited part to Farrakhan. Uh, why should Five Percenter rap be credited to Farrakhan??
-She fell back on automatically saying that the Moorish Science Temple is the precursor to the NOI without proving anything. In fact, the foundation is a lot more complex then that. One of the best essays written on it is by Ernest Allen Jr.
entitled “ Identity and Destiny: The Formative Views of the Moorish Science Temple and the Nation of Islam”
in Muslims on the Americanization Path?
That’s everything in a nutshell. It is an ‘interesting book’ yet the research is sub par. She could’ve just asked the Gods, checked out our various media sources, and checked the validity of our sources.
Peace
I’ve been promising for a while to do a review of Five Percenter Rap: God Hop's Music, Message, And Black Muslim Mission by Felicia M. Miyikawa. I’ve just been slow gassing. Bro Omi even beat me to the punch. With all that said let me drop the all eye seeing perspective on this book. I got a long list of grievances so here we go:
-As I’ve said in a previous post scholars be treating us from an anthropological stand point. It is as though they are studying a ‘dead’ civilization. As such they continue to not let us speak for ourselves. In the bibliography there are no issues of ‘Behold the Sun of Man’ , ‘The Word’, or ‘The Five Percenter’ which are all Nation periodicals. She hasn’t watched one video of our Nation’s events even though anyone can get access to them. She hasn’t spoken to any of our elders (who actually walked with Allah the Father) such as 1st Born ABG#7, Abu Shaheed (who left the temple with Allah and has a show on public access in Power Born
-She uses the excuse that she is ‘white’ to explain why she couldn’t have complete access. She basically states that white people have no access to the Nation. It sounds as though she is repeating something she ‘heard’. If she had researched any she would have found Azreal, the first white five percenter who was taught by Allah in Mattewan. Though she has the book ‘The Mayor’s Man’ in her possession she failed to realized that Barry Gottwiter was a white man who had access to the Nation. Even nowadays, Michael Muhammad Knight, a white muslim, just showed up at our events and asked questions. In his articles you can see that he spoke to many of the
1st Born, Abu Shaheed, and I even saw him speaking to Knowledge Allah (one of the authors of our anthem, the Enlightener whom Felicia stated was written by Brand Nubian..wtf??!!!) during the Show and Prove. It looks as though she didn’t even try.
-Speaking on the ‘not trying’ level. I saw no mention of her ever visiting or calling the school nor attended a Parliament or Show and Prove.
-I spoke of this in another one of my post yet I’ll reiterate it again. She kept calling him Clarence 13X. From a scholarly point of view that is weak. He was only Clarence 13X when he was in the temple. The time of his life that is important to her study is when he was amongst the youth from 64-69 i.e. when he revealed himself as ALLAH. It doesn’t matter what her ‘theological beliefs’ are if she is writing as a SCHOLAR. She should refer to him by his NAME. She has no problem referring to any of the ‘rappers’ by their ‘MC’ names. When you read books on Father Divine his birth name is only given in the intro. When you read books on the Popes their birth names are only given in the intro.
-She states that ‘there is no standard’ to judge who is God or not; even amongst the Gods. Yet she goes on to then write a whole book on the ‘influence of the Gods in Hip Hop’. That’s like saying you don’t know what a ‘dog’ is (and you are going to do a report on dogs) and you have a mixture of dogs, cats, horses, etc… You then start recording the ‘behavior’ of the mixture with ‘hairballs’, ‘eating hay’ , etc. Then you say that dogs spit hairballs, eat hay, etc.. There has always been a way to detect a true and living God. Maybe she just should’ve ASKED THE GODS AND EARTHS or CALLED THE SCHOOL or READ OUR LITERATURE. The Nation has ALWAYS been critical of “MCS” who came in the name of Allah. Also, she has no reference for how deeply involved a person was in the Nation. So there are some who may have just ‘changed their name’ yet she referencing them as though they are the Nation spokesperson.
-She doesn’t bring new information to the table. She regurgitates a lot of the information that is out there already in the Free Cipher. She didn’t even interview any of the Gods or Earths in her book. She states that she is ‘just putting the information out there’ and THAT is a dangerous thing. What she ends up doing is repeating the same disinformation from some of the articles AGAIN. For instance, she refers to Allah as Clarence Jowers Smith in one portion. THAT is disinformation that could’ve been cleared up if she had done ANY research to her sources. She would’ve seen that one of his wives maiden name was JOWERS i.e. THAT Clarence was his SON. This is the source of disinformation about his ‘record’ in that they mixed up his son’s record with his own.
-She also it appears just ‘makes up information’ like when she states that the Gods were probably trained the martial arts because they were former members of the NOI and would’ve gone through FOI training. The 1st Born DIDN’T come from the NOI, they were youth on the street. That was the whole point of what Allah did. Only a few left the temple with him (such as Abu Shaheed and later Eubeka and Rajab) yet the youth who he taught weren’t in the temple.
-Says she is aware of our lessons yet confuses the NOI Actual Facts with ours (which have 11 original and 2 add on facts). So when she is drawing up what a certain lyric’s relationship to the lessons are she states that the weight of the planet Earth is in the Actual Facts #19 or something. It ISN’T in our Actual Facts at all. It is only in the 6th degree of the 1-40.
-She stated doctrines associated with NOI started with Fard. Actually Fard NEVER stated anything started with him. In fact NOI doctrine states that MFM went and got all of the information from colleges, libraries, people, etc.
-She made a statement that the Nation is ambivalent about marriage under the government. Uh, no, the Nation is clear on that. Our National spokesman Dumar Wa’de has written a reflection on not marrying under the government as well as Allah B.
-She stated that the rise of conscious rap and Five Percenter rap should be credited part to Farrakhan. Uh, why should Five Percenter rap be credited to Farrakhan??
-She fell back on automatically saying that the Moorish Science Temple is the precursor to the NOI without proving anything. In fact, the foundation is a lot more complex then that. One of the best essays written on it is by Ernest Allen Jr.
entitled “ Identity and Destiny: The Formative Views of the Moorish Science Temple and the Nation of Islam”
in Muslims on the Americanization Path?
That’s everything in a nutshell. It is an ‘interesting book’ yet the research is sub par. She could’ve just asked the Gods, checked out our various media sources, and checked the validity of our sources.
Peace
posted by alife allah at 8:58 PM
2 Comments:
i feel you on that. in the intro she said she did not interview anyone and only met a few gods on the net. that right there negated the entire book. it is not really worth anything
so what are the 11 facts and the 2 added on. I thought they were the same as well.
or just email me
`(dabittweiler(at)gmail(dot)com)
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