Will the NOI ever regain a presence in mainstream rap?
- Thread starter maxamusa
- Start date
Marlo Barksdale
Really out chea
NOI, Five Percenters and traditional Muslims are all COMPLETELY different.
There never were many true NOI rappers (Cube denies ever being a member and basically disowned Khalid Muhammad) besides maybe Kam
It was always Five Percenters (especially East Coast) because they were more “street” and allowed dudes to still do all their vices (get high, drunk, sex, sell drugs, etc) with no real rules under the guise of religion (See: Supreme Team, etc).
NOI feel out of favor by the 00’s in favor of Five Percenters. And in the social media era, traditional Islam and jailhouse forms of it have become popular “muslims.”
Most of these rappers are Muslims in name only because they don’t adhere to things such as Ramadan.
Durk getting that chain recently shows this.
hiphopdx.com
There never were many true NOI rappers (Cube denies ever being a member and basically disowned Khalid Muhammad) besides maybe Kam
It was always Five Percenters (especially East Coast) because they were more “street” and allowed dudes to still do all their vices (get high, drunk, sex, sell drugs, etc) with no real rules under the guise of religion (See: Supreme Team, etc).
NOI feel out of favor by the 00’s in favor of Five Percenters. And in the social media era, traditional Islam and jailhouse forms of it have become popular “muslims.”
Most of these rappers are Muslims in name only because they don’t adhere to things such as Ramadan.
Durk getting that chain recently shows this.
Lil Durk Faces Backlash For Copping Huge Chain Dedicated To Muslim Faith - HipHopDX
Wearing gold is haram (forbidden) in Islam, especially for men.
hiphopdx.com
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Amo Husserl
Superstar
Mastamimd
Ain't shyt
Appreciate you, breh! That Act preceded the introduction of the Shiny Suit era......
Coincidence?
Don't do Peggy like that
Kendrick crowds could easily look the same
Mr. Macaroni and Cheese
It was pretty much. The Wu was the only mainstream act that was on that and even Ghostface who was the most prominent star moving forward went with a more flashy style tho he still spit some science from time to time. Then X, Hov and 50 came and it was mainly an underground thing
So why do y'all hate 50 so much even though Jay and DMX are also part of conscious erasure in Hip-Hop?
Because he called out the gang leader? Or cause he said something about one of yalls favorite rappers?
DMX is a slight exception cause he maintained some sort of spirituality in his music.
010101
C L O N E*0690//////
it's prison muslims now*
Mastamimd
Ain't shyt
Another reason is that even though hip hop had white fans it was still consumed by black people at large. It was very hard to see a non "urban" adjacent white person listen to hip hop. Now hip hop is so crossed over and made for everyone that no record label executive will invest in a five percent nikka.
TLDR: Word to DJ Shadow, it's the money
TLDR: Word to DJ Shadow, it's the money
Wouldn't be surprisedDoes he post on here???
Mastamimd
Ain't shyt
So why do y'all hate 50 so much even though Jay and DMX are also part of conscious erasure in Hip-Hop?
Because he called out the gang leader? Or cause he said something about one of yalls favorite rappers?
DMX is a slight exception cause he maintained some sort of spirituality in his music.
X the only one up there that ain't get hate because Hov gets just as much, especially from conscious nikkas lol. There's an account on Twitter that despises him and he's a wanna be Malcolm X. DMX was too authentic for hate and he was kind of a Pac replacement in that regard
You have no proof
Oh, my fault - you're saying the minstrel show is happening now. Totally misunderstood your post.
straightcash
All Star
You from New York. I'm from the Bay.
I didn't listen to a Nas album until I was in my mid 20s
We was not listening to no What's Today's Mathematics rap in 2000s when I was in high school. 106 and Park, KMEL and Wild 94.9 dictated my hip-hop taste back then.
The NOI has its most influence in California. It's influence elsewhere has declined. That shift was already in motion between the 1980s and 1990s. Chicago and NYC still have NOI influence but much less than before.
In SoCal, the NOI has a relationship with all the Black gangs and offers mediation and violence de-escalation. They do the same thing in other states and cities as well.
NorCal still has NOI presence, albeit it's strongest in SoCal.
JT The Bigga Figga is personally NOI and he's a Bay Area legend.
Mozzy said his own grandmother was NOI.
Kurupt, West Coast Kam, MC Ren, Big U, and the Lench Mob are NOI.
Ice Cube was originally NOI but in recent years he's been bought out by Zionists and endorsed their BS.
Snoop Dogg and Nipsey Hussle were close to the NOI sociopolitically. Dr. Sebi was NOI himself.
Ayatollah Marv, the oldest living Piru in the world, is NOI.
Tray Deee was NOI but I'm not sure if he's Sunni now. There's some confusion going on because NORE who's Five-Percenter had DJ Vlad on Drink Champs in February 2024 and then suddenly Tray Dee is on VladTV in May 2024 after four years. NOI members, Five-Percenters and people closely affiliated with them have been boycotting Vlad since 2020.
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In the rock world, most people didn't realize they was rocking out to Mormon Music and Messages when The Killers were popular. (unlike so much cringe Christian Rock/Gospel rap)
The art of "moving butts" has to come first, no matter what they're saying.
But so many political rappers, just don't make great songs (same goes with battle rappers and off-the-head freestylers)
To me, this is a great political hip hop song
This is another one (I miss the old Kanye)
I honestly can't think of any real political joints that are actually popular with regular people. (I'm sure someone will post something)
They're not NOI of course, but definitely political songs
But then when you got NOI cats
Boring
Generic
Yawn inducing
Honestly, an NOI song has to be even BETTER than the comparable popular song, because it's got conscious lyrics.
That's one of the problems with religious/political/conscious rapping/music - the message overwhelms the music - unless cats is already converted, they not trying to hear all that. Especially over sub-par beats and uninspired rapping.
Same thing doesn't hold for other topics though.
Ice Spice - She think she the ish, but she's not even a ....
straightcash
All Star
Estee Nack from Lynn, MA is Five-Percenter.
Mister Atlas from New Jersey is Five-Percenter.
Recognize Ali is from Ghana and he's Five-Percenter!
You know any from the midwest or west coast?
You're right that Five-Percenters had the biggest presence in NY and NJ rap. But NOI had rappers in the West Coast. Public Enemy was heavily NOI influenced too. Professor Griff is NOI. The Five-Percenters promoted the NOI and by extension promoted Islamic terminology it inherited from it.
One of the cringiest and pathetic things on the internet is how people try to strip Five-Percenters of their identity and try to conflate them with Muslims. Mainstream hip hop websites themselves put out articles every year trying to rewrite Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Busta Rhymes and the others as being Muslim. A Five-Percenter may or may not call themselves "Muslim" but it holds a completely different meaning. ISLAM is an acronym in 5% philosophy for I Self Lord And Master. I think there are even agnostic Five-Percenters. Their beliefs don't derive from the Quran as their central text although it is a Holy Book within their canon.
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