Black is back as a brother with pure righteousness reflects on a life driven by Hip Hop, the arts, martial arts, Islam and more. Original Flavor Unit member Lakim Shabazz shares his story of growing up in Newark New Jersey, demonstrating the depth of life experience behind his music. Bear witness to an intellectual of Hip Hop with knowledge of self who used his awareness and diverse upbringing to create timeless art.
Review by Kevin Beacham:
"Class A Felony is one of those groups and albums that existed as a Hip Hop mystery to me for many, many years. I imagine this is true for others as well. I first became interested in it based on the album cover alone. The image of the weapons and the giant red circled X on top made a statement, as I’m sure it was intended. This was at a time when the presence of those very tools of destruction had become very commonplace in Rap lyrics. There seemed to be a secret contest as to who could kill the most people on their album and some MCs were surely putting in the effort to win. Then a glance at the text near the bottom of the artwork provided some additional insight, it read Edward Dumar Israel, a birth date (1/27/67) and a time of passing (11/18/91). It was clear this message was inspired by someone specific, but who? A reading of the song titles inspired me to take a closer look. I concluded that the album was bound to be interesting with songs like “Black Rain”, “They Are All Gonna Laugh At You”, “Hostage”, “Don’t Play With Papa”, etc…
Upon purchasing the tape I discovered it was the lead MC, Lord Dumar, who had passed away. The time of his passing had taken place two years prior to the release of this album. I remember thinking that was very interesting. I had never heard of a Hip Hop album being released by someone who had passed away and even now its rare to find that as an artist’s debut album.
As I started my first listen, I noticed that most of the album was produced by C. Smith (a.k.a Class A Felony member DJ Stitches), with a couple tracks by Dumar himself, and five tracks by the mighty, DJ Mark The 45 King.
Although this is a debut album Dumar sounds very seasoned and sharply skilled. His delivery is fluid and his presence is confident. His voice is gruff, which helps drives his points home, but his apparent years of MC development allowed him to effortlessly display his comedic side as well."
Read more about Class A Felony at Fifth Element
Preview tracks and order the mp3 reissue of Class A Felony here at Amazon
"Can't Forget New Jersey" Documentary Trailer ft. Treach, Lakim Shabazz, Wise Intelligent, Do It All
"Can't Forget New Jersey" Documentary gathers the state's most notable and influential Hip Hop artists for a discussion about the region's cultural contributions and history. This documentary which has been a long time and coming should be a fun and informative watch with words from Treach of Naughty by Nature, Lakim Shabazz, Wise Intelligent, Do It All and others.
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