Happy 30th Anniversary to X Clan’s debut album To The East, Blackwards, originally released April 24, 1990.
One of the many problems that I find with mainstream rap today is that it doesn’t rattle enough cages. Everyone wants to appeal to as broad of an audience as possible, so no one takes chances. X Clan didn’t shy away from being controversial. They spoke openly and proudly about the empowerment of the global Black population. And with their debut album To The East, Blackwards, released 30 years ago, they did it while making white people uncomfortable.
X Clan was comprised of lead emcee Jason “Brother J” Hunter, Lumumba “Professor X” Carson, Claude “Paradise” Gray, and Anthony “Sugar Shaft” Hardin. The group was part of the growing wave of Pro-Black hip-hop music, pioneered by groups like Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions, and carried on by artists like Lakim Shabazz and Poor Righteous Teachers. In an increasingly provocative environment, X Clan wasn’t afraid to mix it up.
X Clan was forged out of activist tradition and the formative days of hip-hop development. Professor X was the son of renowned pro-Black activist Sonny Carson (he of both the acclaimed autobiography and film The Miseducation of Sonny Carson), who learned the importance of helping the Black community at an early age. He connected with Afrika Bambaattaa before hip-hop was created (through their activism in the New York City gang scene). Later, Professor X became a manager in the rap world, helping the careers of artists like Stetsasonic, Positive K, and a pre-3rd Bass Pete Nice.
Another key member of the crew was Paradise, who was the head talent booker at the infamous Latin Quarter club during its mid to late ’80s heyday. Paradise and Professor X frequently interacted at what became one of the most respected and roughest talent incubators in hip-hop history.
Brother J and Sugar Shaft were the “talent” of the crew, a slick-tongued Flatbush-raised emcee and super-skilled DJ respectively. Brother J had come up connected to the Jungle Brothers and was even in an early incarnation of the crew as a beat-boxer. Brother J and Shaft were managed by Professor X, and hooked the pair up with the Ultramagnetic MCs, who allowed them to record a demo using their studio.
The group came together, with Brother J handling most of the time on the mic and Shaft working behind the turntables. Meanwhile, Paradise and Professor X helped guide and shape the recordings, with the latter providing extremely memorable ad-libs (more on that later).
X Clan is also known for its distinctive look. Members of the group were often seen draped in all black, decorated in Egyptian-inspired iconography. Members carried staves, wore fezzes, African medallions, and over-sized Ankhs, or, as Brother J raps, “boots and beads, bags and braids, stick and scrolls, rings and shades.” They rode in a Pink Cadillac in their videos and featured the car in their promotional material. The result merged the Afro-centric sensibilities of the aforementioned Jungle Brothers with the militaristic imagery of Public Enemy, creating a stoic, intimidating aura.
Members of the group also anointed themselves with seemingly ritualistic titles. Brother J was known as The Grand Verbalizer, Sugar Shaft was The Rhythm Provider. Professor X was dubbed The Overseer and Paradise became The Architect. They also created a unique slang that permeated their songs. White folks became “mortals” or “polar bears,” while they referred to crack cocaine as “white Kryptonite” and transformed “suckers” into “sissies.” At some point in nearly every song on To The East, Blackwards, Professor X would proclaim “Vanglorious!” and bellow, “This is protected by the Red, the Black, and the Green! With a key! Sissies!”
And they made white people uncomfortable. Their militant views weren’t exactly embraced during the early ’90s, as often critics found them over-bearing and thought they spent too much time insulting the Caucasian population. And there is no denying the group was confrontational; Brother J himself was unapologetic about being “a pitbull for Black Nationalism.” It’s a stance that often put the group at odds with KRS-One’s more “humanistic” approach, as well as 3rd Bass, who they frequently threw darts at throughout their career.
However, upliftment of the Black population throughout the globe remained the central theme in their music, and whether they hurt the feelings of some people who weren’t the target audience for the music was incidental. First and foremost, they were “great warriors, systematic radicals” committed to improving the lives of Black people in this country, and in the process, creating one of the better albums of 1990 with To The East, Blackwards.
The group became members of the larger Blackwatch Movement, a Black nationalist organization partially founded by Professor X. Blackwatch met to discuss politics and plan community action throughout Brooklyn. Its ranks also included rappers like YZ, Isis (a.k.a. Lin Que), Queen Mother Rage, and Unique & Dashan. But X Clan was the collective’s best-known component.
“Raise the Flag,” the album’s first single, is built on Afro-funk grooves sampled from Roy Ayers’ “Red, Black, and Green.” Brother J focuses on how he works to acquire knowledge and honor his ancestors through his music. He also explains the importance of using his role as an emcee to build a stronger Black community as he raps, “While society gets stronger and stronger, my race gets weaker and weaker/ Maybe I can make a difference through a mic and a speaker.”
X Clan’s music was often steeped in funk, which may seem odd for a group so deeply committed to its militant attitudes. Professor X professes to be raised on the music of artists like George Clinton. The album-opening “Funkin' Lesson” is built from samples from Funkadelic’s “Not Just Knee Deep” and “One Nation Under a Groove,” transforming into a club-banger with a message. “Brother extracts the African steps in your movements,” Brother J raps. “Enhance for improvements.”
“Heed The Word Of The Brother” is the album’s best-known track, a collaboration with producer The 45 King. It reflects the rawness the group could possess, as Brother J drops jewels of wisdom atop a sample of Zapp’s “More Bounce To The Ounce,” mixed in with bits of Parliament’s “Flashlight.” Brother J towers over the track, dispersing knowledge as he raps, “Quite majestic, stern within reality / A juggernaut when you tamper with mentality / I wear a crown, extension and dimension of a brain cell / Bringing hell to the sellouts.”
The group often positioned themselves as walking the path of the divine, emissaries to ancient and powerful gods. That’s most apparent on “Earth Bound,” another funk-stacked gem, its backbone a sample of Clinton’s “Atomic Dog” and other pieces of “One Nation.” Here the members of X Clan traverse dimensions and space as “Afronauts,” now walking the Earth as servants of the Egyptian gods Ra and Geb, functioning on a higher plane. “I'm the original traveler, and unraveler,” Brother J boasts. “Of all mysteries, I touched the world like a child plays tag.”
“Grand Verbalizer, What Time Is It?” is a bit of an anomaly on the album, as it serves as Brother J’s vehicle to display his skills at emceeing. Though much of the album is centered around educating the ignorant, Brother J was still a wildly talented rapper from the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, and here he serves lyrical beatdowns while still dispensing knowledge. Over a sped-up loop of Average White Band’s “Schoolboy Crush” (best known for its usage in Eric B. & Rakim’s “Microphone Fiend”), Brother J commits to “stalking, walking in my big black boots” over the track, while getting “deeper than Atlantis” over four separate verses. “Bring your weapons to my sword and shield,” he challenges. “What’s the higher level if your shit ain’t real?”
“Verbal Milk” is the album’s smoothest entry, an anthem for the Pink Caddy, that is also centered around Brother J dropping dope rhymes over funky grooves. He coasts on the track, speaking “the language universal” through music, rapping “I checkmate, terminate, never late, contemplate / Mindstate is never fake, hesitate you lose.” Meanwhile, “Tribal Jam” finds the group exploring their African and mystical roots, evoking mysticism as Brother J declares, “I was sitting by the river with my warrior's gun / A bunch of caveboys tried to house my drum / I never bust a sweat because it’s not at all tragic / VOODOO, running from my magic!”
“Day of Outrage: Operation Snatchback” was inspired by a protest march of the same name organized by Sonny Carson. In September of 1989, upwards of 7,500 protesters (including members of X Clan and the Blackwatch Movement) helped disrupt traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge in order to express anger at the deaths of Yusef Hawkins and Black Panther leader Huey Newton. The action was met with police resistance and skirmishes occurred.
Brother J has said that he went directly from the protest to the studio to record the song, and you can feel it. The track channels the fury felt by members of the group extremely effectively. Usually a beacon of effortless cool, Brother J’s voice pulses with raw emotion as he charges across the drums and guitar from Billy Squier’s “The Big Beat,” as he rages, “Thought we weren’t coming but it seems you made an error / Wrench in the mill work, systematic terror / Has arrived, cornered by the order / Checkmate sucker, not a move, game’s over!”
Brother J channels a quieter intensity on “Verbs of Power,” a coarse track that samples Lou Courtney’s “I’ve Got Just the Thing.” Over the pounding drums, gritty bassline, and organ runs, Brother J rains down contempt on those who continue to exploit the Black population and appropriate the ideas and principles created by African Culture without acknowledging the sources.
X Clan followed up To The East, Blackwards with Xodus: The New Testament (1992), a slept-on sophomore album. The group went on hiatus shortly after, and in 1995, Sugar Shaft died due to complications with AIDS. Brother J later formed the Dark Sun Riders, which shared artistic and stylistic sensibilities with X Clan, but definitely was its own entity. In 2006, Professor X passed from spinal meningitis. Brother J later moved to Los Angeles and reconstituted X Clan and continues to record music with the group.
It’s not clear whether other groups that will ever try to make the general populace uneasy the way X Clan did in three decades ago. These days, rappers try to upset their listeners with tales of drug use and depicting shocking acts of violence, rather than challenging their political and historical views. X Clan was committed to uplifting the Black race while being willing to step on some toes, and their boldness is missed today.
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