“this ain’t black magic, I do my work amongst dope fiends and crack addicts, civilize the savage, 85s run rampant...”

“I’ve been in jail with ‘em and having conversations with brothers; ‘I’m God, I’m God.’ You God, open the gate for me. You know how far the sun is and how far the moon is, how the hell do I pop this fuckin’ gate? And get me free and up outta here. Then I’ll be a Five Percenter for life.” -Tupac Shakur (266)

it’s funny exactly how much 5 percenter doctrine and lingo can be absorbed by osmosis just by listening to hip hop. The Five Percenters by Michael Muhammad Knight was recommended by the biggest fan of Rakim I have ever met, and I have since put Knight on my list of people(‘s books) to watch. today’s quotes are about the prison industrial complex, religion’s prisons, and other coping mechanisms: 

“‘Moral treatment’ and ‘low-stress routines’ included the rape and murder of patients. Casanova writes that sexual assaults occurred several times a night, and once watched as attendants wrapped towels around a patient’s neck and dragged him down the halls until he died. In October 1961, African-American inmate John Stevens died after a struggle with three attendants. After staff placed him in a straightjacket, Stevens had both of his kidneys kicked in, his testicles were kicked completely off and ribs broken on both sides. Bleeding from the mouth, bruised from head to toe, screaming and shaking, he was then strapped into a bed. In a letter to the ACLU on the incident, anonymous hospital employees refer to fellow staff as ‘sadistic’ and Matteawan as ‘the snakepit’. Beginning in 1965, the hospital was used to train guards for prisons throughout the state.” (80)

“A group of state legislators would later visit the hospital and declare it worse than Sing Sing Prison. Learning that some patients were seen by doctors only once every six months, Assemblyman Bertrand Podell remarked, ‘these people weren’t sent here for therapy at all; they were sent here to vegetate.’ Matteawan’s entire 1967 population of six hundred patients was in the care of fourteen foreign doctors, many unlicensed and speaking limited English. Matteawan superintendent, Dr. William C. Johnston, told the legislators, ‘this has been our problem down through the years-to get enough money to run this as a hospital, not as a jail.’” (88)

“Lord Jamar has since taken to acting and portrayed the first recurring Five Percenter character on American television, as ‘Supreme Allah’ in the HBO prison drama Oz. He also landed a part on The Sopranos and continued his music career with a solo album titled The 5%, featuring appearances by the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, GZA, Raekwon, Papa Wu, and former Brand Nubian comrades Grand Puba and Sadat X. The RZA, widely recognized as the Five Percent’s ambassador to pop culture, unveiled a new group called the Harlem 6. The RZA’s deep God; I know that he sees the history being renewed. The reference may escape a general audience-it’s not Ol’ Dirty Bastard shouting that the black man is God on national television-but for those already versed in the knowledge, the group’s name is a knowing nod. Between rap’s worldwide popularity and the Five Percenter’s insider language and folklore, outright proselytism like Brand Nubian’s ‘Ain’t No Mystery’ and the esotericism of Rakim’s ‘The Mystery’, a God emcee can have it both ways. He can use the medium to teach the world, but while millions listen, he can also engage his Five Percenter family in a private conversation.” (186)