Remember X-Clan? Brother J: Heed The WordBrother J: Heed The Word
Published: Monday - October 20, 2008
Words by Todd Davis
X-Clan -- originally comprised of Grand Verbalizer Funkin' Lesson Brother J, Paradise the Architect, and the late, greats; Professor X the Overseer, and Sugar Shaft the Rhythm Provider -- marked their official debut with the critically lauded premier outing To the East, Blackwards in 1990. Mixed with hard hitting, P-Funk inspired grooves, and afrocentric/pro-black revolutionary lyrics, Brother J and company quickly coined the slang-term "vanglorious."
After their sophomore set Xodus arrived in 92, the group went on a undetermined hiatus, while several of the members went on to release solo projects, and Brother J himself formed his own separate collective, Dark Sun Riders, followed by their own debut.
Unfortunately, '95 saw the untimely passing of long-time Clansmen Sugar Shaft, due to complications from AIDS. And, in a twisted sense of reality, the incomparable Professor X lost his bout with spinal meningitis, as the disease claimed his life in the year 2006. With two core members dead and gone, the future of X-Clan was questionable to say the least.
Although they attempted to reunite in the late 90s, X-Clan eventually did return to music. Only this time, due to those previous mentioned unforeseen circumstances, the whole dynamic had to change. New members were introduced via 2007's Return From Mecca.
BallerStatus.com caught up with Brother J, immediately after he finished ripping, and I do mean ripping, the stage, on his during a recently cross country Strange Noize trek with Kottonmouth Kings and Tech N9ne.
BallerStatus.com: Let's talk about the title of your forthcoming opus, Mainstream Outlaw... Brother J: Well, for one thing, the type of music that I do has become like the rebel against the grain, basically in an industry standard. So, I just wanted to address it, and let them know that I accept the black sheep mantra of ... conscious music has been pushed to the back, and it's up to me to push it back to the forefront.
BallerStatus.com: You've been on the road with a very diverse, eclectic bunch of acts. Did you worry that the fans may not receive X-Clan as well?
Brother J: Yeah, though it's about being a showman. You gotta come in here, and know how to entertain. We've all been DJs and emcees of block parties and things of that nature, so on a professional level you got to take it to a higher scale. When you rock a party, you don't know if anybody likes house music or dance music or down south bounce or whatever, you just have to play something that relates to everyone and be universal. And, that's what X-Clan always represents. So no matter what our content is based on, it'll relate to several generations and several different levels of people who like music, and like funk on a level.
BallerStatus.com: Back to Mainstream Outlaw, and coming off of Return From Mecca, what's makes this album different?
Brother J: Well, it's a lot more loose, the tracks that I have on here -- intentionally to penetrate and shake the walls of what was considered to be commercial mainstream. I feel that there's a powerful underground mainstream that has not been exposed, and I want to basically put myself in the scene to be a spearhead for people to recognize that movement a little closer. So, that's why it's Mainstream Outlaw.The songs are of powerful hooks. Um ... not made to gimmick our audience, but just to give the conscious community something to sing. With all of the other melodies that they're catching off of hip-hop and R&B coming together, conscious artists sometimes forget that you have to put that element in the music. X-Clan has never really had that problem before. So, we just turn up the level to where the industry has stepped to. A lot of the industry right now have good musicians. You can't just look past this music like it's not entertaining. The children are singing it, adults are singing it, so that means it works. We just have to find something that is entertaining to get our message across as well.
BallerStatus.com: Unlike most rappers these days, lyrics are a huge part of who and what you are. Where do you find your inspiration for them?
Brother J: Well, my inspirations are coming from things that people don't see everyday: order, respect, equality. You know things of that level, man. I speak of those things in my music, so people can wonder what that feels like. So they can start feeling vision peace. So, that's what keeps me inspired to throw these lyrics down.
BallerStatus.com: Since its inception, X-Clan has gone through many trials and tribulations. What do you feel it is that has given you the strength to carry on the name?
Brother J: I think the key to our success and our longevity is that we just kick it from our heart and our soul. A lot of cats do it for the paper. The paper will come if you're true to yourself. And, whatever our music is labeled -- it could be X Clan, it can be Brother J or X Clan -- whatever it is coming from this family, it's always gonna be from the heart. It's always gonna be for the uplifting of our people. It's never gonna steer to the side, and just say, "I gotta do a 'gangster' record." We keep consistent with our word. We keep consistent with our movement, and that's what people come to us for.
BallerStatus.com: I know you probably hear it all the time, but, to put it bluntly, you're one of the only ones left truly representing the hip-hop culture. Do you feel like you're carrying the whole art form on your shoulders? If not, let me tell you you are. So, how do you do it?
Brother J: I think coming out to the west coast, living for a little while, left me complete, and learning that my importance to music came full circle. It really changed a lot of street culture here in California. The west now, as I travel with other groups like Kottonmouth, like Tech, you know, like ICP and Jurassic and so on, I get to see different sides of where our music touch people. How somebody can come up to us in a Waffle House, somewhere in Georgia somewhere, and look like somebody that would never listen to a X-Clan record, coming to us singing "Grand Verbalizer (What Time is It?)." I've had the pleasure of seeing that. And, just being able to put myself as a musician, and not just rapper, and really understand what a message it is when it comes to delivering, some kind of uplifting word to the people. Man, I'm not trying to be the savior. I'm just trying to do my part.
BallerStatus.com: Not too mention, you are so very humble. A legend of your status should not be among the openers on this tour, or any tour for that matter, but you're doing it, and with such great pride...
Brother J: Well, the thing is, I know I took a hiatus out of the game for a minute, and I'm willing to pay my dues, as a humble artist and relearn the game. I can't practice 1995 for the 2000 game, so I'm blessed to be around people that do it everyday for a living. And, if it's a way for me to catch up, even by doing tours like the Strange Noize, it gives me a very large audience to throw the impact of my music on. This is something that people don't talk about. This is music that was almost forgotten about. That's how George Clinton is nowadays, you know? They just remember one or two songs, but he had a serious movement for what he was doing, you know? People breaking out of the box as a matrix, man. Like we continue that same kind of vibration. We're inspired by James Brown. We're about Divine Power. You know, it's about that for us. So, they feel that and see that through our vibration, man. It's a blessing to be out here again, man.
BallerStatus.com: The way you still put on a show, it's as if we're still living in that "golden era of hip-hop." You haven't missed a beat from your early days. In fact, you've somehow managed to get better, if that's even possible, with time. What's that all about?
Brother J: Yes sir. I mean, I appreciate it. I know coming back into this game you have to play your best ball at all times. I couldn't come here and say, "Well, my name is Brother J. Let me get down in your market." My skills had to be up. My production had to be up. I had to use every card in my deck to just say, "I'm ready for this game, and I can handle it. I can handle the tour. I can handle the responsibility in the studio. I can get the right guests to make my product marketable or more marketable." Ya feel me? It's a different game as an independent because with the mainstream labels or the corporations ... let's just say they have more money to put into projects, for you to play on the video stations and stuff, to buying airtime. So, you really have to be worth that level of investment, and step into those games. But, on the independent, if you show you're a good marketer, you can go a long way. You can have a better career than some of the major label artists that are going down. So, I understood that, and that helped me move forward.
BallerStatus.com: In addition to music, what else are you gearing up for?
Brother J: Well, we have an X-Clan Foundation that has been called Crisis Prevention, which is basically protecting the hood from the ills that are overcast on our children and our adults. There's a serious learning factor and a physical divide between the youth and the elders, and these types of programs are needed like training or learning specific mathematics for the school programs. The schools are learning more than the adults had a chance to learn. Do they have a chance to grasp it, you know? What programs are out there to show the parents how to check their children's homework? You know, we let them children raise themselves. Like nowadays, these things are not seen as a crisis. But, it is, cause now a child can get away with whatever they want to do. And, when you have children raising themselves, and having the type of music that they have on the radio right now, the generation is not gonna come out too good. So, we lend ourselves to those kind of efforts to build programs, and strengthen other programs that have been out there, by doing concerts and just spreading awareness through information outlets. You know, through the internet, just connecting with powerful people that don't have a voice that need X-Clan as a powerful entertainment entity to help them. So, that's how we use that.
BallerStatus.com: Why do you feel it's so important for you to give back to hood?
Brother J: It's important that we save our community. You have to represent the family. That's what makes up the community. It's not ... you can't just say it's for the kids. Who's raising the kids? You have to think about who's raising 'em. And, if you think about the "golden era of hip-hop," 1990, most of those people in that era are parents now. And, seeing someone like myself comeback from that era and still make a powerful impact, they can make the same impact of this generation by helping to regain the golden egg in music, you know? Help us to help edit this music, so it's entertaining for the family and not just for the clubs, and the strip clubs, and the ballers. That's not the whole hip-hop entire population. Ya feel me?
BallerStatus.com: On the music front, how has the industry evolved since your whole inception into it?
Brother J: I think production has evolved greatly. The fact that they considerably let go of samples. You don't really hear anybody sample unless they're really high up in the game like Puffy or Kanye [West]. But, the art of sampling has been taken from us. It's a part of why conscious music started dying out because we were powerful when we could sample, and it was about, "Yo, how far in the crate can you go?" Now, we can't afford to go into the crate. So, production has evolved, and that's something that by taking something away from us, you basically made us stronger. We're composing our own music now. So, I see hip-hop as a very interesting thing because now that cats can't sample, and be out at the radio with someone without paying costs. They've learned how to replace that. For artists to try to battle artists like Sly Stone or Quincy Jones, or anybody from the era -- that was really producing good music -- that's a heavy task. Even though you really hear some real interesting things nowadays, these beat battles and just different producers who really know how to pick good music. It's an interesting forum. I don't look at all the "Lollipop" thing as something to be depressed about, you know? It's just a form of the music that's popular, and that's it's not all hip-hop. If you give into that, they're worse than the program directors that mislead our people. We have to show them what real hip-hop is by buying it and supporting it. If you bootleg it, if you download it, you'll never hear the realness, and we'll always be complaining about what's popular in the street. The corporations are gonna buy their music, man, trust me.
BallerStatus.com: What has been the biggest misconception about Brother J?
Brother J: I don't think they understand the kind of peace that's in my heart. When I write this music, they think that being a "warrior" is just being hard ass, you know? You have to have compassion in being a warrior, and I think that Return From Mecca showed the kind of compassion I wanted to extract from X-Clan. I want us to be remembered for being compassionate warriors, and not just "Rah, rah! Black, black, black!" And, all y'all could equate us to is just the anger of the Black Panthers, or any other organization that they misconstrued throughout the years. We're about protecting our communities, and we are pit bulls. Try to snatch a baby from a mother, and you'll get the kind of growls I'm talking about. You know, raising my daughters ... I have five children, three daughters and two sons, so when I'm off tour and all of that, I try to give them as much energy. I can't talk about improving everybody else's family. I'm trying to improve my own. So, I just give people the lessons that I learn everyday when I'm building my family. I give 'em the same quality of information in my lyrics. My sons listen to my music proudly. I don't put anything in there that deters them from being extra gentlemen. I don't put the hoopla and the curse words. I work with a lot of people that curse and do they thing, but my thing is I can do the same intensity without those words, and use the full vocabulary and use my full intelligence without questioning.
BallerStatus.com: What has been your greatest career achievement?
Brother J: Oh, wow ... I couldn't imagine, brother. I would think that the best moment was when my father and mother were living. My father was living, and they showed my first video on TV. And, it was unexpected, I really didn't tell anybody. It was a surprise. I had been working on this project for a long time, just on the under. I'm not really a braggadocios person, so I just let people bump into it. And, I was walking home, coming from the ballpark, and people talking about they saw my video on TV. My mother running to me happy, seeing her son on TV. It's big for my elders who see you on TV. So, that was a very big thing for them to be proud of me doing. That I had chose music over college at the time, so for them to see me transmitting some kind of intelligent culture on that helped me heal some with my family. So, I was proud of that.
BallerStatus.com: When Professor passed, did you contemplate continuing on with the X-Clan name?
Brother J: Uh, no, I mean Professor was a mentor of mine. X-Clan was a group that was created by myself and Sugar Shaft, and we invited our manager to join us. And, Brother Architect was another mentor, production mentor. So, I was moving on with X-Clan, regardless, after I did the Dark Sun project. And, I knew exactly how I wanted to recreate that X-Clan vibration. I had launched it out on the west coast, and before I could include Professor on the project or on the videos, to show him that it wasn't a separation, he had passed away. He had been walking with me, but being on the east coast and me being on the west, he wasn't as able to be in the studio with me as he might have been on the earlier X-Clan projects. We're older now, and we're spread out, just like The Doors. Everybody don't live on the same bus anymore, you know? Somebody lives in Paris, somebody lives in Brooklyn, somebody lives somewhere else. So, people have to understand, man, this is the road, and we're not just ... I didn't just say, "Hey, Brother J's fresh, and he come out here with lyrics." And, if it was like that, I would've did an ego trip album years ago. Like when Busta Rhymes broke off, or when Ice Cube broke off from N.W.A. I would've got with the trend, 'cause I was offered to do that then. X-Clan is about a higher calling, and I basically pushed my ego to the side to say it's bigger than me. So, with Professor gone, it didn't stop me from knowing that I have to continue the legacy of this group and expand it. And, not let our legacy be stopped at Xodus, and what happened to them. I want them to have another good album in their rank to say X-Clan is still dope. X-Clan is still holding it down.
BallerStatus.com: There are so many different facets to X-Clan that many people aren't aware of...
Brother J: Well, I mean the crew is basically mentors and peers that help me build different things that ... I have a production team. I have an education team. We have a training team -- so many different sections of X-Clan now. I just don't put it to the rap music thing. I don't want our name to be slandered by people who don't like, or do like, our album. It's not that kind of a title. Doing a Brother J album, for instance, shows them, deal with a lyricist. Let music be music, and let me not continue to try to blend music and movement because people are not grasping it the way that they grasped it in the 1990s. I'm being very truthful. If I continue to try something that doesn't work, I'm killing my career. And, I'm killing people's view of conscious music. I have to step out here and say, "Lyrically, I know I can hold my weight in this game." I won't have a problem in stating, "If I got good tracks underneath me, and a good production camp like I do, there's nobody really gonna come and try to snuff my candle." I can do what I need to do as far as touch the people, and I don't have to ... I can be Brother J of X-Clan, and still transcend what I've been doing all along anyway, just a changing of a label.
You'd be surprised how many people are scared of our title. Like if you say "Black Panther," you know, people get militant all of sudden. Yeah, man, I used to wear beads, and I used to wear this, you know, you can talk about X Clan in the hip-hop phase. I added another flavor of hip-hop to this game -- conscious music. It can be a branch of what we've done. We're out here to build a label, you know, to get some of these spoken word artists back in the studio or back on beats. Just stop fronting like they're not lyricists, because that's a problem. So, that's the real deal, brother.
BallerStatus.com: Looking ahead, what does the future hold for Brother J?
Brother J: If God bless me with life, I'll just be running a conscious label, like Suge made Death Row, like Russell with Def Jam. I see Brother J running a conscious label, Mil-Cipher Records. Letting some of these next level Lauryn Hills and Mos Defs and Commons, the next generations of Public Enemies and X-Clans, come. That's what we're doing this for. I'm not in this just to rap. I'm here to show people that conscious music is alive, and there's many more people out here ready to continue where I'm leaving it off, man.
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