THE FIVE PERCENTERS: ISLAM, HIP-HOP, AND THE GODS OF NEW YORK - MICHAEL MUHAMMAD KNIGHT

It would be hard to listen to as much hip-hop as I do and not be interested in the Five Percenters. Especially given how much I love Ghostface. They exist as a sort of shadow referent, you get bits and pieces of the lingo and philosophy in different rap songs, always suggesting a much murkier and profoundly cosmic depth than what a casual listener (and a YT devil at that) is able to get out of the songs. I’ve read RZA’s Wu-Tang book so I was somewhat familiar with the Supreme Alphabet and the Supreme Mathematics concepts, by which Gods are able to break down the meaning of words and numbers by ascribing every 0-9 digit and A-Z letter a meaning so that each word or number can be “read” or understood on a more profound and spiritual level. Knight does a great service here by diving deep into the Nation of Gods and Earths, by attending Parliaments and talking to current and former Gods and reporting back. Knight is a YT guy, and UNC-CH PhD, convert to Islam who’s written quite a bit, both fiction and non-fiction, about the fringe-ier aspects of Islam and Islamic culture. I’ve read his book on Islamic Magic and have his book about doing Ayahusca on the Kindle for a future read. Part of what makes the NGE so interesting is their commitment to an oral culture, they Mathematics, Alphabet and Supreme Wisdom Lessons (a series of 120 questions and answers) are not written down and are passed on orally from person to person, often in a prison context where they’d be considered contraband. To me the most interesting part of this book was the larger context of the NGE within the, lets call it “alternative,” history of Black American spirituality. This thread runs from characters like Father Divine, Marcus Garvey, famous North Carolinian Nobel Drew Ali, Wallace Fard, Elijah Muhammad and others and through organizations like the temple of Moorish Science, the Blood Brothers, the Ben Ismaels and, most famous of all, The Nation of Islam. This book is at its best when it’s tracing this history, retelling the truly insane biographies of some of these people, and trying to grapple with what these movements tell us about the United States and Black culture. If anything the emphasis on the NGE, and their leader Clarence 13X/Father Allah, is a bit too narrow. This is not to say that Allah’s story is not incredible. Knight makes a strong case that he should be considered along with figures like Malcolm X or MLK in the history of American spirituality and the upheavals of the 60’s. Though he is quick to point out that Allah was too strange (he’d lecture people about the meaning of the height of Mt. Everest, for example) to really take on this role and achieve the sort of power a Malcolm X was able to wield. Knight gives Allah a lot of credit for helping the mayor keep NYC from burning after King is killed and the mayor helps Allah build schools and take kids on trips outside of the city. There’s a whole other story here, one that I hope someone gets deeper into at some point, about how gangs at this time in American history were largely political or had a political aspect. Most people know about the Crips and the Panthers coming at the same time and the same place in LA, but even groups like the Blackstone Rangers in Chicago ran community centers and protected areas from rioting. Lots of these groups were able to get concessions from local governments before the tactics changed, especially after the CIA-created Crack epidemic, these gangs were recast as solely criminal enterprises and their mere existence became one of the justifications for our nightmarish, swollen prisons. This book only touches on this but its something I think about a lot and haven’t fully put together. Anyway, the time Allah spends in unbelievably cruel “mental hospitals” alone give him the air of a religious figure, and Knight often reflects on how going around and hearing stories from people, who are still alive and personally knew Allah, is like building a Hadith in real time. That being said, I found the sections where he attempts to disprove the common stereotype that the NGE by travelling around with YT NGE disciple Azreal, who knew Allah in prison, the least interesting, the specifics of that part of their theology isn’t as gripping as their overall place in the firmament of American fringe religions and their history. Also on that note, I’m a little more down on the NOI that Knight is. I’ve thought for a while, and recent revelations (regarding people being exonerated and former Police admitting to setting certain actions up) have only seemed to prove, that the NOI, at the behest/goading of the FBI, murdered Malcolm (Knight uncritically reports the official narrative), which makes statements like “COINTELPRO had effectively squashed the Black Panther Party in five years but couldn’t bring down the Nation of Islam in four decades.” I need a little more skepticism about why that might be. But all that being said, this book was quite good. The Gods and Earths are quite fascinating and the history they play into is even more interesting and worth of study. I’d love to see a more general study of non-Christian Black religious movements in the US. Any recommendations on that? 120 Supreme lessons