Blood of Abraham

Blood of Abraham, an Afrocentric Jewish rap duo mentored by the late <a href="spotify:artist:7B4hKK0S9QYnaoqa9OuwgX">Eazy-E</a>, emerged in the early '90s. At the time, the group stood as a testament to hip-hop's ever-burgeoning ability to defy cultural boundaries. The combo consists of MCs Benyad and Mazik. Benyad was born Ben Mor in Israel to Moroccan-Jewish parents and raised in Nigeria until the age of ten, when his family moved to L.A. Mazik was born David Saevitz in Santa Monica, CA, to a part-Irish father and a Jewish mother and raised in Las Vegas. The duo's first big move toward public recognition came when they convinced Compton gangsta rap icon <a href="spotify:artist:7B4hKK0S9QYnaoqa9OuwgX">Eazy-E</a> to let them perform during a gang-truce event he was hosting on Sunset Strip in 1992. <a href="spotify:artist:7B4hKK0S9QYnaoqa9OuwgX">Eazy</a>, impressed with Blood of Abraham, convinced them to reject another label offer in favor of signing to Ruthless Records (the home of <a href="spotify:artist:4EnEZVjo3w1cwcQYePccay">N.W.A.</a>). <a href="spotify:artist:7B4hKK0S9QYnaoqa9OuwgX">Eazy</a> also offered Mazik, who had recently come to L.A. from Las Vegas and was homeless at the time, living quarters in a huge house he owned down the street from <a href="spotify:artist:6DPYiyq5kWVQS4RGwxzPC7">Dr. Dre</a>.

The group recorded Future Profits for Ruthless in 1993 and even shot a video at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. The album was released in 1994 and contained the provocative, epithet-heavy track "Niggaz and Jewz (Some Say Kikes)," which tore into racism and anti-Semitism. The notorious track featured <a href="spotify:artist:7B4hKK0S9QYnaoqa9OuwgX">Eazy</a> and contained the sampled voice of a Klansman. (The track also featured the recorded debut of rapper <a href="spotify:artist:085pc2PYOi8bGKj0PNjekA">Will.I.Am</a>, who would later to rise to prominence with <a href="spotify:artist:1yxSLGMDHlW21z4YXirZDS">Black Eyed Peas</a>.) The album received generally a positive response; however, when <a href="spotify:artist:7B4hKK0S9QYnaoqa9OuwgX">Eazy</a> fell terminally ill with AIDS, Ruthless Records began to deteriorate. With no promotion behind it, Future Profits sank out of site. Blood of Abraham re-emerged with Eyedollartree (a pun on "idolatry") in 2000. The album condemned greedy consumerism and featured a ten-minute long experimental film that mixed stock footage and noirish photography. The effort featured appearances by <a href="spotify:artist:2eXScUVn55zE9NDsr60e6W">Divine Styler</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3zFaWPA8Jobgf5egh38KD2">Kool Keith</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:085pc2PYOi8bGKj0PNjekA">Will.I.Am</a>. ~ Erik Hage, Rovi