Steve 'Flash' JuonIf you’ve read our review of “Spiral Walls Containing Autumns of Light” then you know Mikal Safiyullah was a rap artist ahead of his time in 1992. He may not have been the first rap artist to be described as “experimental” or “transgressive” but his ’92 release has achieved cult classic status as one of the preeminent examples of the era. The man born Mark Richardson had recently completed a spiritual journey to be reborn in the Muslim faith, and the personal joy he got from that experience informed his desire to develop a new rap style and share it with the world. If you weren’t aware of his history before that seminal album though, “Word Power” might be a hell of a surprise.
On the album’s one and only single “Ain’t Sayin’ Nothin'” you might notice a similarity to House of Pain’s “Jump Around” — a piercingly loud sample. In Styler’s case it comes from Jr. Walker & the All Stars “Shoot Your Shot,” while Everlast and friends are sampling THE SAMPLING. That’s right, they took it from Divine Styler and pitched it down a bit, but I don’t think Styler’s producer Bilal Bashir would be mad about it. They’re all friends through Ice-T and his Rhyme Syndicate (who released this album through Epic Records) and Styler would show them love by appearing on HOP’s final album before the group broke up. To make a long story short though this is not the experimental Safiyullah but the Ice-T influenced Richardson you are hearing, and although he sounds a little bit like T vocally he’s got his own style.
Speaking of coincidences though, both Bashir and Pete Rock sampled the same Lou Donaldson song “Pot Belly” — the former on “It’s a Black Thing” and the latter on the “Jump Around” remix. On the song Styler opines that “the power of poetry and intelligence will show all what we’re worth” and sounds more like a Native Tongues rapper than a California G. He’s got some sharp words for his brothers that might get him branded conservative by today’s standards, but his message of economic self-empowerment is fine with me.
“I’m talking to all you blacks that do jack for your nation
Walking around in this plastic world
Trying to have it like the white man
when it’s a million of them to your one who have made it
because they take care of their people
and they’ve been doing it for decades
And your excuse is those blacks are different?
Then I think you should get a remake!
You’re ashamed, of your color
And you’re selfish, amongst your brothers”
There are some hints of the experiments to come though on songs like “Tongue of Labyrinth.” With a nearly two minute long intro that sounds more like a horror movie than a rap song, Bashir suddenly drops a Bomb Squad inspired beat with a familiar “UFO” sample that funny enough always makes me think of Tim Dog’s “Fuck Compton.” Well as it turns out Styler was born in Brooklyn, so maybe that makes sense, although he’s certainly not dissing Cali here. He’s using the intense bass and backdrop to drop a non-stop lyrical adventure that sounds like prototypical Kool Keith from the Ultramagnetic MC’s days. I know that’s the second time I’ve compared him to someone from New York but listen to the stream of consciousness lyrical delivery that eschews rhymes in favor of flowing and see if you don’t agree with the comparison.
“Thinking, a process of thought that was stripped by slavery/But that doesn’t leave you, with this ponder of maybe/Should I? I could, Divine’s not with it/Black is not back, we’ve been here from the beginning.” The title track of “Word Power” also shows Richardson’s desire to evolve beyond the conventions of the day, with a delivery that’s more akin to spoken word poetry than rap lyrics. In short he was setting the mold that he’d go on to break a few years later, and while he never reached the heights of commercial success that a pioneer of the genre should, his first two albums stand the test of time by daring to find the edge of the envelope and push it open.