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The Five Percenters: Islam, Hip-hop and the Gods of New York | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Muhammad Knight
Publisher: Oneworld Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 281820
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.4
ISBN: 1851685138
Dewey Decimal Number: 297.8709
EAN: 9781851685134
ASIN: 1851685138
Publication Date: June 25, 2007
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Product Description
Sensationalized and reviled as black America's Hell's Angels, The Five Percenters (also known as the Nation of Gods and Earths) began as a cluster of outcasts from the Nation of Islam's Harlem mosque in the 1960s. Led by a man named 'Allah', the Five Percenters originally believed that all black men were gods. From their marginalized beginnings, their history has been charged with drama: the war between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, the Attic prison revolt, Brooklyn turf gangs, the 1980s crack empires and now counting high profile hip-hop stars such as RZA, Rakin and Lord Jamar among their members. With unrivalled insider access to the movement's elders, oral tradition and community literature, Knight reveals the hidden reality behind the myths, rumours and hearsay, and explores the origins and development of this misunderstood community.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Informative however chapters lacked structure June 17, 2008
This book was extremely informative from a historical account however my only beef is that it bounced in and out of stories too rapid. The book is packed with historical information. Peace!
 the most thorough and academic approach to documenting the phenomenon of the 5% that I have ever come across... May 25, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The author takes us into the lives and times of those who lived amongst the 5%ers founder in the ghetto of New York City amidst a hotbed of political turmoil and the changing of both the tide and the guard. From the likes of Sweet Daddy Grace Divine to Marcus Garvey to Harlem street youth who would not conform to the dietary regime and dress code of the NOI but were attracted to its self empowering, esoteric lessons in catechismal format...the author introduces you them all and shows you the world through their eyes. He brings it up to current times at Parliamentary sessions, and he details happenings and conversations he encounters as Moors, thugs, intellectuals and others engage him...a White, Orthodox Muslim...walking the streets of Harlem and absorbing the story and history of the NGE.
Being familiar with the intricate origins of the 5% Nation as well as many of its more obscure moments in history, I am quite taken back by this work. It is to date the only reliable, academically approached, work of cultural anthropology on the 5%ers that extends beyond the length of an academic essay. Covering everything from its inception in Newark, NJ with Duse Ali, Timothy Drew, the NOI and extending into the undocumented & shadowy world of the Black Angels and the nuances of young puerto rican and white urban youth (in addition to the black youth) from NJ & NYC who were brought under the tutelage of Clarence 13X (an incredibly complex and self contradicting icon who held down his square and mixed at ease amidst the City Hall social circles just as he did in the underworld of Harlem), this book even covers the interaction with Malachi Z. York's sect in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The approach is one of entrenched neutrality...laying the facts (both good and bad) out on the table for the reader to discern. Especially interesting is the information provided on the origin of the Supreme Mathematics and its author 37X as some have distorted this story in oral tradition as having been one and the same person as 13X. By far, the prize buried in all this substance is the detailed account of the relationship between Allah, Barry Gottehrer & Mayor Lindsay. This book reads well, and it is a far cry from the all caps attempts at capturing this movement's history in book form that have preceded it. It is hard to put down.
A Remarkable Achievement October 19, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
A remarkable achievement combining voluminous detailed research and a skilled writing style. a very honest recounting of the extremely complex history of the five percenters--from its founding by clarence smith in new york city in the l960s who believed he was Allah and the survival and growth of his group of followers nationally following his violent death nearly 40 years ago. as an author myself ("the mayor's man" is one of my eight books)and one who knew Allah personally and was in new york city government when the five percenters were founded, i highly recommend this book.
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