Lorenzo Dechalus (born September 17, 1968), known professionally as Lord Jamar is an American rapper, DJ, record producer, actor and podcaster. He is a founding member of the hip hop group
Brand Nubian
Brand Nubian is an American hip hop group from New Rochelle, New York, composed of three emcees (Grand Puba, Sadat X and Lord Jamar), and formerly three DJs (DJ Alamo, DJ Sincere, and DJ Stud Doogie). Their debut studio album, '' One for All'' ...
, which was formed in 1989. In 1996, he discovered
Dead Prez
Dead Prez, often stylized as dead prez, is an American hip hop duo composed of stic.man and M-1, formed in 1996 in New York City. They are known for their confrontational style, combined with lyrics focused on both militant social justice, sel ...
and got them signed to
Loud Records
Loud Records, LLC. is a record label founded by Steve Rifkind and Rich Isaacson in 1991.
Loud is a hip hop label that released material by acts such as Wu-Tang Clan, Big Pun, Mobb Deep, Krayzie Bone, The Beatnuts, M.O.P., Tha Alkaholiks, Pete ...
.
Early life
Jamar was born in
The Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, but was raised in
New Rochelle, New York
New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state of ...
.
Jamar has
Afro-Guyanese
Afro-Guyanese are generally descended from the enslaved people brought to Guyana from the coast of West Africa to work on sugar plantations during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. Coming from a wide array of backgrounds and enduring condition ...
heritage on his father's side, and he is the eldest of three brothers.
He was introduced to hip hop music in the 1970s through a friend who lived in his neighborhood, and he would listen to tapes of
The Cold Crush Brothers
The Cold Crush Brothers are an American hip hop group that formed in 1978 in the Bronx, New York City., ''Vibe Magazine'', December 1994 - January 1995, Vol. 2, No. 10, p.68 They were especially known for their memorable routines which included ...
,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were an American hip hop group formed in the South Bronx of New York City in 1978. The group's members were Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Kidd Creole (not to be confused with Kid Creole), Keef Cowboy, Sc ...
and
The Sugarhill Gang
The Sugarhill Gang is an American hip hop trio. Their 1979 hit "Rapper's Delight" was the first rap single to become a top 40 hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100; reaching a peak position of number 36 on January 12, 1980. This was the trio's only ...
.
DJ Daryll C of
Crash Crew
Crash Crew is an American early hip-hop group who recorded for Mike and Dave Records in 1980 and then signed to Sugar Hill Records. The group, based in Harlem, Lincoln Projects New York City, consisted of members DJ Daryll C. (who died in 19 ...
used to take Jamar to hip hop shows in New York City.
Jamar sold
crack cocaine
Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be smoked. Crack offers a short, intense high to smokers. The ''Manual of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment'' calls ...
during his teen years, but stopped after people he knew received
sealed indictments.
He dropped out of high school after failing ninth grade, and worked a few short-term jobs prior to signing a record deal.
Career
Brand Nubian's debut studio album, ''
One for All'', was released in 1990 and is regarded as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time.
Brand Nubian's third studio album, ''
Everything is Everything'' was released in 1994. In 1996, he discovered
Dead Prez
Dead Prez, often stylized as dead prez, is an American hip hop duo composed of stic.man and M-1, formed in 1996 in New York City. They are known for their confrontational style, combined with lyrics focused on both militant social justice, sel ...
and got them signed to
Loud Records
Loud Records, LLC. is a record label founded by Steve Rifkind and Rich Isaacson in 1991.
Loud is a hip hop label that released material by acts such as Wu-Tang Clan, Big Pun, Mobb Deep, Krayzie Bone, The Beatnuts, M.O.P., Tha Alkaholiks, Pete ...
. As an actor, Jamar is best known for his role of Supreme Allah on the TV series ''
Oz''. He has appeared on ''
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'', ''
Third Watch
''Third Watch'' is an American crime drama television series created by John Wells and Edward Allen Bernero that aired on NBC from September 26, 1999, to May 6, 2005, with a total of 132 episodes spanning over six seasons. It was produced by ...
'', and ''
The Sopranos
''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...
''. He has also worked as a
producer for artists such as
Dead Prez
Dead Prez, often stylized as dead prez, is an American hip hop duo composed of stic.man and M-1, formed in 1996 in New York City. They are known for their confrontational style, combined with lyrics focused on both militant social justice, sel ...
,
Buckshot
A shotgun shell, shotshell or simply shell is a type of rimmed, cylindrical (straight-walled) cartridges used specifically in shotguns, and is typically loaded with numerous small, pellet-like spherical sub-projectiles called shot, fired throu ...
, Shaka Amazulu the 7th and
Tom Browne.
He released his debut solo album ''
The 5% Album'' (an album dedicated to the
Nation of Gods and Earths
The Five-Percent Nation, sometimes referred to as the Nation of Gods and Earths (NGE/NOGE) or the Five Percenters, is a Black nationalist movement influenced by Islam that was founded in 1964 in the Harlem section of the borough of Manhattan, N ...
) on June 27, 2006. Like his onscreen character on ''
Oz'', Jamar is a member of the
Nation of Gods and Earths
The Five-Percent Nation, sometimes referred to as the Nation of Gods and Earths (NGE/NOGE) or the Five Percenters, is a Black nationalist movement influenced by Islam that was founded in 1964 in the Harlem section of the borough of Manhattan, N ...
.
Jamar currently co-hosts a podcast, ''Yanadameen Godcast'', with fellow rapper
Rah Digga
Rashia Tashan Fisher (born December 18, 1974), known professionally as Rah Digga, is an American rapper and actress. She is best known as a longtime member of the Flipmode Squad, a hip hop group led by Busta Rhymes. Her debut album, ''Dirty Ha ...
. He has criticized
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...
, saying, "It's not our movement," and that, in regard to the
George Floyd
George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd may have used a counterfeit twe ...
protests, "most people looting are white; some riots are staged by paid agitators."
Controversy
Jamar garnered controversy after releasing a
diss track
A diss track, diss record or diss song (diss – abbr. from ''disrespect'') is a song whose primary purpose is to verbally attack someone else, usually another artist. Diss tracks are often the result of an existing, escalating feud between the ...
directed at
Kanye West
Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer.
Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...
on February 4, 2013 titled "Lift Up Your Skirt," and stated that "
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
has no place in hip-hop", which led to him being characterized by some in the media as
homophobic
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...
. Jamar denied the homophobia accusations by tweeting that he "went to a gay wedding of a good friend not long ago".
In a September 2013 interview on
VladTV
Vladimir Lyubovny (russian: Владимир Любовный; born June 28, 1973), commonly known as DJ Vlad, is an American interviewer, journalist, and former disc jockey. He is the CEO of video and news website VladTV.com. His YouTube channel ...
, Jamar declared that white rappers were "guests in hip hop".
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...
responded to Jamar with the track "Fall" from his 2018 album ''
Kamikaze
, officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...
''. Jamar responded to Eminem on his podcast.
In July 2020, Jamar denounced the
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...
movement in a video posted to his
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
account by the music account SCUM, saying, "Black Lives Matter is a movement that was given to us by
George Soros
George Soros ( name written in eastern order), (born György Schwartz, August 12, 1930) is a Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist. , he had a net worth of US$8.6 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated mo ...
and his fucking boys because they saw how things were going and they didn't want it to go back to the 60s."
In December 2020, Jamar
denied the death of six million Jews in the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
, stating that at most 500,000 died, and claiming that six million Jews were not even present in Europe at the time.
Discography
Studio albums
* ''
The 5% Album'' (2006)
Guest appearances
Filmography
Television
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jamar, Lord
1968 births
African-American male actors
African-American male rappers
African-American record producers
American hip hop record producers
American Holocaust deniers
American people of Guyanese descent
Critics of Black Lives Matter
Place of birth missing (living people)
American male television actors
Living people
Five percenters
Musicians from New Rochelle, New York
Rappers from New York (state)
Indie rappers
21st-century American rappers
Record producers from New York (state)
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century African-American musicians
20th-century African-American people
American people of Jamaican descent