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Rap music has seen more than its share of influence from the religion of Islam.\u00a0 With groups such as Public Enemy rapping about their respect for the Nation of Islam, to people such as Q-Tip of a Tribe Called Quest embracing mainstream Islam, the religion seems to be a recurrent theme in the genre, both impacting lyrics and lives.\u00a0 One artist more recently touched by Islam is Eric Schrody, better known in music circles as Everlast.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n While Everlast began his musical career as a rap artist, he has recently shown himself to have much greater depth and diversity.\u00a0 His current album, Whitey Ford Sings the Blues (currently ranked #49 on billboard\u2019s charts after peaking at #9) exhibits this in its reflective and somewhat philosophical tone, showing glimpses of the influence Islam has had on his life.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n What follows is an interview in which Everlast discusses his journey to Islam and the challenges he faces as a new Muslim.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n AB: Tell me about the first time you learned about Islam?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n E: It was probably around the late 80\u2019s.\u00a0 I was hangin\u2019 out with Divine Styler (a popular Los Angeles rap artist).\u00a0 He was basically at the end of his 5% period (referring to the pseudo-Islamic \u201cNation of Gods and Earths\u201d sect).\u00a0 He was starting to come into Islam.\u00a0 He lived with the Bashir family.\u00a0 Abdullah Bashir was sort of his teacher; and mine it wound up later.\u00a0 As he was making the transition from 5% into Islam, I would just be around and hear things.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m trying to think of the first time I recognized it as Islam.\u00a0 I think it was when one of Divine\u2019s friends took Shahadah (the Muslim profession of faith) and I was there.\u00a0 I heard him say, \u201cI bear witness that there is no God but God, and Muhammad is the servant and messenger.\u201d And I remember me being like, \u201cWhat is this? \u00a0I\u2019m white.\u00a0 Can I be here?\u201d \u00a0It was outta ignorance, you know? \u2018Cause here in America, Islam is considered a \u201cBlack thing.\u201d<\/span><\/strong> And that\u2019s when someone pointed out to me, \u201cYou have no idea how many white Muslims there are in the world.\u201d I was like, \u201cReally,\u201d and somebody broke it down.\u00a0 I said, \u201cThat\u2019s crazy.\u00a0 I had no clue.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n AB: Do you feel any extra pressure being a white Muslim in America?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n E: I don\u2019t think of it on the grand scale.\u00a0 To me, Islam is mine.\u00a0 Allah is the God of all the worlds, and all mankind and all the Aalameen (worlds\/universe).\u00a0 Islam is my personal relationship with God.\u00a0 So nobody can put any more pressure on me than I can put on myself.\u00a0 But as far as the mosque where I pray, I have never felt more at home or more welcome.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not just mine.\u00a0 The few mosques that I\u2019ve gone to around the country, I\u2019ve never ever been made to feel uncomfortable.<\/span><\/strong> Like in New York, the mosque is big and there\u2019s so many people that nobody is lookin\u2019 to notice you.\u00a0 There were Chinese, Korean, Spanish – everything, which was a good thing for me because at my mosque I\u2019m the only white male, [although] there are some white females.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I think at first, I thought about it more than anybody else the first couple times I went to Jumma (the Friday congregational prayer).\u00a0 The first time I went to Jumma, I was taken by a friend of mine in New York.\u00a0 It was in Brooklyn in Bed-Stuy (Bedford Stuyvestant).\u00a0 I was nervous about the neighborhood I was in, not the mosque.\u00a0 But I was just so at ease once I was there.\u00a0 I was like, \u201cThis is great.\u201d I didn\u2019t feel any different than anybody else in the mosque.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n AB: How did your family take your turning to Islam? \u00a0Because you were raised Catholic, right?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n E: Well, you know my mom is very open minded, very progressive.\u00a0 My mother lives with me.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve been raised all my life with not a belief in God, but a knowledge that he exists.\u00a0 I was taught [that] if [I were to know] anything in the world, [I should] know there\u2019s a God.\u00a0 And my mom, even though she was Catholic, she was the first person to point out hypocrisy in the church.\u00a0 My mom really hasn\u2019t attended church in a long time.\u00a0 But as far as me, my mom is just happy that I have God in my life.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n She sees me making prayers.\u00a0 And Divine is one of her favorite people in the world.\u00a0 She knows how much different we are than when she first knew us as kids.\u00a0 When me and Divine first hooked up, we were wild.\u00a0 We were out partyin\u2019, fightin\u2019, doin\u2019 whatever we had to do.\u00a0 We thought, \u201cYeah, that\u2019s what being a man is about.\u00a0 We\u2019re gonna go out here and be thuggish.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n [But] she has seen how much it\u2019s changed me and him; and how much peace it\u2019s brought me since I\u2019ve started to really accomplish something with it.\u00a0 I actually had a long talk with my mother the other day and we were on the topic of religion.\u00a0 We were actually talking about life and death, and the future and when she might go (die, pass away).\u00a0 That won\u2019t be for a long time, inshallah (God willing).\u00a0 But I asked her to do me one favor.\u00a0 I said, \u201cMom, when you die there might be some angels who ask you a question, and I want you to answer it; and I\u2019m not sure exactly how it goes, \u2018cause I ain\u2019t died yet.\u00a0 Remember that there\u2019s only one God, and he\u2019s never been a man.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n She said, \u201c Ma.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Some of what I know has definitely shown up in my mother.\u00a0 She\u2019s no Muslim, but she knows there\u2019s only one God.\u00a0 And that makes me very happy.\u00a0 I know guys that have turned towards Islam and their families have turned them out (i.e. rejected them).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n To be <\/span><\/span>continued:<\/p>\n Ref: www.islamreligion.com Rap music has seen more than its share of influence from the religion of Islam.\u00a0 With groups such as Public Enemy rapping about their respect for the Nation of Islam,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories-of-famous"],"yoast_head":"\n
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