"..wisdom that’s lacking in our youth right now."
One of the most critically acclaimed groups of conscious Hip-Hop's golden era, X-Clan's 1990 debut LP, To The East, Backwards, stands unequivocally on par with Hip-Hop's greatest classics; yet following the 1992 release of their well-received sophomore set, Xodus, the group disbanded and hasn't been heard from since. As we head into the fall of 2006, all of that is about to change as the Clan prepares to re-emerge from an extended hiatus with the release of Return From Mecca, the group's first album in nearly fourteen years! Reinvigorated by the renewed leadership of the Grand Verbalizer Brother J and armed with a blazing hot new single in "Weapon X", X-Clan is back and ready to drop some serious knowledge for the new millennium cipher. Don't sleep.
Click here to listen to "Weapon X", X-Clan's brand new single.

RIOTSOUND.COM: Since dropping two highly influential and critically acclaimed albums in the early 90's, X-Clan has been dormant for nearly 14 years. What happened during that hiatus that kept you from releasing music as a group?
BROTHER J: Basically I took a hiatus because of the state of Hip-Hop. When the golden era ended - that [freedom] of choice of the people that were buying our music – I as an artist didn't choose to run the rat race. We didn't always have to have the golden coffin in front of us, but if everybody's minds are totally being shut off and they want to sing Christmas jingles instead of getting with the knowledge - if you're [aware] of the music that's happening today, I call it "jingles" because everything is based around a hook and a beat like if it's a commercial.

When the era of [that type of music] came in, people found out they can make a lot of money doing that. I basically said, that's not the kind of music that we project, so I chose to dive out of the game as X-Clan in like '93. I put out a project in '95 called Dark Sun Riders just to put a little taste out there for all the artists that were wondering where we went. My stay at Island Records at that time had to be short lived because the era of R&B was becoming stronger and because I was refusing to do R&B songs. I had to move on and learn to get into the independent market.

I moved out to California [several] years later and I basically stayed underground and studied the market to see what's going on for real and [see] why the underground market was bigger in the west than the east; and I found some answers. Eight years later, after reassembling the X-Clan and adding on some new members, some of the mentors and peers that I was working with during the hiatus, I am now prepared to re-present the group.

RIOTSOUND.COM: What are some of the issues that you're going to be addressing on your new album Return From Mecca? We've seen the world go through many changes since we last heard from X-Clan. What, in your view, are some of today's most relevant topics?

BROTHER J: Well, the one thing that we're going to begin to address is the issue of wisdom that's lacking in our youth right now. The youth basically are depending on wisdom from the computer rather than their elders. Eventually our generation will be [gone] so I don't want to be the kind of elder that was avoided for a computer fix. I want someone to come and say, hey man, you traveled around the world and done a lot of things and inspired a lot of people, can you tell me about this, or what about that? I want to give [our youth] the insight that a cold machine is not going to give them.

The [X-Clan] Millennium Cipher is going to address millennium issues and the type of things that have kept us backwards. Another thing, for instance, is the treatment of our women. It's gotten to the point now where if the mother is disrespected, then the daughter is disrespected. And as the daughters are being disrespected right now they're giving birth to the next seed, so we're just continuing a channeling and a recycling of life that totally disrespects each other. This creates a hatred foundation. [It's] an f-ed up attitude when children get into [a state of mind] where they think they can control [their own life] at thirteen or fourteen years old. When those hormones start tripping up they feel like they can run the world. They feel like they can go out like – hell, I can make my own money; old men will pay me $1000 a day just to flip on a pole and rub their balls or some shit. This is the kind of mentality that the young girls are dealing with.

The type of mentality the young brothers are dealing with is – I'ma be a player, I'ma pimp these hoes and make 'em do what I want them to do. We have a disrespect between man and woman that has become so deep that corporations have chosen to invest in our civil war amongst each other. And it's not just young men thirteen or fourteen years old; these are grown men acting like children, these are grown women acting like children. So when someone can invest in hatred, it's ridiculous.

RIOTSOUND.COM: As far as the actual sound of X-Clan; what would you say is the biggest difference today as opposed to the early '90's? How are you going to approach things in 2006 in order to break through the materialism and commercial clutter that we see all around us?
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