Blood Of Abraham

Blood of Abraham, an Afrocentric Jewish rap duo mentored by the late Eazy-E, emerged in the early '90s. At the time, the group stood as a testament to hip-hop's ever-burgeoning ability to defy cultural boundaries. The combo consists of MCs Benyad and Mazik. Benyad was born Ben Mor in Israel to Moroccan-Jewish parents and raised in Nigeria until the age of ten, when his family moved to L.A. Mazik was born David Saevitz in Santa Monica, CA, to a part-Irish father and a Jewish mother and raised in Las Vegas. The duo's first big move toward public recognition came when they convinced Compton gangsta rap icon Eazy-E to let them perform during a gang-truce event he was hosting on Sunset Strip in 1992. Eazy, impressed with Blood of Abraham, convinced them to reject another label offer in favor of signing to Ruthless Records (the home of N.W.A.). Eazy also offered Mazik, who had recently come to L.A. from Las Vegas and was homeless at the time, living quarters in a huge house he owned down the street from Dr. Dre.

The group recorded Future Profits for Ruthless in 1993 and even shot a video at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. The album was released in 1994 and contained the provocative, epithet-heavy track "N****z and Jewz (Some Say Kikes)," which tore into racism and anti-Semitism. The notorious track featured Eazy and contained the sampled voice of a Klansman. (The track also featured the recorded debut of rapper Will.I.Am, who would later to rise to prominence with Black Eyed Peas.) The album received generally a positive response; however, when Eazy fell terminally ill with AIDS, Ruthless Records began to deteriorate. With no promotion behind it, Future Profits sank out of site. Blood of Abraham re-emerged with Eyedollartree (a pun on "idolatry") in 2000. The album condemned greedy consumerism and featured a ten-minute long experimental film that mixed stock footage and noirish photography. The effort featured appearances by Divine Styler, Kool Keith, and Will.I.Am.