Sabac

Formerly a member of disbanded quartet Non-Phixion, angst-ridden and politically minded rapper Sabac, also known as Sabac Red, was born John Fuentes in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico before he relocated to Brooklyn with his Italian mother at age four. By his early teens, he was obsessed with hip-hop culture and was developing into a formidable MC. In high school, he participated in various street promotional teams which represented popular hip-hop acts of the time, like Big Daddy Kane and Greg Nice, but also had his fair share of run-ins with the law. After finishing a two-year program in recording engineering, he joined the staff of revered hip-hop label Wild Pitch as its director of college radio promotions. It was not until 1995 that he crossed paths with Ill Bill, who would become Non-Phixion's frontman. However, Non-Phixion's underground debut, The Future Is Now, did not receive a proper release until 2002. Recording solo, Sabac relied on Ill Bill's brother and Non-Phixion beatsmith Necro to produce his solo debut, Sabacolypse: A Change Gon' Come, which was issued on Necro's Psycho Logical imprint in 2004. Despite Non-Phixion's breakup in 2006, Sabac continued to work with Ill Bill and Necro and recorded music for their respective labels. Several mixtapes were released in the following years, including The Collabo Collection series, of which the second volume in 2007 featured the production of duo Blue Sky Black Death.