The Outsider

Three years ago, the local scene put its chips on D.Black as the
next big thing, the next Sir Mix-A-Lot (in terms of fame), Seattle’s
answer to Biggie and Jay-Z. There was good reason to believe this would
be so. He came from hiphop royalty (both his parents were rappers in
prominent crews in the early ’80s), he was raised in the Central
District (the then-epicenter of local hiphop), and he was well
connected and regarded. His debut album, The Cause & Effect,
had everything a rapper needs to reach the top of the charts. There was
lots of anger, heavy doses of street realism, and tunes that were
designed to meet all of the standards of pop hiphop: “Get Loose” (a
dance anthem), “About Mine” (a hood anthem), and “Nobody” (a VIP anthem
built on soothing 808 cowbells that recalled the black elegance moment
in pop music). D.Black did everything by the book, but the world beyond
the borders of the Pacific Northwest did not respond.

Three years later, D.Black has returned with an album,
Ali’Yah, that is the day to The Cause & Effect‘s
night. Whereas the old record had national ambitions, the new record is
aimed at the local. The first looked outside; the new one looks inside.
The first was mostly about crass materialism; the new one is mostly
about the soul. The first had the hypercapitalism of Jay-Z as its
inspiration; the new one is inspired by the mysticisms of Common. Even
the two titles express a clear rupture: The Cause & Effect is empirical; Ali’Yah is paradisiacal.

“I just got older,” explains D.Black over the phone from his place
in Skyway. He is preparing to fly to San Francisco on business for
Sportn’ Life, the label he co-owns with DeVon Manier and the most
important black-owned independent label in Seattle. “During the process
of making Cause & Effect, I was 17 and 18. Now I’m 22 and
will be 23 in no time. But what is happening now is I was able to pick
up more responsibilities. I’m married now. I have a daughter. That was
really huge. And also there was a kind of music I was listening to. I
was listening to Common and Lauryn Hill’s old record. And this is my
favorite kind of music. So I started connecting with music that came
from the inner being.”

Not only are the differences striking, but ultimately,
Ali’Yah is a better record. What it has that D.Black’s first
record lacks is focus. Primarily produced by Vitamin D, Jake One, and
B.Brown, Ali’Yah does not contain a variety of tracks with a
variety of motives—one that should produce a hit, one that should
maintain or reinforce street credibility, one that’s just right for the
club. Instead, it is unified by D.Black’s singular concern with the
substance/meaning of his life—a life that is in the mode of
hiphop and made up of very close relationships with his friends,
family, and community.

“The first record was a release,” explains D.Black. “The release of
growing up in an environment… But with this record, I wanted to show
what was going on in the mind of D.Black. The first record was a crying
out to the community. This one is outside and crying into the
community. From outside, you can see things, look and see the
inconsistencies, the spots, the blemishes. In the first record, I was
not outside but in the midst. So that’s why you can’t tell if the first
record is glorifying or hating where it’s at. It’s like you do what you
do, but you do what you do because you love it and you can’t help but
to love it.”

The reason why D.Black feels he is on the outside looking in has
much to do with the unexpected fact that he’s now following and
organizing his life around the oldest of the Abrahamic religions,
Judaism. “I’m a weird case,” says D.Black. “I’m not a Christian and I’m
not Jewish. So usually what people call a person like me, or the thing
that I do, is Messianic Judaism. I have turned to the God of Israel and
the Jewish people. I was raised a Sunni Muslim, and I converted to
Christianity at 14. I had my up and down moments. But when I moved out
of my parents’ place and started living with my lady, I started
studying Christianity backwards. I started going back to the root.
Where did all of it come from? Why is it like this? You know the church
knows Jesus was Jewish. But they do not know he was extremely
Jewish.”

D.Black now spends a good deal of his time studying the Torah.
Nevertheless, Ali’Yah is not at all preachy or about spreading
his beliefs. It’s not like a Christian rap record (dc Talk and what
have you). He is not in the business of converting nonbelievers. The
album, which contains no curse words, gang boasting, or misogynistic
declarations, is above all about hiphop, the difficulties of the art
and the effort/work it takes to become a good artist—”My joy, my
pain, my life/My beats, my words, my mic,” raps D.Black on “Let It Go.”
There are tracks that have a religious feeling, such as “Alter Call,”
which is produced and performed by local jazz pianist Darrius Willrich,
and “I Believe,” which features Spaceman and Choklate, but nothing in
these tracks informs the listener that the rapper is big into sacred
Jewish texts.

There is some bad news. It’s this: D.Black’s deepening commitment to
the ideas of the Torah is slowly but surely turning him away from his
rap career and toward one that is devoted to his spiritual development.
In the beginning, in the midst of things; for now, outside looking into
things; in the future, gone like the wind. We have already lost Thee
Satisfaction to San Francisco, it would be sad for Seattle to lose such
a talented and fascinating rapper to the spiritual capital of the
Western world, Jerusalem. I hope he stays in the game.

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