Chron Smith was born in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York. As a teenager he was already part of the local hip-hop group Mad Mob, formed in the 1980s by David "Scientific Shabazz" Collins, Ian "7th Ambassador" Bellido and producer Alaric "Supreme Kourt" Wilder. In this period, the young Smith, then known by the monikers Rampage or Rated-X, recorded a series of tracks together with Supreme and 7th Ambassador that were not released: these songs are collected on vinyl and officially released by the independent UK label Chopped Herring Records in 2015.
Few years later, the kids changed their name to Da Last Future and released a demo in 1994 under Nocturnal 7 Records. The tracks are made by the three remaining members of the group after Shabazz, still a member of Da Last Future, made the leap to the circuit, 7th Ambassador aka "Zodiac Killah" and Smith aka "Hell Razah" are in the rapping side performing all the four tracks that are produced by Supreme, who solved Hell Razah problems on the street in the neighborhood which had also taken him to reformatory, an experience after which the kid decided to commit himself to music. The final track of the EP, "Evil Lulla Bye", also features Brooklyn rappers Vergil "Prodigal Sunn" Ruff, with a verse, and Walter "Killah Priest" Reed, with the outro: both are considered as part of the group. This last song is one of the first of the act that will take on more defined contours with the name Sunz of Man.
During this time, the group's members seek prominence through multiple projects. Shabazz, via his cousin Freestyle of the hip-hop group Arsonists, gets in touch with Robert "RZA" Diggs, and the Abbot decides to bring him in the debut album of his new group Gravediggaz. Killah Priest, then known as Lord Messiah, lives on the same block as Gary "The Genius" Grice aka GZA, and knows RZA, also ending up on the Gravediggaz album, on the same tracks as Shabazz. Priest and Shabazz also form the duo The Disciples of Armageddon (D.O.A.) and have a contract to make a demo with Atlantic, then they choose to make the tracks together with their respective friends Hellrazor (Hell Razah), who grew up with Shabazz, and Prodigal Sunn, a pseudonym found by his childhood friend Killah Priest.
I think that the tracks they make could be "Deep in the Water" and "Write & Rhyme With a Liquid Pen" (this last one later known as "Writing Rhymes With a Liquid Pen" and "Elements"), which are some of the premieres of what will be the Sunz of Man group. The songs are both produced by Penalty Recordings-related producer Dropsect, with whom Shabazz has worked releasing several singles for his forthcoming solo project, on which he focuses on leaving Da Last Future. For reasons I don't know about, 7th Ambassador aka Zodiac Killah left the group in 1994 and is replace by Brooklyn rapper close to hip-hop crew Brooklyn Zu Frederick "60 Second Assassin" Cuffie. In 1995, Da Last Future changes name to Sunz of Man, becomes an affiliate of Wu-Tang Clan and signs with Wu-Tang Records: is the first act ever to sign with the label.
The group should be launched into the mainstream circuit, has agreements with GZA's management company Liquid Swords Entertainment, it's strongly linked to the Wu-Tang Clan having participated in the Gravediggaz album and having signed with their label, with which they also obtain a distribution agreement with Priority, RZA also shouts out the names of Lord Messiah (Killah Priest), 60 Second Assassin and Scientific Shabazz on "Clan in da Front" on Wu-Tang's debut album "36 Chambers". Some hot singles come out, there's an album ready for 1996, "Nothing New Under the Sun", nevertheless, conflicts emerge internally and with RZA, the GZA management company goes folded, the disc doesn't come out anymore. In 1996 the group's fourth official single, "Bloody Choices", was released. and Sunz of Man have been reduced to just Hell Razah & Prodigal Sunn, because Shabazz (formally) and Killah Priest (less formally) left the group and cut ties with Wu. In response, RZA cuts the album.
The two exiles from the Clan join forces again forming their old duo, this time under the name The Disciples, and released the single "Writing Rhymes With a Liquid Pen" as an independent around 1997, in a collaborative track with Prodigal Sunn and Hell Razah. The single is ignored by the public and leads the four to go their separate ways: Priest manages to reach an agreement with Geffen by releasing his solo studio album in 1998, after trying unsuccessfully to form the group Maccabees together with Timbo King (of Royal Fam) and Shabazz. Shabazz himself has no luck neither with the new duo Celestial Souljahz together with his cousin Freestyle nor with the collaboration with the producer Supreme, with this latest effort ending up leaked online by Supreme Kourt himself due to profit disagreements with Shabazz.
Hell Razah, Prodigal Sunn and 60 Second Assassin remain in Sunz of Man and don't let the group collapse on itself. They have to record the tracks themselves to complete their first album, having to find new lenders after RZA's step back and a new distributor, possibly international. In 1997, Hell Razah made his debut on the circuit by participating together with Prodigal Sunn on the track "The Wake", from Killarmy's debut album "Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars". In 1998, Killah Priest released his debut album "Heavy Mental", four months before the release of the Sunz of Man album: Hell Razah is the main guest of the classic first CD of Killah Priest blessing "One Step", "Tai Chi" and "Science Project", all among the best tracks of the disk. The rapper from Red Hook is the main protagonist even in the first Sunz of Man album officially released, appearing in almost all the cuts (18 out of 19). In 1999, Sunz of Man prepares the release of a new album that has pre-1997 recordings, so there would still be Killah Priest and Shabazz, however, "The First Testament" is bootlegged.
After the bootleg, Hell Razah doesn't give up and continues to push harder than before, releasing a couple of singles with Echo International in 1999, "Rosewood" and "Hell's Inmates", with plans for a new album by Sunz of Man. Both tracks, credited to Sunz of Man, feature Ghetto Government, a duo made up of 7th Ambassador (Razah's childhood friend) and Baghdad (aka Trey Bag, Hell Razah's brother). However, Ghetto Government takes a break for a few years. At this point, Hell Razah decides to start working on his debut solo studio album, which is released independently in 2001. In these years, Razah appears in the albums of Wu-Tang Killa Beez ("The Swarm", 1998), GZA ("Beneath the Surface", 1999), U-God ("Golden Arm Redemption", 1999) and Ghostface Killah ("Supreme Clientele", 2000; in "We Made It", classic cut of that masterpiece-album), always with top performances. The Brooklyn emcee becomes the second Sunz of Man member to release a solo project three years after Killah Priest, from which it imitates covers — which maintains the space theme present both in Priest album released in 1998 ("Heavy Mental") and in GZA's 1995 album ("Liquid Swords") — themes (with a stream of consciousness that mixes biblical references, religion, metaphysical, conscious, crime and thugging topics), mood and in a certain sense even the production is close to the style of "Heavy Mental" without possessing the same quality of music.
Production is handled by Joe Loopz, Nitro, Data, Mark V, Supreme, Goldie, David Burnette and Hass Da Phantom. The guests are Hell Razah's brother Baghdad (credited as Tray Bag on later editions of the CD), Sunz of Man members Prodigal Sunn and Killah Priest, former group member 7th Ambassador, and group affiliate Timbo King. The material proposed by Hell Razah in this album, which consists of 19 tracks and over an hour of listening, isn't noteworthy most of the time: the production is poor and cheap, these boom bap rhythms sound very bad, and there's a constant bad choice of drum and other side sounds, while from the point of view of the lyrics, the rapper builds battle rap with thug, gangster and socio-conscious topics, mixed with concepts of the Black Hebrew Israelites. The best moments are represented by the Sunz of Man track "Must B tha Music" and "Ghetto Government", to revive a debut project by Hell Razah that is largely disappointing and forgettable.
The album suffers in the first part with questionable and subdued rhythmic liquid solutions, and even some shoddy tracks for the club, and then slowly rises again in the second half of the CD coinciding with the arrival of support from the other Sunz of Man. If Prodigal Sunn can't do much in "Like It or Not" over a horrible and totally annoying production by David Burnette, Killah Priest and Timbo King (the three will later be part of both the second formation of the Maccabees and the Black Market Militia group) provide the album's best guest contributions. "Must B tha Music" features economical production from Joe Loopz, but somehow better than many others on Hell Razah's debut album. Liveable rhythm, even melodic, good piano in the background, weak and sparse drum, almost hidden. Good rap from the performers. In subsequent editions of the album, Timbo King's verse is removed and replaced with those of Sunz of Man 60 Second Assassin and Prodigal Sunn: this version is then also proposed for the group's new album "Elements" released in 2004.
Published by Echo International, then by Hell Razah label Ghetto Government in 2004, lastly by Chambermusik in 2008. It doesn't contain the best material of the Red Hook emcee and doesn't become essential even for fans, as some of the best moments are reprized to complement the Sunz of Man album "Elements" released a few years later.
Rating: 6/10.
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