Settling back in to J's room, we proceed with the interview.

"What precipitated your transition in the Dark Sun Riders project both spiritually and politically because there was an obvious shift. I'm really curious to know what things influenced that shift. Can you talk about that a little bit?"

"Yes, when I did the Dark Sun Riders I started to experiment with different levels of production. Usually when people listen to X-Clan they're used to having samples and the Dark Sun is probably the first time they've ever heard me outside of sampled breaks."

"Holy Rum Swig" and "A.D.A.M." spring to mind with their head-nodding, lockstep patterns and "Impeach The President" breaks. They were some of their more notable tracks. It was in the Dark Sun Riders album that I noticed a change in Brother J. There was much less emphasis on cultural nationalism albeit the stressing of spiritualism carried over. DJ M.A.T.E., one of the producers was also white. These seemed like unthinkable moves during X-Clan's prominence.

"We're too far in the game to think separatist on any level, you know, on a racism level or any level," Brother J states soberly.

J digs into one of his bags and pulls out a couple of his new mixtape CDs. The opening song contains a excerpt from a Malcolm X speech and, were normally it would be something from his Nation of Islam days, was instead a post-NOI utterance, "I will work with anyone, I don't care what color they are, as long as they want to change the miserable condition that exists on this Earth."

It has been a hobby of mine to write about the era from which Brother J departs. I have maintained for several years now and this has been supported from many sources including Dr. Lester K. Spence of blacksmythe.com, that the black consciousness music that characterized that epoch in America was the result of the movement of black students against Apartheid and other forms of racism at home and abroad.

Relentlessly looking for an answer to my theory, I asked J about his perception of why there is an absence of the categorically political hip-hop we think of when considering the late 80 and early 90s.

"Everybody thinks that, you know, that X-Clan broke up because of internal problems or whatever case may be and, you know, there's a thing about growth, the mold of X-Clan, I wanted to expand it further and now with the group that started with just myself and Shaft there were other elements included and you know, it's a thing of when the baton passes from eldership to the next generation there's a little struggle before the baton is released and this is real because I want people to understand X-Clan was a real family."

At first misunderstanding my question, I posed it again hoping to avoid his irritation and he eventually replied, "The era changed because the people shifted."

"Thank you for saying that," I state with conviction.

Since it is completely impossible to separate X-Clan from the epoch in American history from which they sprang, it makes it quite difficult in locating their relevancy in popular hip-hop today. Curious for his response I asked him how he would attempt to make it relevant again.

"We wanna make it as quality as cats when they go into the club and expect something quality from, you know, whatever thug cat is number one; if it be a 50 Cent, you know, if it be Slim Thug, whatever it is we wanna present that same quality. Those cats got some banging ass tracks."

"I'm glad to hear you say that."

"Yeah, man, its great production, man, I don't diss on the production at all. It's just, I just think the music is out of place, you know, where it's being programmed. I think the programmers are really creating the civil war between conscious music and, you know, what they call thug music."

While I disagree with this characterization of modern hip-hop, I was relieved that he was open to its possibilities. Pressing on, I asked him about Chamillionaire's newest single, "Ridin' Dirty".

"Everybody who feels threatened when their riding and gets harassed should support that song."