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Very few contemporary hip-hop acts can say they performed alongside Eazy E, Public Enemy, and the Black Eyed Peas, in addition to working on videos for Nas, Gangstarr, T.I. and other platinum selling rappers, all in the span of a single career. Enter Blood of Abraham, the Los Angeles-based duo of Benyad and Mazik. Once signed to Ruthless Records, these talented MCs have drawn from their turmoiled lives and creative muses, to conjure up hip-hop music which speaks to everyone from the stern hip hop head to the avant-garde musical elitist. With their recent release Eyedollartree, these longtime stalwarts on the Los Angeles subterranean circuit, bring together a uniquely artistic amalgamation of politically charged tracks which recount our country’s current woes as well as delve into the group’s own history. Combining such melodic and lushly layered songs with straight-up Los Angeles hip-hop and eclectic samples, the album features guest appearances from will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas), Divine Styler and Kool Keith. More than anything, though, Blood of Abraham’s music is founded on their unique history. As childhood friends at Los Angeles’s Birmingham High School, Benyad and Mazik found a common heritage in that they were both Jewish (Benyad was actually born in Israel and raised in Nigeria.) and shared a love for both conscious and gangsta’ hip-hop such as Native Tongues, KRS-One, Gangstarr, and N.W.A. This dynamic duo is also bound by their interest in film, history, epistemology and philosophy—Stanley Kubrick, Egyptology and the storied psychiatrist, Jung to name a few influences. After joining together professionally in the early nineties, the two fledgling MCs began calling themselves Blood of Abraham, in reference to the common lineage of all people.
JIVE Magazine Q&A with Blood of Abraham
JIVE: How did you guys meet?
Benyad: Met in 11th grade at Birmingham High school. In art class, and we have been together ever since. At that time we were big fans of Hip-Hop. Mazik use to break dance in Vegas. Mazzik: The first music I was ever given or bought was public Enemy. Benyad: We were fans of the conscious groups like Public Enemy. We liked a lot of the groups that were just saying something. JIVE:You guys have performed with Native Tongue affiliate, De La Soul. How would you compare that time in Hip-Hop to what is currently being put out? Benyad: Hip-Hop is the modern pop movement. It is what it is, and I really don’t get caught up in it. To each his own, but I think it is a shame sometimes that peoples only point of reference for Hip-Hop is what they hear currently when some of the best Hip-Hop ever created was during the golden ages of 87-93. The reason for the change is because money got involved. JIVE:Tell me a little bit about the two of you and Will.I.Am battling? Mazzik: Well we never battled each other. Will was and still is one of the sickest freestyle MCs. When he was 16 he was killing everyone. Benyad: It was so funny. I use to have this Def Jam jacket that I got from a friend, and I would go out. Will didn’t know who I was yet, and he would be like “yo I thought you were huge. I was hoping you’d sign me.” We all became friends and we use to go to this little Hip-Hop spot that was owned by David Faustino, Bud Bundy from Married With Children, called Ballistics. They had contests, and we never really got into contests, but a few times we would jump up and grab the mic and just rock. Mazzik: All kinds of people that we were into use to come through that spot, so that’s how we got our start. I remember everyone just waiting in line to grab the mic. I remember one night this dude, I don’t know what he looked like or his name but what he said sparked something in me. He came up to me and said, “Hey man, you aren’t wearing a hat that says MC. No one is just going to hand you a mic.” After that I was like, I gotta grab mics. Benyad: We were both signed to the same label back in the day to. And we are friends with him to this day. JIVE: Now that label was Ruthless Records right? Benyad: That label was Ruthless. He had a group called AFan Clan. Had a really classic album, A Tribe Beyond a Nation, but it never came out. JIVE: What was your Ruthless experience? Benyad: Nothing but good memories and love. Mazzik: Eazy was like a big brother. He was always a nice person, took care of us, and hung out with us. He would wake us up early in the morning because he would never sleep. JIVE: So he was a workaholic. Mazzik: Yah. He had like three pages and three phones. I lived with him for a year and a half in Calabasas. I remember coming out in the morning and he would be literally on the phone asleep. One time I grabbed the phone, and a girl was still on the phone. Benyad: He was a cool cat. He was a visionary. He was into things before a lot of other people were-from marketing to clothing to movies. He was the only black owner of the largest independent black record company. So we learned a lot from him. JIVE:How does EyeDollarTree, your sophomore release, compare to your first album Future Profits ? Benyad: On the first album we were kids, and now we are adults. We have more of a knowledge of self and who we are, but back then we were in tune with who we were and what we wanted, but we were still really young. We didn’t really know how to produce it as much, so were relying on other people to determine our sound. On this one we are a lot more experienced production wise and much more comfortable on the mic. Mazzik: I remember some of the groups we loved and say ok they did an 8 bar verse, then an 8 bar chorus, and sometimes we would follow that because we would write lyrics to their instrumentals. It was fine tuned and then we would just take it over to our tracks. Benyad: We were structuring our songs after songs that we really loved. JIVE: What is your approach when producing an album? Benyad: We dig the deepest. We spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars on records looking for those gem sounds. If it sounds like something we’ve heard before, we get rid of it. We want it to be completely original and just years ahead of people. Our sound is very atmospheric. Almost like a movie score. JIVE: How has film influenced you as artists? Benyad: We watch tons of films. Just like we dig in music, we dig in Cinema. Right out of high school we took cinema classes, and we were looking for something, like we look for in music now, that would feed us. That inspires us through the mood and vibe. We look for visual stimulation. We score music for commercials, and I direct music videos. Film is the ultimate because you have audio and visual together and it’s like an alchemy. An album can move you, but an album put to visuals is even more powerful. One of the shorts on the DVD that comes with the CD is just a a visual presentation of the music with all its madness and paranoia. Kubrick is one of a long list of directors that inspire us. He dealt in universal visuals. Some of his movies had very little dialogue. Like in 2001, the first 40mins has no dialogue, but there is a story being told. Mazzik: We have always had a genuine curiosity about films and we are into the documentaries as much as the films themselves. JIVE: Do you ever see yourself directing a film? Benyad: Definantly. We will be doing a film and scoring it. The next album we do is going to be a sound track to the film. There isn’t a time table for the film, but it’s just something that you got to make happen. Mazzik: When he does it, its gonna be thought out from the lighting to where the gum will be placed on the floor. When he does something, its gonna be done the right way. It takes him a year to write a verse [Benyad laughs] but that’s because he is a true student of the art. JIVE: On another film related note, Hurricane from EYEDOLLARTREE features lyrics from the original Charlie and the Chocolate factory film. How did you guys get the idea of taking that song and putting a Hip-Hop spin on it? Mazzik: About 6 or 7 years ago we first recorded that song. It was before all of the current hoopla. JIVE: Did it sound anything like the current version? Mazzik: Well the first one had saws. Remember that? Benyad: Yah the other one was a completely different track. It had saws like one flew over the cuckoos nest music. Mazzik: We love the song because it is something that we wish we would have written. Benyad: It makes a point, and Mazzik knocked it out. JIVE: What would you like to tell those who aren’t familiar with you guys? Benyad: To the unknowners, just be familiar with your surroundings. Know what’s going on around you at all times. Mazzik: Don’t live in an illusion. You can either be blissfully ignorant or knowledgably sorrowful. Related Links and News:
http://www.myspace.com/bloodofabraham 
Music video director Ben Mor, also one half of the rap duo Blood of Abraham, was nominated by MTV Music Television for “Best Rap Video” for T.I.’s “U Don’t Know Me.” Other nominees in this year’s VMA categories include directors Philip Atwell, The Saline Project, and X, among others. This is Mor’s first nomination, but his video career started many years ago when he ghost wrote treatments for many of today’s most celebrated directors. In addition, he scored commercials and quickly moved on to producing. Directing videos was a natural progression, being that he’s a rap artist as well as a writer/director. Mors videos are impressive: Nas’s “Thief’s Theme,” and “Just a Moment,” John Legend’s “Use to Love You,” as well as Young Gunz, “Set it off.” “I know it’s cliché but it truly is an honor to be nominated, considering only five videos get picked for this category from the entire year, and plus I get to go to Miami and drink with T.I.” says Ben.
2005 has been an exciting year for Mor so far. In addition to the MTV nomination, he’s also gearing up for Blood of Abraham’s sophomore release, Eyedollartree on the LA based indie label Basement Records with his partner in rhyme Mazik. Signed to Eazy-E’s Ruthless Records in the early 90s, Blood of Abraham’s latest project includes a DVD with two bonus videos and a short film by Mor. The album/dvd album was released on September 23, 2005. Credits: Introduction and News: PR
Interview: Jason Kordich | 
