Published: Monday - January 8, 2007
Words by Jay Casteel
Saafir (Photo: ABB Records)
Like Tupac, Bay Area rapper Saafir came up in the music scene as a dancer for Digital Underground, and began earning his stripes as a rapper shortly afterwards, gaining notoriety on a track called "That Bullsh--" on fellow Bay Area rapper Casual's Fear Itself.
Saafir went on to record more music and eventually landed a role in the hood classic hood film, "Menace II Society." He released three albums afterward, but then fell off the map, after being diagnosed with spinal cancer, which he is still recovering from to this day.
But, before being treated for the disease, the rapper recorded his latest album, Good Game: The Transition. Although he doesn't directly speak on his struggles with spinal cancer, he does get in-depth about his transition to Islam and the struggles and hardship that took place before he came to the "realization," as he calls it, toward his the move forward. Saafir is now a changed man, and his music and livelihood reflect that, so it's time to meet him.
BallerStatus.com: You've had a lengthy battle with spinal cancer over the last several years. Talk about what went through your mind when you were first diagnosed and how you dealt with it during that time period.
Saafir: I was diagnosed with it in '04. And when they told me, I was kinda like just... I was kinda like at a stand still. I didn't know how to respond or how to react. I just asked him, "What do I gotta do?" And he was like, "It gotta come out." I was like, "You gotta cut me open?" And he said, "Yea, we gotta cut the top part of your spine off, get into your spine and get it out or it’s gonna be problems." I asked what would happen if I wait a couple year, and he was like, "then you risk being paralyzed, or if the tumor gets bigger, we might not be able to get it if it starts pressing up against your nerves." I was at a stalemate. I had to do it.
BallerStatus.com: So, are you fully recovered now?
Saafir: Nah, I ain't fully recovered. I can't feel nothing from my chest down to my feet. I'm numb. But, it’s progressively getting better, as opposed to what it was a year ago. Now, yea, its gotten a lot better. But, I'm still struggling. I don't look like it when you look at me. When you see me, I don't look like it. I look like I'm healthy, but on the inside, I'm feeling it.
BallerStatus.com: During your recovery, was music still something you thought about?
Saafir: Oh yea. Matter of fact, I had finished the album right before I went into the hospital. I had got diagnosed like nine months before I went into the hospital. Within that nine months, I did the album, I shot a video and I tried to get the music work done before I laid down.
I didn't really talk about my situation with [spinal cancer] because... that album is really introspective, but that was something I was currently dealing with, so I didn't really speak on it because it was what I was dealing with at that moment. I hadn't digested it enough to really spit about it. I will talk about it on the next album. Actually, I spoke on it on a mixtape. I put a mixtape out called Paint The Town. They can get that at MySpace.com/Saafir.
BallerStatus.com: Looking back, how did the experience change your outlook on life?
Saafir: Well, I had already been a Muslim prior to that. I had embraced Islam in November of '03. In '03, I went to jail for a minute. I came home in '04 and I had real deep experiences -- a few of them actually -- to where I couldn't argue or not whether or not the one God was living, like really here, not remote. In a fan's listening, completely aware living God, I got proof. And once I told one of my homies back in the day -- we was blowing some weed -- I told him that if that I ever had proof -- and this is really a statement of a disbeliever -- that the one God was real, that I would smash for him, do my music for him, and I would really try to live for him. And be for real about it, like the way I was with it in the streets. Once I got that proof, where I couldn't argue it... And I analyzed it furiously through every vein and there was no way around it, so I submitted. I became a Muslim and I'm proud to be one.
That's what my music projects. The album, Good Game: The Transition, really just shows the transition from a non-believer to a believer.
BallerStatus.com: Ok, if you don't mind, what was that proof that made you change over?
Saafir: It was a few things. I was in jail, I got into a situation with some inmates and I got down on em, put hands on em. I got shot to lockdown, and when I was in the hole... When you slow down and are taken away from the world and locked up, your mind slows down. Like you really reflect, especially if you're a hustler or you move real quick when you in the streets. When you're locked up, it slows down and you have time to really reflect. You evaluate your position and your life and where you're at and where you been. I was doing that. 1992, I was in a plane crash, TWA flight 841 outta New York, JFK to San Francisco. We went up 10,000 feet, came back around circled, hit the JFK runway, the turbine blew up and then, eventually, the whole plane blew up. Everybody got off safely, but that was the beginning of my transition to becoming a believer. But, in jail, for the first time in my life, I turned toward Allah. And there was no Muslims in jail while I was locked up. I was only one there on that page; no one else was there like that. I had just turned to God and was like, "I need your help. I can't do this no more without your help." I thought it was me doing everything. I thought it was my game, my experience, my prowess, but in reality, it was [God] preserving me, protecting me through all the plane crashes, motorcycle and car crashes, gunshots, my gangsta activity, just my whole illegal criminal life, you know what I'm saying? I've never been extremely toe up, but I have been through some things, but he preserved me, allowed me to go through them, kept me going and kept me strong, so that I'd get to that point right there. Which was when the realization came from the accusing self or the realizing self.
There is three stages in becoming a Muslim -- the realization, the accusing and third stage is the relaxing self, when you are at one with who you are, what you're purpose is here on this planet and who you worship. I was in the stage of realization. And I realized that it wasn't me doing it, and that there was a real one, only one, powerful God, not Jesus, no other prophet, just God. That was so extremely sublime. I didn't no where else to turn. I was at rock bottom and he answered me in a way that changed my life forever.
BallerStatus.com: Ok, let's touch on the album a bit more. Can you tell us more in detail what fans should expect as far as content, songs, etc?
Saafir: Like I said, the album really depicts the transition from a non-believer to a believer. I kept the rhymes really practical. Usually when I spit, I put a lot on the style and I spit real lawless and arrogant, but me being a Muslim, I can't put that out to the world -- the energy. I can't put that negative self-worship, self-glorifying or self-praising element out into the universe. Because me being awake, as far as being on the truth and really knowing what I'm supposed to be doing as a Muslim, I can't do that. But, I love music and rhyming is what I do. I'm not a rapper. I started in the streets, but I been hip-hop since I was twelve. That's what I do, that's all I know, so I actually figured out a way to merge my craft with my faith.
This album really is an album showing the transition from negative to positive, from darkness to light, from ignorance to understanding, without preaching. I kept it real street, but it's my first 100% written from the heart album. I think it's my best one. And the album just consists of real stories -- stories about my life, my experiences, not decorated like Christmas trees and not exaggerated, straight real.
BallerStatus.com: What kind of feedback have you gotten from fans and people around you?
Saafir: People have called from street thugs to squares to fly girls to school girls, they hit me... and the hardest street thug hit me and said it was a five star album. I was shocked, because I wouldn't think that element would feel it. But, I'm getting a lot of good reviews on it, like a lot. But, it's an album that's similar as far as depth to the new Jay-Z album. I heard his album and it's real deep. It's deep and you can tell it's straight from the heart. He's lightweight bragging on it, and I'm not doing that, but it's a practical album. It's easy to digest, it's straight to the point and it's deep. It's made from the heart. I felt that method of operation and that form because I used the same one. That's the genre I'm trying to approach and trying to attack is the practical person, universally, not just street thugs, not just ballers and not just broads. I'm looking for the believers. I'm trying to hit them, as well as the non-believers that don't believe, but want to. I'm trying to hit the strong that have understanding.
I'm a grown man. I'm in my thirties. My album is for the grown and experienced, basically.
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