Islamic hip-hop throwback living in the Mojave desert astonishes with his varied grit.
“My biggest gift has been my ability to look into people’s hearts,” confesses Sumach Ecks. When he’s not terrifying the conservative right with his Islamic chants, dreadlocks and aggressive healing mantras he’s channelling his caged spirit into the desert sky with a shamanic funk and trying to get America to wake the fuck up. Across varied tones and colours the thirty-two-year-old plays hip-hop priest, Sixties drop-out or expansive visionary surfing the fringes of conventional industry. “I love America but people have to start communicating more, and not allow the television or the media to dictate our relationships between each other. Motherfuckers need to get a passport and go check out the spot that scares them and go and see it for themselves.”
Best Bit: The bizarre coherence between his parched futuristic beats, shamanic screaming and Sixties Pacific blues.
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Read Clash’s original review of Gonjasufi’s ‘A Sufi And A Killer’ HERE.
Listen to a three track preview of ‘The Caliph’s Tea Party’, the remixed companion to ‘A Sufi And A Killer’, HERE.
