Lord Jamar

While a younger generation will most likely recognize Lorenzo Dechelaus for his recent acting stints on HBO’s The Sopranos and OZ, many hip-hop fans will remember Dechelaus by his longtime moniker, Lord Jamar.

As a founding member of Brand Nubian, Jamar has witnessed New York’s rich hip-hop history firsthand, while maintaining stability in the face of industry turbulence. Within the last few years, Jamar has been busy balancing a budding acting career with the need to make music. “My agent handles most of the acting gigs, which I’m fortunate to get,” explains the resilient thirty-seven-year-old. “But I’ll probably always have a hunger to create music.”

Jamar finally fed his yearning for music by completing his first solo project, The 5% Album, out now on Babygrande Records. With the horizon full, Jamar goes back in time with Wax Poetics and recollects Brand Nubian’s infant years, working with Dante Ross, downtime with Wu-Tang, the effect of politics on music, and other memories for a generation solely familiar with him as an actor.

People read and romanticize about hip-hop’s early years, but you were there and lived it. What do you remember thinking and feeling from that period?

It was amazing! Everything was way more original back then. I’m talking about Tribe, De La, Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee, and even all those cats before them. You never had to think about whom to listen to. They were all fresh, and everything was just cool at the time.

It was only a few years later that you met members of Wu-Tang, right?

Yeah. I met Wu-Tang years before they even came out. They were members of the 5% Nation, so we met on that note. We were just always cool. RZA was still Prince Rakeem when we first met. [laughs] “We love you, Rakeem!” I met RZA, ODB, and GZA at a fundraiser for the 5% Nation. Then we’ve just constantly interacted as similar-minded artists.

How did the collaboration with RZA and Raekwon on your new album come about?

We always wanted to meet up and work together, but it’s been hard to. We’ve been talking about it for years and finally just did it. I’m so glad we were finally able to do it.

A lot is written and said about ODB, but you personally knew him. Are there any misconceptions about your friend? Any thoughts you want to share?

For sure. Man, I have so much to say about him. That was my man, you know. A lot of people think of him as a wild and crazy individual—but I knew him differently. He was a very smart dude! I mean, we’ve sat, built on a lot of topics, and there was nothing crazy about him at all. Maybe it was a media thing, and people wanted to view him as wild and crazy because of all the drugs and substances that are attributed with his image—who knows. But, man, he was my friend and just a good person. I miss the times we’ve had.

Obviously, you know a lot of these hip-hop icons personally. But can you tell us about meeting Grand Puba, Sadat X, and the formation of Brand Nubian?

Well, with Brand Nubian, we just all grew up in the same neighborhood. New Rochelle ain’t as big as Brooklyn—know what I’m saying? It’s big, but not that big! Basically, we became aware of each other through hip-hop, each doing our separate thing. Puba was the OG. He had made some records already, had a name for himself and all of that. Me and Sadat were still young up-and-comers. We all just started working together on various shows or block parties and stuff…eventually we just came together.

So you met Puba through performances and gigs. Were you and Sadat just friends before that? How’d you two meet?

Sadat, I met at a cipher. [laughs] I ran up on him and was like, “I’m the nicest one in Rochelle!” And he let me know I wasn’t the only one. [laughs] That’s my earliest memory of Sadat and I. It’s funny to think of it now.

So when did you run into Dante Ross?

I met Dante through Puba, who knew him from Masters of Ceremonies. I guess Dante always thought Puba was dope, and we gave our demo to Dante when we were shopping around our Brand Nubian stuff.

Dante’s had his hands on some highly revered hip-hop records, including some of Brand Nubian’s work. How was working with him?

Working with him was always cool. We were younger then, and I guess we could have done some things differently, [laughs] but like I said, we were kids then. It was what it was. Overall, it was always a good experience working with Dante. He has a lot of know-how.

After releasing One for All, Puba left the group. What was your initial reaction?

We felt like, Puba’s dope, but we had to let people know we’re dope too! A lot of the ingredients that made that first record successful was the fact that it was a group effort, and he was just one-third of it. Yo, for sure were we upset, but we weren’t crying about it. We were young and were just like, he’ll do his thing, and we’ll do ours! We just had to keep progressing onward.

The next record was In God We Trust. Do you feel like a lot of people slept on that record simply because Puba wasn’t part of it?

Once again, that was a time when people didn’t know what Sadat and I had to offer outside of being with Puba. They didn’t know what we were capable of doing—rhyme-wise, production-wise, concept-wise, sales-wise, all of it. In the beginning, some industry cats were trying to exploit the fact that Puba left the group. People were trying to overcompensate by making us buy outside production. But they’d charge us for tracks that we could have done better ourselves! So with that album, we just bought our own equipment and produced our own tracks and did everything hands-on. We even had a few hits off that record, and I feel like you could still listen to that album now and feel that it’s dope hip-hop. I’m proud of it to this day.

Whether we’re talking about One for All or The 5% Album, your music has always been politically charged. How has politics personally affected your music, and what do you think of the politics surrounding you nowadays?

Politics nowadays is the same as it’s always been. Bush was in office when we started, and it’s still Bush! It’s funny. [laughs] The war and the climate and all that…and for the kind of music we’ve made through the years, the world needs to be at a certain climate to inspire us to make these tracks. With the help of people like George Bush and the Rumfelds of the world, they’ve unfortunately created a climate for music like mine to have some sort of foothold. Mostly because I feel everybody doesn’t think the world was as cool as it was when Clinton was in office. But yeah, politics is always a source of inspiration, just like it’s always been.

Any comments for younger cats that only know you as an actor? Any comments for the Brand Nubian fans out there?

Man, I just want to say thank you. Simply put. Whether it’s music or acting, I’m never gonna let you down—or at least try not to. I’ll always come with knowledge and not betray that trust you’ve instilled in me.

For more information on Lord Jamar, visit Wax Poetics Digital.

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