Sadat X

Sadat X, born Derek Murphy, stood out among Brand Nubian’s core MCs with rhymes shaped by Five Percent Nation principles. Two years after the group’s third album Everything Is Everything, he launched his solo career with Wild Cowboys, pairing his established lyricism with sturdy, jazz-tinged productions. Diamond D and Buckwild supplied the beats for a respectable first outing that nevertheless fell short of the peaks he had reached with Brand Nubian. Also issued in 1996, No Better Way surpassed the debut thanks to contributions from an expanded roster that included Da Beatminerz and Pete Rock. He rejoined Brand Nubian for the 1998 album Foundation, yet waited until 2000 to release another solo project, the Relativity EP The State of New York vs. Derek Murphy. Employed full-time as a special-education teacher, he needed five years to deliver his next album, 2005’s Experience & Education, followed the next year by Black October. The sequel Wild Cowboys II surfaced in 2010, with Love, Hell or Right arriving in 2012. A three-year wait prompted the title of 2015’s Never Left, and Agua appeared the following year, accompanied by the single “Freeze.” Early 2017 brought “The Devil Is Near,” the lead single from the Diamond D-produced full-length Sum of a Man.