One Be Lo

Deep-thinking Pontiac, MI-based MC Nashid Sulaiman (born Raland Scruggs, he converted to Islam during a prison stay for armed robbery) was first known on-stage as OneManArmy and then, eventually, One Be Lo. As OneManArmy, he was one-half of Binary Star, a duo that released the under-recognized Waterworld album in 1999. (Confusingly enough, the album was tweaked, retitled Masters of the Universe, and picked up for wider distribution in 2000.) The first One Be Lo solo album, Project F.E.T.U.S., surfaced on Subterraneous in 2003, and a second album — S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M., released through Fat Beats — came two years later. Since neither his sound nor his image are all that mainstream-friendly, he relied on tireless touring and word of mouth, something that gave him enough fan support to issue The R.E.B.I.R.T.H. in December 2007 (though the record was made more widely available to the public in early 2008).