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Very few contemporary hip-hop acts can say they performed alongside rap and hip hop legend Eazy E, Public Enemy, and the Black Eyed Peas, in addition to working on videos for Nas, Gangstarr, T.I. and other platinum selling rappers, all in the span of a single career. Enter Blood of Abraham, the Los Angeles-based duo of Benyad and Mazik. Once signed to Ruthless Records, these talented MCs have drawn from their turmoiled lives and creative muses, to conjure up hip-hop music which speaks to everyone from the stern hip hop head to the avant-garde musical elitist.
 
 With their upcoming release Eyedollartree, these longtime stalwarts on the Los Angeles subterranean circuit, bring together a uniquely artistic amalgamation of politically charged tracks which recount our country’s current woes as well as delve into the group’s own history. Combining such melodic and lushly layered songs with straight-up Los Angeles hip-hop and eclectic samples, the album features guest appearances from will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas), Divine Styler and Kool Keith.
 
 More than anything, though, Blood of Abraham’s music is founded on their unique history. As childhood friends at Los Angeles’s Birmingham High School, Benyad and Mazik found a common heritage in that they were both Jewish (Benyad was actually born in Israel and raised in Nigeria.) and shared a love for both conscious and gangsta’ hip-hop such as Native Tongues, KRS-One, Gangstarr, and N.W.A.
 
 This dynamic duo is also bound by their interest in film, history, epistemology and philosophy—Stanley Kubrick, Egyptology and the storied psychiatrist, Jung to name a few influences. After joining together professionally in the early nineties, the two fledgling MCs began calling themselves Blood of Abraham, in reference to the common lineage of all people.
 
 “At first we were balls out militant about our heritage, but then we realized that even though all these organized religions had separated, they all recognized Abraham as a prophet,” notes Benyad. “So, in a sense we’re all from the Blood of Abraham.”
 
 The duo, along with fellow chum Will.I.Am, began battling local rappers at various Los Angeles hip-hop ciphers and quickly established themselves as one of the more creative tandems on the southern Cali underground circuit. After a chance meeting with Eazy E at an open mic session, he had them perform at a now legendary gang truce event he was hosting at Gazarri’s on Sunset (now the Key Club), following a performance by long time stalwarts Above The Law.
 
 Soon thereafter, Blood of Abraham signed with Ruthless, a surprising decision for Eazy given his gangsta’ sensibility. Nonetheless, the group and Eazy forged a friendship and Mazik even began living at one of Eazy’s mansions.
 
 The deal brought forth a debut album, the innovative, Future Profits, but with Eazy’s death, Blood of Abraham faded back into anonymity and album surfaced only for a brief minute. Benyad and Mazik then followed other creative intuitions – scoring for commercials, producing, and directing music videos – Benyad went on to direct videos such as Nas’s “Thief’s Theme,” John Legend’s “Use to Love You” and T.I,’s “U Don’t Know Me.”
 
 Still, despite the astonishing success Blood of Abraham was experiencing as directors and creative minds, the group knew there was more music in them they needed to record. Now, with Eyedollartree, a play on the word idolatry, which critiques our culture’s idolizing the dollar, Blood of Abraham has its chance to voice their anger at the shallowness of our ‘cash is king’ society.
 
 “Obviously, with the first album, we were a lot younger and basically

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