Yo! My name is Khalil Amani. If you read hip-hop you might’ve come across one of my editorials at AllHipHop.com or you might’ve picked up a copy of DJ Kay Slay’s “Straight Stuntin Magazine” and read one of my cutting-edge articles. Or! You might’ve seen me on The Biography Channel’s 2010 TV show, “I Survived a Cult” or in 2013 on The Biography Channel’s, “Escaping Evil: My Life in a Cult.” Perhaps you’ve read one of my six books—my three-part analysis of Judeo-Christian thought in my tomes Ghetto Religiosity 2000, II, III (iuniverse.com 2000, ’01, 03).
Much of my story is also told in Pulitzer Prize winning author Sydney P. Freedberg’s book, “Brother Love: Murder, money and a Messiah.”
I’m very “Google-able!” I’m a hip-hop writer today, most known for my stance on gay rappers getting mainstream shine. Some call me, “Gay Hip-Hop’s Straight Advocate,” but before my newfound hip-hop writing career I was a deeply religious/spiritual person who sought the hardcore truth to my existence.
Here’s a clip of me in 2013 on The Bio Channel’s “Escaping Evil: My Life in a Cult.”
Escaping Evil – My Life in a Cult from Plush NYC on Vimeo.
I was born and raised in the Christian faith; a Baptist to be exact. At the age of 19 (I’m 55 now) I found out that I was a Hebrew Israelite, of the Tribe of Judah, chosen to rule the world forever! I quickly fell into the “Yahweh Cult” in Miami under its leader, Yahweh ben Yahweh. I was one of his first 50 followers or so. I became one of Yahweh ben Yahweh’s trusted inner-circle. I lived in the same building as Yahweh ben Yahweh and had free access to Yahweh ben Yahweh. He called me one of his “Spiritual Sons” and along the way; I rose to the rank of “elder”—having command of my own temple in Newark, New Jersey at the tender age of 23.
I was a Hebrew Israelite! I changed my “slave name” from Lloyd Clark to Yehudah Israel. I was in-it-to-win-it! I married a woman and had two Israelite children, Keturah Bathsheba and Yehudah Moshe—my daughter being the firstborn in the Nation of Yahweh at the hands of Yahweh Ben Yahweh, born at home and away from the prying eyes of this “white devil.”
Yahweh ben Yahweh, dead at 71. (So much for being God…)
Yahweh ben Yahweh was God in the flesh! He was the promised messiah! I believed this with my whole heart and would have given my life to defend this man as well as killed someone for this man! I guess you could say I was “brainwashed.” Indeed, Yahweh ben Yahweh preached that he would “wash our brains clean of white supremacy” and all of its teachings.
For 5 years you could call me one of Yahweh ben Yahweh’s “Ride or Die B######”—for I worshiped the holy ground he walked on and stood in awe of his presence. He was every great black leader rolled up into one persona.
Now as you may have read, Yahweh ben Yahweh had a dark side—a lawless side—a murderous side—a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde side, and indeed he did. He loved us, his children, but wished death upon America and every white person on earth, ranting such things as, “If I had it my way I’d go over the planet earth and square the planet—kill everything white! White dogs, white cats, white elephants, white people!” I s### you not! His radical rants resonated with a kid (me!) trying to find himself in a racist chaotic world!
I don’t need to speak on the atrocities committed by the Yahweh Cult at the request of Yahweh ben Yahweh. You can either believe what the Internet and people like me have said and written or say we are liars, out to bring down another black leader. (Side-eye)
After 5 years of this Hebrew Israelite thingy I was done. I fled the cult to find myself, only to be constantly harassed and intimidated by Hebrew Israelite members. I feared for my life because of the things I’d witnessed. I knew many secrets—everything from child molestation & rape to murder went down in the Yahweh Cult.
Can I be brutality honest and tell ya something? My life spiraled so much out of control behind the Yahweh Cult that the government—the F.B.I. and the U.S. Marshal Service coerced me to go into the muthafuckin’ Federal Witness Security Program aka Witness Protection Program aka “Witsec,” thus, my new legal name, Khalil Amani.
Told my story to The Biography Channel’s “I Survived a Cult” in 2010.
Unlike many of these street cats who follow the b####### “street code” on “no snitching,” I gladly told what I knew because this cult had killed too many people for me to be silent. That ain’t my steello mentality to sit idly by and let innocent people get killed! F### your street codes! These religious thugs calling themselves Hebrew Israelites were out to kill me, so, in my mind it became, “All’s fair in love & war.” Here I am in 1988 on CBS TV show, “West 57th Street” talking about the Yahweh Cult after I left. (see 3:10 mark. I’m the bucked-tooth Morris Day-looking dude.)
Yes! I was in the Federal Witness Security Program. I later wrote a book about the cult and the Program (before any of you n##### call yourself “outing” me! I “outed” my m############ self! Nah!) entitled, “My Id: Ignant & Dissfunkshunal! Life in the Yahweh Cult and the Witness Protection Program” (ISBN 978-0-595-45389-4 373 pages iuniverse.com, 2007). I’ve been on three national TV shows behind this b#######!
It would be years later and a foray through higher academia (college)—and the scouring of libraries, black bookstores, used bookstores and the heavy-duty reading of black history, African history and ancient history that I would finally come to terms with what I had been a part of and thoroughly deconstruct the Yahweh Cult and the idea that black people in America were Hebrew Israelites.
Study & research quickly began to debunk the mythology of the Hebrew Israelite Movement. First & foremost, the Hebrew Israelite Movement has no scholars (not even Yosef ben Yochannan is on their side!) or scholarship to back up their claims. Every part of their belief is based on conjecture, mythology, hearsay, speculation, “I-wish-a-n####-would-ism,” religio-historical gymnastics and that Salvific-longing to be somebody other than a n#### here in America. It was as if I had been doing that same religio-historical gymnastics f###### with the Yahweh cult and now that I was actively reading source material & scholarship, s### unraveled with every turn of the page.
I began my research by reading all of the obligatory Hebrew Israelite books like Rudolph Windsor’s, “From Babylon To Timbuktu,” Yosef ben-Jochannan’s, “We the Black Jews” Joseph J. Williams’, “Hebrewisms of West Africa,” Ben Ammi’s “God, the Black Man and Truth,” Shadrock’s, “The Truth, the Lie and the Bible,” Ella J. Hughley’s “The Truth About Black Biblical Hebrew-Israelites” Michael Bradley’s “Chosen People from the Caucasus,” Albert Cleage’s “The Black Messiah,” Kelly Douglas’, “The Black Christ,” and Arthur Koestler’s “The Thirteenth Tribe.”
The problem with these works is that with the exception of Dr. Ben’s book, the rest are mostly written by novices, laymen and hackneyed pseudo-wannabe scholars. And the Hebrew Israelite’s #1 source of authority, the “Holey” Bible is filled to the rim with contradictions and far-fetched mythology, glossing over the comprehensive history of all that the Jews encountered. Coupled by the fact that the Bible is a biased piece of literature—a nationalistic piece of literature—an ethnocentric piece of literature—they would presume that we must all accept this book as the ultimate source of authority! Lucky for me that I’ve thoroughly deconstructed the Bible and understand Bible compilation and how the Canon came to be. This took the spookism and “all scripture is inspired” B/S out of the equation. I know enough about the Bible’s fuckery to know that men have written some terrible things and placed the blame on God! Can you believe God makes provisions for rapists to marry the raped? GTFOH! (That’s GET THE F### OUTTA HERE if you’re not Internet slang savvy.)
The crux of the Hebrew Israelite story is short and simple. Wanna hear it? Here it goes! With the last ransacking of the Jewish temple in 70 A.D./C.E. under Titus, the Hebrew Israelites fled to parts of North Africa and eventually migrated to West Africa (and other parts) where they were rounded up via the Transatlantic Slave Trade and taken to America. They maintain that black people here in America are the true descendants of those Jews/Hebrews in exile. Furthermore, some of these black Hebrew Israelite sects have included the Native Americans and others into this quagmire of nationalistic displacement.
Hebrew Israelites use their source of authority—the Bible and paint a picture that rings true to lots of (historically) ignorant people in search of identity. Compelling as it may seem, the Hebrew Israelites’ biggest problem is one of lack of scholars & scholarship to buffer their claims. God and the Bible are their scholars. They know that black people are familiar and comfortable with the Bible, so they use “the white man’s book” to try and prove their case.
According to their source of authority—the Bible, Abraham (or Abram) was the first Hebrew. For it is written in Genesis 14:13: “And there came one who had escaped and told Abram the Hebrew…” Black Hebrew Israelites believe that Abraham is their forefather and eponymous ancestor. Turning a few more Bible pages they quote Genesis 15:13 (and Acts 7:6):: “And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years.”
Sounds pretty much like black folks “s###-uation” eh? Sho’ does!
So Abraham was a Hebrew? That’s what the Bible tells us, but the Bible also drops another little gem (or literary faux pas [misstep]) on us that most of these ig-nant Hebrew Israelites skim pass. Genesis 11:31 writes: “And Terah took Abram his son… and they went forth… from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan…” So how does Abraham become a Hebrew? His father Terah was from someplace called “Ur of the Chaldees!” Would not Abraham be the SAME nationality as his daddy Terah? I mean, like, my daddy was a black man—an African-American man and so am I! It appears that Abraham’s papa was a Chaldean, but they make Abraham something called a Hebrew? Nah son.
“Ur of the Chaldees” is located in Sumer—perhaps the most important Sumerian city in the ancient world. Ur was a Sumerian city that was on par with Egyptian civilization. Egypt had its great pyramids and Ur had its ziggurats or “stepped” pyramids. This is where Terah and Abraham came from! Terah was no Hebrew and consequently Abraham was no Hebrew! They were Sumerians! A Sumerian founded the Israelite nation. Fact!
Abraham and his daddy Terah knew all about the religion/s of Sumeria where the Goddess ruled supreme—where women had great status and protection—where the “Code of Hammurabi” was the precursor to that jaded Israelite document that would come along 1,000 years later, the Ten Commandments. Indeed, Abraham was brought up under the Goddess and knew that the Creatress of Heaven & Earth was Feminine, Female, ye, Woman! Abraham prolly knew of the “Epic of Gilgamesh” and the first Noah, Utnapishtim—whose flood story had been told a millennium (1,000 years!) before those rouge Hebrews came on the world-stage and pilfered the myths of other nations (i.e. Sumeria, Egypt).
The Genesis account on the advent of Abraham only mentions where he came from without giving us any details about his life, culture, religion and social setting in which he lived. The Bible is not interested in these facts because the biblical writers were ignorant of this high civilization in which Abraham sprang from. Abraham was no Hebrew! He is only claimed as a Hebrew as the starting point of Israelite civilization. The Bible calls Abraham a Hebrew, but you can bet your sweet ass his daddy Terah and Abraham himself considered themselves fully Sumerian!
This strange word (HEBREW) thrust on the back of Abraham was very foreign to his ears when he first heard it used. They did not create the word! It is what the Canaanites and others called these semitic invaders! Like, how white people called us n###### during slavery times! Any decent biblical encyclopedia—from The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (considered the Rolls Royce of biblical studies and yes I own all 4 volumes and the Supplementary Volume!) right on down to Google & Wikipedia will tell you that the word Hebrew means “One from the other side,” “crossed a boundary,” “wanderer,” “traverse,” and “pass over.” Indeed, Abraham and all those Israelites that would come after were a people without a land—wanderers, vagabonds, freebooters, homesteaders, gypsies—a people without a land or country. Sumeria, Babylon and Egypt had been First-World civilizations while the invading so-called Hebrews weren’t even a Third-World W#########!
The contention that Hebrew is the oldest language is laughable on its face and only someone dealing in Disneyland polemics would stomach that.
Enter Moses. You know the story, but what the Bible and Hebrew Israelites don’t wanna acknowledge is that for damn near half of Moses’ life he was Egyptian through & through! From his very name (Moses), which honors the Egyptian kings Ramose, Thutmose & Ahmose? Moses went to elementary school, middle school & high school in Egypt. Moses was taught in the Egyptian Mystery System. Just imagine living in America for 40+ years and then suddenly displaced to parts unknown Africa? Your ass will bring to Africa every Americanized way of thinking, living, believing and acting. These Bible-thumping Hebrew Israelites never deal with the psyche of Moses and the Bible would have us believe that Moses shook off every semblance of Egypt from his being. He absolutely did not!
On homosexuality. On this point I disagree with both Hebrew Israelites and the Kemitic community. As one who professes Kemitic ideology, I do not shy away from the homosexuality coming out of Egypt. Homosexuality is found in most cultures and religious writings. The problem for the Kemitic community is its ingrained homophobia—for every Kemitic thinker was once a Christian child—a child of the ‘hood who were taught that homosexuality is wrong. They carry that same homophobia over into the “conscious community” and have to make sense of the homosexuality of Egypt.
Kemitic thinkers must come to terms with the fact that, although not rampant and “socially acceptable,” homosexuality existed in Egypt. It is mentioned in derogatory terms to denigrate a person and it is spoken of in symbolic terms. The phallus (penis) had its place in Egyptian cosmology & cosmogony as did the adoration of the Goddess. We need not shy away from any supposed homosexuality in Egypt! So f###### what? Big f###### deal!
While some think this is homosexuality, most scholars say that these are brothers, possibly twins. I personally could care less either way!
Homosexuality in the Declaration of the Egyptian “Negative Confessions” is condemned by society, but the act of same-sex attraction was known in Egypt and somewhat accepted. Kemitic thinkers need to own this! Again, big f###### deal! So when the Hebrew Israelites quote the Coffin Text (Spell 700), “His phallus is between the buttocks of his son and his heir” OR the “Pyramid Text’s “Horus has penetrated Seth’s a### with his seed. Seth has penetrated Horus’ a### with his seed” OR the Papyrus Chester Beatty I Text of the 20th Dynasty of the reign of Ramses V—“At night, Seth let his member become stiff and he inserted it between the thighs of Horus” OR Papyrus Fragment UC32158’s “How lovely are your buttocks! And how muscular your thighs”—we, in the Kemitic community should smile and let these backwards-assed Hebrew Israelites have that. They can neither understand intent or religio-historical context. All of their Western religious homophobia rears its ugly head when reading the sacred writings of the people who birthed them.
What Hebrew Israelites call homosexuality, Egyptologists call Circumcision! Can’t you see the f###### tools they are using? By the way, the Egyptians were doing circumcisions 1000’s of years before the Jews made it some religious rite. Ol’ copycats!
The idea that homosexuality emasculates & effeminizes black men according to the likes of New York Kemitic spokesperson Brother Polight (Love that black man and shout-out to Shakka Ahmose & Dr. Reggie! These guys really get it in on the Hebrew Israelites!) is based on a lot of nonsense. According to him, black men were f##### up the ass throughout slavery and the gene of emasculation has been passed down through the generations. I love this guy’s eloquence and oratory skill, but I call b####### on this one! I’ve read extensively on slavery—from Lerone Bennett, “Before The Mayflower,” Blassinggame’s “The Slave Community,” and Franklin’s “From Slavery To Freedom” and a whole lot more and I ain’t never read about black men getting run through and butt-f##### by the master! White men certainly brutally sexualized and raped African women, but f###### African men up the ass? Maybe a gay white slave master here or there, but nah!
The Kemitic community has some work and growing to do in the area of homosexuality.
Now to those Hebrew Israelites! We already understand what the Bible supposedly has to say about homosexuality, but I contend and have written extensively on this subject in my book, “Hip-Hop Homophobes: Origin & Attitudes Towards Gays & Lesbians in Hip-Hop Culture; As Perpetuated by Rappers, Thugs, Athletes, Reggae Rastas & Religionists; Essays on the 3,000 Year Old Polemic Against Homosexuality; A Religious Hoax!” (ISBN 978-0-595-47541-4 iuniverse.com 2007)—that Hebrew Israelites, Christians, Muslims and any who speak against same-sex attraction is wrong. There are only six (6) scriptures in the entire Bible which seem to address the subject of homosexuality, but with a little digging and studying these scriptures become more of a polemic against Goddess worship and Sodomite worship, which used sex as worship and ritual rather than any admonishment on same-sex attraction. (In fact, the Old Testament does not condemn lesbianism.) They are NEVER tied to the sex act for the sake of the sex act. What?
Historically, when the invading Hebrews settled in Canaan and other parts they were intrigued and fascinated by the Goddess and the Sodomites brand of religion and straightway, many of the Jews began to practice these foreign rites which used sex as the ultimate show of devotion to the Deity. Sex, as ritual in the ancient world had been going on since Time Immemorial. (You didn’t know?) I know you think you can, but you can’t judge another people’s culture from ages gone by and apply your 21stcentury ideas of morality.
So those Hebrew Israelites love to show the supposed homosexuality of Egypt, while denying all the homosexuality amongst themselves. King David & Jonathan? (Side-eye) Citing Yahweh’s hatred for homosexuality by regurgitating & upchucking that tire ol’ Sodom & Gomorrah story is their futile attempt at putting the icing on the (homosexual) cake, but a closer reading of the Sodom story reveals that it was no more about homosexuality than what the Hebrew Israelites think about the “side-eye” Reliefs of Egypt. The Sodom story is quickly debunked by simply reading Ezekiel 16:49, which says, “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister SODOM, pride, fullness of bread and abundance of idleness… neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.”
Hospitality was an ancient unwritten rule/law that was practiced and highly valued. (Research it muthafucka! I can’t give you err’thang in this essay!) Being stingy, wasteful and profligate was a great sin (however unwritten!). Yahweh destroyed those cities for these reasons and not any homosexuality!
Oh yeah, those ancient Hebrew Israelites liked playing with d#### too! You didn’t know? The fact that the Levite priests had to deal with homosexuality among their people is proof-positive that they were not immune to same-sex attraction. No nation is without homosexuality!
The ancient Hebrew Israelites had this crazy practice of holding each other’s penises while making vows. Fo’ real doe! Check it!
And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house… Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my “thigh”: And I will make thee swear by the Lord… and the servant put his hand under the “thigh” of Abraham his master, and swear to him…(Genesis 24: 2-3 & 9)
And the time drew nigh that Israel [Jacob] must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my “thigh,” and deal kindly and truly with me (promise/swear me your oath)… And he said, Swear unto me… (Genesis 47: 29 & 31)
…uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the “thigh” …Thy nakedness shall be uncovered; yea thy shame shall be seen… (Isaiah 47:2-3)
Notice the word “thigh?” Does thigh mean the upper portion of a person’s leg? No! Not in the biblical sense. “Thigh” is a EUPHEMISM (nice language) for a man’s dick, penis, p####, johnson, or c###! And back in biblical times men touched one another on their d#### and made vows, promises, and oaths!—So-called straight, religious men! Abraham! Jacob! Touched d####! The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary defines “thigh” as:
The proximity of the thigh to the genitals allows the word to be a euphemism for “genitals” [sex organs]. The placing of one’s hand under a person’s thigh—i.e., touching the genitals, the seat of life—in the course of swearing an oath places one into contact with the life-force (i.e. the procreative powers) of the other person and so underlines the seriousness of the oath (Myers et. al, pg. 999).
See? I didn’t manufacture this shyt! That’s how they were living back then! Could you imagine (as a straight man) grabbing another man’s dick and saying, “Word to my mother playa!”? Rappers love to hold their d#### when they rhyme! Richard Pryor once joked, “N##### be holdin’ them d####!” Now we see that men have been holding d#### for three millenniums!
But f### alla this homosexual stuff by both Egyptians & Hebrews! That ain’t s###! Homosexuality has never been the fall of any civilization! Let’s talk about some real lowlife, degradation—some cannibalism on the part of those ancient Hebrew Israelites! This is that s### that f#### a nation up! Eating your own chirr’ren? The Hebrews have a history of sacrificing their bebe kids and eating them for breakfast, lunch & dinner! Instead of following the “Hunter-Gatherer Archetype” that men have been since Time Immemorial and rustle up some vittles (food), here comes these bastard Israelites and their new-jack fare/delicacy of Leg-of-Daughter, Arm-of-Son and Rump Roast of Niece & Nephew! What kind of sorry f###### men are the Israelite men that they would do such a dastardly thing to their offspring? I don’t judge lots of s### going on in the Bible, but this right heah? Read it for yourselves! (II Chronicles 33:6, II Kings 6:26-29, Lamentations 2:20; 4:10, Psalms 106:32-38, Isaiah 9:20, Jeremiah 7:30, 31; 19:5,9, Ezekiel 5:10; 16:20; 23:29)
I’d rather have a nation of gay dudes than a nation of cannibals! Both the h### and the cannibal might wanna “toss my salad” (e#########), but at least with the h### I can recover and get some payback if he rapes me! But a m############ cannibal really wants to toss my salad—literally E#########!
Like I’ve stated off the rip, I was once a Hebrew Israelite of the Yahweh ben Yahweh variety. I know the mindset all too well. The Bible was my only authentic source of authority and like the Hebrews who stand on the street corners of Harlem; I too used to beat people over the head with my warped truth. I wanted nothing to do with Mother Africa and shunned Africans. (What a f###### idiot I was!) I was as homophobic as any Hebrew (and many in the Kemitic community).
In the final analysis, The Kemitic community and the Hebrew Israelites have a history of same-sex attraction (i.e. homosexuality). Both should shut the f### up and accept that homosexuality was not—is not a European invention. Egyptians & Hebrews were mere mortals, sinful & lustful.
Moreover, we 21st-century-Monday-morning-religio-cultural-quarterbacks are in no position to judge another nation’s religious practices! For religion and the advent of humanity to be able to think in abstraction and otherworldly terms is a 10,000+ year old works-in-progress.
As for the Hebrew Israelites, why can’t you face the fact that you are a byproduct of Africa/Egypt? You can be an Israelite and still have kinship with Africa. You do know that, don’t cha? The early Hebrew Israelite founders in America were through-n-through Pan Africanists! Joseph Helevy, William S. Crowdy, Frank S. Cherry, Arnold Josiah ford, Albert Cleage Jr, Rabbi Arthur Wentworth Matthews, and even Ben Ammi Ben Israel—they didn’t deny Mother Africa while still maintaining some autonomy as Hebrew Israelites; children of the African Diaspora.
Some of you Hebrew Israelites need your a#### beat and your moufs washed out with soap for disrespecting your African brothers & sisters and for claiming to be UN-African!
This is what “That Peculiar Institution” (slavery) has done for the descendants of slavery; caused us to be such Negrophobes that we would use the very book that held sway over our religious minds (da Bible!)—to turn us away from the Continent that birthed us! We just oughta be ashamed! Hotep! Shalom! And f### the rest!
