Rapper Nes Bandit presents the Ken Floyd-directed music video for “Paper’s Legit”, the new Mo Reese-produced single from Black Nobility, his new album featuring Murs, Alexis Garrett and Mizzori. The son of a retired preacher, Nes was raised in the Philadelphia suburb of Mount Laurel, NJ before moving to Indianapolis to further his career in pharmaceutical sales, becoming one of the only three African American male reps in the entire state. Swearing off corporate America, he resigned on Labor Day 2016 and began work on Black Nobility, which he calls “the story of a 32-year-old Hebrew male in a racially divided America.” The album is produced by his Summa Cum Loudly team Mo Reese, Masonthatrack and Darryl Hoffman, and mastered by Stanley Greene Jr., the engineer behind records for Rihanna, Big Sean and Wale. His last release was the 2015 EP New World Idol (listen). Nes calls his new single “a metaphor for me bossing up by investing solely into my art without having to rob, steal, or kiss ass for a record deal. I mentally train daily in the school of Dame Dash, Dr. Claude Anderson, Tariq Nasheed, and Boyce Watkins to name a few. Black empowerment begins by investing in yourself first, then investing in other black businesses. Whether it is a police officer, judge, or music exec questioning my success, I am proud to say that my investments and income have come from years of building wealth in corporate America. I walked away on my own terms to pursue my passions in music entertainment. I am not the typical rapper bragging about finessing and illegal street money to finance my art. This is how you level up!” Black Nobility is now available exclusively at nesbandit.com.
How did you get your stage name?
Nes Bandit is the faceless symbol of justice. Specifically Nes Bandit symbolizes the nameless thief on the cross. This thief hung from the same cross next to Yahshua (Christ), knowing he was guilty for living a life of sin. On the opposite side was another guilty man who used his last dying breath to mock Christ. As the thief witnessed Yahshua’s last words to his Father, while hearing those mock him, he rebuked them all and asked Christ for salvation. Christ recognized the Father dwelling in his heart and promised him paradise after death. Nes Bandit is no better than any other man. I am a man who have sinned, and will continue to sin. I pray my messages of truth and spiritual warfare against the evils of society will help wake up the youth to make the better decisions for themselves in life. In that I pray my Father sees His work being done for His kingdom. Nes Bandit is the “Defender of His truth, Protector of His light.” A thief bearing his own cross evolving into an immortal soldier for the Army of the Light! “And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” -Luke 23: 39-43
Do you remember the moment you decided to quit your pharma job? Can you describe how it came to you?
The anxiety of the job was built up for a year. In October of 2015, I was assigned a new team and manager (all Caucasian females and one Asian female, married with kids, in their 40’s). Being only a year into the new territory from Tampa, FL, a black male, 30 years old, and no kids it was evident on day 1 my opinions and interests were not welcome. For instance, on our first team gathering was a voluntary late night dinner following a days long corporate wide meeting in Chicago. At the time I was volunteering after the meetings to assist as an ambassador for our company’s African American and health and wellness affinity groups. I communicated with my new manager prior that I may be late to the dinner or not attend at all since we had corporate meetings the next morning and the dinner was voluntary. She was fine with that. Well now it’s 10pm and I don’t want to let my team down so I grab an Uber to meet them at the restaurant across town, while inviting my girlfriend who was also in town, figuring that it would be great for them to meet her so they have a better idea of who I am as a family person. We get to the restaurant and people are shouting, beer is being poured and spilled left to right, and the Cubs are in the 9th inning attempting to make the playoffs (which they later won the World Series). When I arrived to introduce my girlfriend the entire table turned their faces and pretty much ignored us the entire night. How does that feel welcoming when joining a new team? This manager later brought this up to me three months later in a 1 on 1 coaching session as if that was a negative thing I have done. Something she will begin to monitor in my behavior. Fast forward one month later we are in Las Vegas for another corporate meeting and guess who shows up to our team dinner, her husband! Everyone is laughing and introducing themselves, so after I finished my meal I excused myself. Now imagine 10 months of meetings where my opinions are ignored, my accomplishments are marginalized, and I am outcasted as a joke to my peers spearheaded by this new manager. Let’s also add I am one of only three black male sales reps in the entire state of Indiana who happens to be growing his hair for locs. What, I can’t be culturally aware of my heritage while still being a damn good sales rep at the same time? I’m sorry. Does my MBA and 7 year of corporate sales experience somehow erased just because my hair is longer in its natural state? Judgemental, racist assholes! By Labor Day weekend 2016 I had time to rest and not worry about work. That was the most peaceful, stress free moments I had experienced in over a year. The anxiety of not being able to talk about my passions and hobbies with peers at work sucked every day. No matter what recognitions I receive, leadership positions I held, or sales goals I hit I never felt fulfilled in that role. I figured with three months left in the year I will write, produce, and record all of my feelings as the silenced, marginalized black man in corporate America. After 8 months of our company’s new product doing horrible in the national market, the CEO and President of North America were replaced in the last week of August 2016. Without hesitation I called my manager, left her a voicemail, and sent my resignation email. By Labor Day Monday morning I bought a 2016 Maxima Sport, turned in my company car, and chucked the deuces at that plantation job. I sleep great and look even better now! “I’m a Gullah Geechie nigga, f*ck the white man’s pay!” -Nes Bandit (Thunder Snow produced by Masonthatrack)
What made you decide to become a rapper?
Ever since I was a child I was very articulate and a great story teller. I believe it comes from my upbringing as preacher’s kid. I used to look forward to our Saturday Bible Studies at home before cartoons and breakfast. I always sat in my father’s Sunday School classes in Philly and Camden, NJ reading scriptures straight from the Bible next to adults. Over time I realized I could read better than most adults in his classes haha. Unfortunately that came with negative bullying from family members and child hood peers. Raised up in the suburbs of South Jersey, I would be told that I talk and sound white. Doesn’t matter that I’m a great student, never in trouble, and could woop their ass in any form of sport or competition. But because I was articulate I was somehow a sellout. That caused me to hate my own voice. I was anti-social. I didn’t want to follow nobody because knowing the words of God I knew truth and lived it. I always found better company around diverse cultures, intellectuals, athletes, spiritual people or artistic people. This childhood issue still affects me to this day, even after attending Florida A&M University the #1 graduating HBCU in America. I just don’t f*ck with large groups of zombie ass followers, feminists, and SIMPS. When I expressed free thought with rationale or facts to back it up, then you can hear the crabs and snakes getting in their weak ass feelings. After graduating college I helped my best friend Mo Ree$e move down from Jersey to my new home in Tampa, FL October of 2009. Mo Ree$e was a producer and music artist with life long friends CJ and Stan Greene Jr. They formed a group back in South Jersey called Audio Variable in the mid 2000s. In Tampa, Mo Ree$e began to work with another artist that we grew up with in our hometown named Mizzori. I bought recording equipment for my house to setup a lab for Mo Ree$e to create beats that would go towards Mizzori’s 2012 album “Paranormal”. Seeing my business savvy and all around thoroness Mizzori asked me to manage the project. I provided him free studio time as well completed the final design for his album cover. After all of that charity and positivity Mizzori fired me once the project was completed in late 2011. Instead of feeling hurt I figured that was an opportunity to tackle all of my fears. I had the studio, the producers, and knew what the work ethic looked like behind the scenes to record an album. On New Years Day of January 2012, I recorded my first song which was a freestyle to Lupe Fiasco’s “Supercold”. I sampled Charlton Heston as Moses really bringing life and individuality to the track. I also mixed, wrote, and recorded the track myself since now for some reason Mo Ree$e wasn’t available to help me. “Supercold” later became the outro track to my debut EP “New World Idol” in 2015. This re-occuring theme of my kindness being taken for weakness follows me throughout life. It is the pressure of the moment, and outside doubt, where I believe in God most to overcome my biggest leaps of faith. The greater the risk the greater the reward. So it’s people who doubt me, as well as others gifted with good hearts like me, is why I am motivated to rap. My weaknesses are now my God given strengths. Nes Bandit is the anti-hero here to annihilate all false idols and f*ck boy haters on the MIC. https://soundcloud.com/nes_bandit/sets/new-world-idol
How do you think being Hebrew makes your struggle unique?
As I stated earlier I grew up the son of a preacher in the Baptist Christian church. I also shared how those in the church and especially in the black community practice group think. Group think is dangerous for those who are free thinkers that challenge everything. Yahshua (Christ) was the definition of a free thinker who challenged everything. He was also hated by his own community of Hebrews as well as the church because he simply spoke the truth. I believe we are currently living in the Age of Tribulation and that the Church Age is over! This was prophesied by Daniel as he spoke of the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. I don’t care what Christian or Catholic faith you subscribe to, church to church you will find corruption, sex scandals, open homosexuality, women leading men, the absence of men, the worship of money via prosperity preaching, false healing doctrines from the pulpit to the door. I believe in this Age of Tribulation, God says that it will be He who keeps the veils over the eyes of the congregation so that even the elect may believe the lies. His commandments are for us to leave the tom foolery once Satan is running the church openly, or at least when the time comes and he opens our hearts and eyes to see Satan been sitting there since Day 1. Thank God for the internet, whistle blowers, Wikileaks, and Hebrew men of God who are able to teach directly from the words of God and verify my heart which the spirit dwells is correct. Just look at the news of wars and rumors of wars as we are in the process of bombing Syria while being in nuclear odds with Russia and North Korea. These are the wars and rumors of wars the Bible speaks. God says that Sodom and Gomorrah was a sign of how the end times will look. Gay marriage, which is no where legal in the Bible, is now accepted nationwide and the feminist movement and their false doctrines has corrupted the entire DNC. Hillary Clinton, Deb Shultz, Donna Brazile each had their hands on cheating an honorable man in Bernie Sanders. They have each been exposed, stripped of their leadership positions, and knocked off their false thrown. These are the false idols that put the battery packs behind our Christian women who are okay with twerking in public, living promiscuous lives, but got the nerve to teach from the pulpit over men on Sunday. Where they do that at in the Old or New Testament? Show me! Thank you God for brothers like Tazadaq Shah, a warrior for God’s army, who self educated himself on law, the Bible, and history and uses his podcast [Deprogrammed Enlightener] to educate his black brothers and sisters in America that we are the true Hebrews of the Bible. Thank you God for IUIC and GOCC for educating our African American brothers and sisters that we are not Africans, we are not Hammites, but we are the descendants of Shem. The progenitor of Terah, the father of Abraham, the father of Isaac, the father of Jacob who God renamed Israel. We are the JEWels of God’s earth and the quicker we wake up to that fact, the the quicker we can fix the ailments that plague the black community in America. What are those ailments? False Idols on their Boule sh*t taking money from the oppressor while keeping their own people ignorant to these truths I speak of with passion. These false idols represent your DNC leaders, Christian church elders, black Greek fraternity and sorritity leaders etc. It is these leaders who are doing nothing to protect the most disadvantaged group in this country, black men. Black Hebrew men are the God head of the family as the laws of God teach us. Wake up my brothers and sisters, we are the original Hebrews whether you believe it or not. Hebrew is a race of people. African American, black, negro, nigger, nigga is not a race but a byword! My struggle is no more unique than Christ, his prophets, and every other brother and sister in truth sacrificing family, friendships, relationships, corporate jobs while thirsting the truth of who we are and sharing it with their neighbors in love. Nes Bandit is for God’s people. “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:”- Matthew 24: 15-16. “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.”- Psalm 18:2. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.” – 1 Corinthians 6: 9. “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”- 1 Timothy 2:12. “And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee.” -Deuteronomy 28:37. “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.” – Luke 12: 51-53.
What’s the first rap song you ever heard? Describe the moment.
I would hate to be cliche so let me answer that by telling you the first rap song that changed my life. It was the Fall of 1998 and I was in the 8th grade. Basketball, baseball, academics and the church was my life. My older sister Latanya was a Junior in High School and was my source for all things music and fashion. For me entering the 8th grade I started thinking about girls and how I should begin to present my style to be set apart from the crowd. Again this is the suburbs of South Jersey so for me nothing cornier than a soft ass dude dressed and acting like a thug just to fit a stereotypical image he saw from New York rappers on BET and MTV all day. What was worst was that I noticed cornball fake thugs and wiggers is what the girls rocked with at that time. One of those weekends my sister took me to Ross and put me on designers like Polo, Tommy Hilfiger, Mecca, Enyce, Hugo Boss, Guess Jeans. The clothes were stylish, high quality, and fit my athletic frame like how it should for a respectable adolescent. I was amazed that these were the same brands, at an affordable price, I saw in ads when flipping through her Source magazines at home. I believe that same day she stopped and copped new CDs to bring home. One of the CDs was Brand Nubian “Foundation” album. For the first time in my life I was mature enough to understand intricate stories of love, pain, success, humility behind these conscious messages. The track that made me freeze was the song “Don’t Let It Go To Your Head.” Grand Puba’s first verse was the realest, most humble sh*t I ever heard outside of the teachings of Christ in the Bible. That album made me later pick up “Black Star”, Mos Def “Black on Both Sides”, Talib Kweli “Reflection Eternal”, Dead Prez “Let’s Get Free”, Nas “Stillmatic” and “Lost Tapes”. By the time I entered college in 2003 and file sharing was the new thing, I began to dig the crates and listen to entire discographies and first releases of my favorite artists. Nas was the one artist listening from Illmatic, It Was Written, I AM, Nostradamus I related to his personal struggles, success, mafiaso bravado, and spiritual realness the most. So yes Brand Nubian helped me cut past the shiny suit error of hip hop and tap into a deeper consciousness. Nas is the benchmark, the “Street’s Disciple.” “Now a lot of people think this is easy as it looks / Books and books of rhyme concepts and hooks / Session to session to get thoughts manifested / Stressin’ and stressin’ to hit the world with a blessin’ / Lot of people often ask, “Puba how you givin’ back?” / The way I give back is / through the knowledge of my raps / like a gem, for all my people caught out on a limb / who be givin’ in, caught out on a stem, who don’t want to win” – Grand Puba “Don’t Let It Go To Your Head” [Brand Nubian “Foundation”]
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